Film Theory: Fullmetal Alchemist's FATAL Miscalculation

Special thanks to CrunchyRoll for partnering with us for this episode!

Fullmetal Alchemist would have you believe that Ed and Al failed in human alchemy because they were missing a soul. Well guess what, they've been lying to you. In fact, they were missing something much more fundamental - the correct recipe for a human body.

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Twitter: @MatPatGT

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[iSaintRichie]

So... who is gonna tell Edward that his calculations have... come up short?

[josephinevargas]

Matpat in 2016: and in all honesty, its a series Im gonna want to visit a few more times
FMA fandom in 2019: are we a joke to you?

[embryson]

Fullmetal alchemist; the only show where a housewife is 100x scarier than a sniper.

[WolfgangDoW]

10:08
Pretty sure he did the molar maths wrong. If you have 1942.3 moles of water, that's made of 1942.3 moles of oxygen and twice as many moles of hydrogen, cos it's H2O. But he's using the weight percentages there, which is wrong.
If he'd said oxygen is 89% of the weight of water, then applied that to the 35 litres (or kg) he'd get the correct answer.

EDIT:
It took us less than an hour and one page in our notebook to do all the correct maths btw, including googling all the weights etc. Moles are hard to understand, but the maths is simple if you're doing it right.

Edward is still wrong, but so is MatPat. The biggest discrepancies between Ed and wiki, using a human of 74.3215kg (total mass of Ed's formula):
Potassium, sodium, chloride, and sulphur are all severely less than needed
Ed has 6kg of calcium from the lime(stone) when wiki says only 1.115kg is needed
Hydrogen is 4.391kg not 7.06kg as needed

[jesterfromthecave]

Ed’s calculations were closer to what science knew in the early 1900s

[LighGaiden]

10:12 WOAH WOAH WOAH! Mat I love ya' but i gotta stop you there, that's not how chemistry works.
1942, 3 moles of H2O, yes we're on point so far but what you do next is completely wrong! 1 mole of H20 has 2 moles of (or 1 of H2) and 1 mole of O. So 1942, 3 moles of H2O is 3884.6 moles of Hydrogen atoms and 1942, 3 moles of Oxygen atoms. Think back to the hamburger example. If 2/3 are bread and 1/3 is meat then you would need 2 pieces of bread and 1 piece of meat to get 1 hamburger. You can't take 500 patties and 2000 pieces of bread and get 2500 hamburgers, you need all parts of the sum. What you're presenting here wouldn't come close to reality:

If you have 213, 65 moles of Hydrogen and 1728, 63 moles of Oxygen then you wouldn't get 1942, 3 moles of water. First of all you need 2 hydrogen atomes for the water so there would be 106.825 moles of H2. That's how many moles will react with Oxygen to form water, the rest of the 1833, 475 moles of Oxygen would either react with itself or something else because there isn't any Hydrogen left to react with. This equation would form 106, 825 moles of Water which is (106, 825 moles * 18, 02 grams per mole) 1924, 9865 grams of water, WAY off your initial 35000 grams of water at 9:30.

Mat please don't take offence to this, I love your videos sooo much. They're so insightful and scientifically interesting. But they touch on so many different topics and aspects of science that it would be ridiculous to think you would get it right everytime. I mean this is stuff you wouldn't have done for a long time, unless you're a chemist there is almost no practical reason to remember this. But we can't spread misinformation like this, this needs to continue to be a place of real science. Where gaming geeks and science nerds meet and enrich each other's understanding and appreciation for this world around us. I don't expect you to go through the trouble of doing this video all over again but please adress this mishap.
Love you Matty (meat) Patty xoxo.

Theorists please like this so he sees it! :3

(EDIT)
Vigneshsella also pointed out that at 9:30 it should be 1 mole/18, 02 g not the other way around. Just a minor detail, still love you Matty <3

[JustinDrinkwalter]

The idea that 45% of people might prefer sword art over fullmetal is disturbing.

[brycepemble]

MatPat~
I find your Film Theories very entertaining.
I recently watched the one you made about Full Metal Alchemist, which is my favorite Anime series.
However, I am also a High School Chemistry Teacher. So, I feel the need to point out a number of errors, which may undermine (or underplay) the premise of the video. The title of the Video is “Fullmetal Alchemist's FATAL Miscalculation”. I understand that this video is several years old. However, since you have not revised these errors yet, I feel the need to write you.
When I first saw the particular Episode of FMA your Theory is based on years ago, I made a quick calculation to see if his numbers added up to the mass of a person. I found the notes I made back then and it suggests the total mass of those ingredients would add up to 60.67 kg. That person would weigh 134 lbs, which seemed pretty reasonable. [I won’t get into the whole difference between Weight and Mass.]
When I was watching your video, I could tell that there might be problems, when you refer to Salt as a “Molecule”. It is not a molecule, rather it is an Ionic Compound. This misconception is so common though, that I have even seen it on educational programs like Brain Pop. This would not have mattered too much toward your conclusion, since it is only semantics, but is shows that your Chemistry might be a little oxidized [rusty]. Later in the video you manage to avoid this issue by referring to chemicals by the more broadly encompassing term “Compounds”, which is just fine.
Now it pains me to say this… but Moles was not the way to go with your calculations. Moles is indeed at the heart of many Chemistry calculations. But in this case, most of the items were already given in mass. Converting between different mass units does not require moles. The only two chemicals, that were not given in mass [Water & Ammonia], can be converted most easily to mass using their Densities.
35 L of Water x 1, 000g/L= 35, 000 g of Water
4 L of Ammonia x 730g/L= 2, 920 g of Ammonia
After that, the best way to break down the compounds would be using Percent Composition, which is also based on mass. For example in Saltpeter, Potassium makes up 38.7% of the mass, Nitrogen makes up 13.9% and Oxygen makes up 47.5%. So, you just multiply those by the mass of Saltpeter to get the masses of each element: K is 38.67g , N is 13.86g and O is 47.47g.
After going through the compounds in this way and then adding up the elements that repeat, like Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, I get the following masses:
O: 31, 558.9g
C: 20, 000.0g
H: 4, 434.9g
N: 2, 415.5g
Ca: 1, 072.0g
P : 800.0g
Cl: 151.7g
Na: 98.4g
S : 80.0g
K: 38.7g
F : 7.5g
Fe: 5.0g
Si : 3.0g
+ Trace
Total: 60, 665.6g
Note: It is not clear if the FMA list is referring to “Quick Lime” or “Slacked Lime”. Since the Water is listed separately and the other ingredients are “dry”, I used Quick lime in my Calculations.
The next issue is that the governmental data you compared this to adds up to a different "sized" person. The “Real” data add up to over 70, 000 grams that is almost 16% more, therefore a larger [more massive] person. This person would weigh around 155 pounds. So, to truly compare them you need to adjust the numbers accordingly. You could either adjust the numbers from the show or the government data. I will adjust the numbers from the show.
O: 36, 456.1 g
C: 23, 103.5g
H: 5, 123.1g
N: 2, 790.3g
Ca: 1, 238.0g
P : 924.1g
Cl: 175.2g
Na: 113.7g
S : 92.4g
K: 44.7g
F : 8.7g
Fe: 5.8g
Si : 3.5g
+ Trace
Total: 70, 049.1g
This does not at all destroy your theory that they got their amounts wrong in their transmutation.
When compared to the Government’s Data, some elements match up a little better, like Oxygen and Hydrogen. Some are even farther off, like Carbon, Nitrogen, Calcium and Phosphorus.
But at least now it is a fair comparison.
I would recommend re-editing your video with these corrections, or posting an additional one addressing this.
Keep making your entertaining videos and you can always ask me questions about chemistry.
~Bryce Pemble

[anonymousunknown]

Biology: The only subject where multiplying and dividing mean the same thing.

[mlmii]

Old theory but Matt forgot something very important.

Would the elements in Al's body and Ed's leg have made up the difference?

[theCodyReeder]

10:07 Thats so To get the moles of hydrogen atoms he should have multiplied the moles of water by 2 not .11 because each water molecule has 2 atoms of hydrogen. Doesn't make a lot of difference to his conclusion but still... Gah! Other than that, loved the video.

[Eclipsed_Archon]

Matt seems like the kind of person who'd enjoy Stein's Gate

[OrlandoGamer]

Me: highschool chemistry and maths is useless in the real world
Mat pat:

[Frowgster]

Bro leaked style theory 6 years before he made it

[abdullahnasir]

I absolutely loved Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood. The last episode reduced me to tears.

[Mion]

You know... I came here to escape my chemistry test study... but...

[jackeaton]

But Matt pat, Edward didn't have google back then.

[arouraskeatch]

"are their really that many cloths to launder!?"
Yes actually. She has two small boys. She's probably not half done laundering

[hecmainiac]

Fullmetal alchemist was so popular they made weight into a real thing

[the_great_rasputin]

4:16 I think you made an error, MatPat.




Ed's too damn tall.