I know I should be contacting Sony Pictures, or the Jeopardy TV show directly, but I cannot find any contact information for either one.

On the Jeopardy show which WRDW aired on January 30, 2008, at 7:30 pm, there was a mistake in the ruling of an answer given by a contestant. I do not remember the contestant’s name, but she was female (obviously), from Mass. (I think), and was the contestant on the far right as you looked at the contestant panel. The panel from left to right was female, male, and female.

The question was something like this; They displayed a tin can being held up by a magnet. They asked what was the substance that was attracted to the magnet (which was part of the tin can). The young lady answered with “What is iron?” They said she was wrong.

The gentleman in the middle answered with “What is steel?”, and they took that answer as being correct and “iron” being incorrect.

I am a registered mechanical engineer, and I understand what metals are composed of, and some of the more common and standard definitions of steel are as follows;

1. “any of various modified forms of iron, artificially produced, having a carbon content less than that of pig iron and more than that of wrought iron, and having qualities of hardness, elasticity, and strength varying according to composition and heat treatment: generally categorized as having a high, medium, or low-carbon content.”

2. “A generally hard, strong, durable, malleable alloy of iron and carbon, usually containing between 0.2 and 1.5 percent carbon, often with other constituents such as manganese, chromium, nickel, molybdenum, copper, tungsten, cobalt, or silicon, depending on the desired alloy properties, and widely used as a structural material.”

3. “an alloy of iron with small amounts of carbon; widely used in construction; mechanical properties can be varied over a wide range”

4. “a very hard alloy of iron and carbon, used for making tools etc”

5. Any of various hard, strong, flexible alloys of iron and carbon.

As you can see, “steel” is a form of iron. Truly the magnet is attracted to the iron, for all steel is, is a mixture of iron and varying amounts of carbon, and carbon is a non-ferrous material.

This proves the lady was correct in her answer. Had she been given credit for this answer, she could have possibly won the game. As she was not given credit for the answer, she did not win the game, nor receive the amount of money associated with the question (clue).

Please contact Sony Pictures or CBS or whomever needs to be contacted about this mistake and forward this email to them, or let me know who to contact, and I will do it directly.

Thank you for your time in this matter. I feel everyone should get a “fair shake”, don’t you?

Thanks again,
Jim