The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization

"The Cooper-Hofstadter Polarization" is the ninth episode of the first season of The Big Bang Theory. This episode first aired on March 17, 2008.

This is the first episode after the, which lasted from November 2007 to February 2008.

Summary
Sheldon and Leonard are invited to present their joint at an. Sheldon forbids Leonard from presenting it. This eventually spirals into a horrible fight between them.

Extended plot
The gang is having fun with sending signals across the across their apartment. When the gang is cleaning up after their little activity, Leonard finds a letter in the trash addressed to Leonard and Sheldon inviting them to present their research paper at a conference, Sheldon explains he threw it away as he refuses to give a speech to a crowd of unappreciative people. Leonard is angered as Sheldon claims their work's success is largely due to himself and as such, he makes the key decisions for it. Despite this, Leonard is still keen on presenting their paper at the conference. Penny comes over to help Leonard pick out a to wear to the conference, and he explains to her that his situation with Sheldon has deteriorated. Later, Sheldon and Penny bump into each other while getting their mail, which includes Sheldon's latest copy of Applied Particle Physics Quarterly. On the way up the stairs, Penny attempts to mend Leonard and Sheldon's relationship, but instead she worsens the situation. Before Leonard leaves for the conference he makes a final offer to Sheldon asking to present the papers together, he refuses. At the conference, after Leonard finishes presenting, he opens the floor for, with Sheldon quickly posing a mocking question. This quickly erupts into a fight between Leonard and Sheldon. After the conference, Sheldon apologized to Leonard for trying to blow up his head with his mind. Suddenly, Howard and Raj burst in and announced that their fight was posted on (by Howard). Howard also took a picture of Penny asleep on his shoulder and posted it as a picture of his girlfriend. Penny found it. The final scene showed two geeks from "Somewhere in ", who resemble Chinese versions of Leonard (Talbott Lin) and Sheldon (Howard Chan) watching and mocking the aforementioned video. Howard uses the Internet to switch the two guy's lights on and off.

Quotes
Penny: So, you know, isn't there maybe some way you and Sheldon could compromise on this whole presentation thing?

Leonard: No. Scientists do not compromise. Our minds are trained to synthesize facts and come to inarguable conclusions. Not to mention Sheldon is bat-crap crazy.

Leonard: Any questions?

Sheldon: Yeah. What the hell was that?

Leonard: Any other questions?

Sheldon: Dr. Sheldon Cooper here. I am the lead author of this particular paper. Thank you. You, sir, you have completely skipped over the part where I was walking through the park, and I saw these children on a, which started me thinking about the , in gases like , at temperatures approaching.

Leonard: I didn't skip it. It's just an. It's not science.

Sheldon: Oh, I see. Was it the apple falling on Newton's head? Was that just an anecdote?

Leonard: But you're not.

Sheldon: No, that's true. would've been apparent to me without the apple.

Leonard: You cannot possibly be that arrogant.

Sheldon: You continue to underestimate me, my good man.

Leonard: Look, if you weren't happy with my presentation, then maybe you should've given it with me.

Sheldon: As I had explained repeatedly, unlike you, I don't need validation from lesser minds. (to audience) No offense.

Leonard: Really? So why did you come?

Sheldon: Because I knew you'd screw this up.

Leonard: I didn't screw it up!

Sheldon: Oh, please. I admit that "spherical chicken" joke, that was hilarious, but it went straight downhill from there.

Leonard: You know, I've had enough of your. Maybe I didn't go to college when I was eleven, like you! Maybe I got my at twenty-four instead of sixteen, but you're not the only person who's smarter than everyone else in this room! (Sheldon gestures Leonard to audience; to audience) No offense. And I'm clearly not the only person who is tormented by and has an !

Sheldon: So you admit you're an ?

Leonard: Yes! (to audience) My name is Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, and I could never please my parents, so I need to get all my from strangers like you (points to Sheldon), but he's worse!

Sheldon: Okay, that is it! (puts fingers on his head)

Leonard: Stop it. You cannot blow up my head with your mind!

Sheldon: Then I'll settle for an !

Leonard: (slaps Sheldon's hands) Stop it.

Sheldon: You hit me. (to audience, points at Leonard) You saw that, he hit me.

Leonard: You tried to blow up my head.

Sheldon: So it was working.

Leonard: It wasn't - it was not -- you're a !

Sheldon: Oh, we'll see about that! (puts fingers on his head, to audience) Heads up, you people in the front row, this is a !

Leonard: Stop it! (slaps Sheldon's arms) Quit it! (Leonard slaps Sheldon's arms repeatedly and holds his wrists)

Penny: Is this usually how these physics things go?

Howard: More often than you think.

Critics
"The show is so close to breaking out from the pack and becoming an excellent character comedy, but the writers are missing the point. In the last few episodes, in particular, they have set up well written plots, which fall away rather than making a point. The producers of the show worked for long stretches on , a show more concerned with punch lines than characters. I hope that the producers chose to develop the show in a different direction, because it can be so much more than it is." The TV Critic's Review

Trivia

 * Sheldon feels Leonard's chance of winning a is non-existent, as he also said in the "Pilot".
 * Leonard confesses that his last was in the 8th grade.
 * It seems Leonard only has a suit, but he actually wore a  in "The Luminous Fish Effect".
 * Leonard has a .
 * The Flash's costume from "The Middle-Earth Paradigm" is seen in Leonard's closet.
 * Leonard has the.
 * The display prop in front of the Rose Room of the Pasadena Marriott for Leonard's topical conference on s has an error: "Paradoxical Movement-of-Inertia Changes Due to Putative " should read "Paradoxical Changes Due to Putative Super-Solids." Leonard's  presentation slides and dialogue, on the other hand, are correct.
 * After Howard informs Leonard that there are approximately 25 people in attendance for the Institute for Experimental Physics topical conference on Bose-Einstein condensates, Leonard remarks that "in particle physics, 25 is ". However, Bose-Einstein condensates are at the / interface, not research in the field of as Leonard indicates. Though, Leonard may have been simply comparing the turnout at this conference to an analogous case from his experience as a participant at particle physics conferences.
 * Leonard's spherical chicken joke: "There’s this farmer, and he has these chickens, but they won't lay any eggs. So, he calls a physicist to help. The physicist then does some calculations, and he says, um, I have a solution, but it only works with spherical chickens in a vacuum." is a variation of the joke. The point of the joke is that physicists will often reduce a problem to its simplest form in order to make calculations more feasible, even though such simplification may hinder the model's application to reality. A sphere has the smallest surface area per unit volume. So the chicken would want to be spherical to minimize radiative heat transfer. It would also want the minimum surface area to keep from blowing up from the pressure differential. (That's why high pressure vessels are usually spherical.) Further, the particular case of a spherical chicken in a vacuum possibly alludes to an approximation of the conditions inside an egg, albeit a poor one, as there is a positive internal fluid pressure within the eggshell.
 * Leonard received his doctorate at 24 years old, while Sheldon earned his doctorate at 16 years old.
 * Though the scene changes from the Marriott to apartment 4A at the end of the episode, the signature transition of the series (a shot of an atom on a colored background) is absent.
 * The embarrassing video of Sheldon and Leonard fighting is underscored with "".
 * Embarrassing YouTube videos would factor into several more episodes: Sheldon's drunken acceptance speech in season 3's "The Pants Alternative", Raj's way-too-revealing toast at Howard's stag party in season 5's "The Stag Convergence", and Howard's screaming for nine minutes aboard the ISS in season 6's "The Decoupling Fluctuation".
 * The episode was directed by Joel Murray, who appeared on Lorre's earlier sitcom, .