MythBusters (season 7)
This time, the ranking (in descending order of average germ count) was: sponge, money, keyboard, toilet seat, light switch. The team made a full-size human analog from pork and a model skeleton, filled its chest with simulated internal organs, dressed it in a suit and Mark V dive helmet, and lowered it to a depth of 300 feet (90 m) in the ocean.Commenting that this difference was less than the duration of one film frame (shot at 24 frames per second), and thus short enough for the human eye not to notice, they declared the myth confirmed. The Build Team set up a nitrogen-powered cannon to deliver a powerful uppercut to Buster, stronger than the best heavyweight boxers. Below is the direct tangent of the Curving Bullets myth, also from the movie Wanted. Grant and Tory also tried other techniques of shooting around a corner in Hollywood movies.
In the next test, they swung a heavy pendulum (roughly 1,700 pounds (770 kg)) down into Buster s chest, first with shoes and socks, then with socks only. Jamie dropped it in “draw” and “hostage,” but not in “shootout,” while Adam held onto it in every situation.
He attached a short side barrel to a revolver, intending to fire a bullet out of it so that the recoil would match the kick of a bullet in flight hitting the gun. Two criteria were used to test each scenario: whether the real crash appeared similar to its Hollywood counterpart, and whether the car could be driven away afterward.
They crashed into.. As part of Discovery Channel s Alaska Week 2009 series, the MythBusters returned to Alaska to test more cold weather myths. Based on Geoffrey Pyke s proposed project of building an aircraft carrier out of pykrete during World War II (it wasn t put into practice because the war ended), the MythBusters decided to test the viability of making a pykrete boat. In additional footage shown on the MythBusters website, two additional tests were shown. The Build Team tested several myths that involve creating diamonds with household materials such as.. Unable to produce any diamonds using household items, the Build Team went on to test whether.. Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team tested three myths drawn from videos seen on YouTube. It should be noted that in the original video, the ball was made of sculpted Styrofoam. Since no one was able to negotiate the course well without lights, the team declared the myth busted. Adam and Jamie test the Hollywood cowboy s ability to shoot a gun out of a villain s hand, while the Build Team tries to re-create a big-budget bus jump. They then devised separate methods for determining whether a person would be startled enough to drop his gun if it were hit.
Based on the results for light and medium syrup, which they considered to be within the margin of error for their testing method, Adam and Jamie declared the myth plausible. Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team joined forces to investigate a puzzling seesaw myth. The Build Team was brought in to determine the terminal velocity, based on one specific type of skydiving suit and the diver’s body position. Since the ground there was not level, they set up a second test at Fort Mason.
He died in a construction accident on December 20, 2009. When they loaded the bamboo cannon with industrial powder and set it off, the resulting explosion destroyed the barrel and wrecked Kirk , but the Gorn was undamaged. Once they had properly fine-tuned their mechanism to fire and drop the bullets at the same time, they found that the two bullets landed within 39.6 milliseconds of each other.
From several jumps, they determined that the diver could reach a maximum speed of 122 miles per hour (196 km/h) in a vertical position. Meanwhile, Adam and Jamie designed and built a seesaw that could effectively deliver the energy of the falling skydiver to the girl without buckling. Since the bus could not make the jump, the team declared the myth busted. Adam and Jamie tackle two health-hazard myths, while the Build Team tries to skip a car like a stone. The team conjectured that the car in the film may have been weighted at its rear end in order to make it behave as it did.
Kari departs to begin her maternity leave. With accelerometers on his body to measure his speed changes, Buster was dropped from 20 feet (6 m) into the air bag and a dumpster full of foam rubber. From around a corner, it is possible to make a corner shot by.. Taking off from the original Car Cling myth, Adam and Jamie tested whether or not someone could.. The MythBusters pointed out that the tests were done with empty cardboard boxes, as they seemingly are in many Hollywood movies.
This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments (the myth is Busted, Plausible, or Confirmed). Based on numerous car chase scenes in films, the Build Team tested myths based on whether cars would be able to successfully drive through/into various obstructions. After outfitting their full-size bus for remote-control steering on an airfield, they did a speed test and found that it could go up to 58 miles per hour (93 km/h), rather than the 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) depicted in the film.
When a second lock was dipped into liquid nitrogen, it took Tory only five hits and 14 seconds to smash it. The original Snowplow Split tests shown in the second Alaska Special focused only on the circumstances of the myth. Realizing that the gas was probably leaking out around the plumbing pipes, they removed the fixtures and brought in the equivalent of 100,000 tablets’ worth of solid and powdered antacid.
Adam built a paddle with a gun butt and allowed Jamie to hit it with a baseball bat, delivering roughly the same kinetic energy as a bullet; he dropped it on impact, but Jamie was not satisfied with the result. This time, they ran at 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), with the ramp removed, and were able to skip the car all the way to the other end of the pond and drive it away.
The second swing left Buster with one sock almost off his foot, but further scrutiny revealed that it came loose when that foot dragged along the ground after impact. The team then set up an explosion, using 500 pounds (230 kg) of ANFO and mannequin legs in socks at distances between 15 and 55 feet (4.6 and 17 m). It was based on a video created by the YouTube user: Household Hacker. Adam and Jamie explored the physics of swimming in syrup, while the Build Team probed two magic bullet myths. Thinking that the high viscosity of the syrup may have affected the results, Adam and Jamie replaced it with a mixture that was only slightly more viscous than water.
The two trials yielded g-forces of 11.4 g and 9.9 g, respectively, indicating that a leap into the dumpster would be survivable and pehaps even more comfortable than jumping into the airbag because of the lower g-force involved. There, Tory was unsuccessful in breaking the room-temperature lock after four minutes; he only broke part of the bunker s lock hasp.
Their solution: attach the ends of a heavy-duty bungee cord to the diver and the ground, haul the diver up using a crane, and release him so that the cord would snap him downward at high speed. A wetsuit filled with an alginate/water mixture and dressed in a skydiving suit was used to represent the diver. Adam and Jamie recruited a college class to take swabs from 10 of each item, again including 10 toilet seats for comparison, and incubated them as before.
A different result may suffice if they contained any shipment, especially heavy ones like electronics or anvils. Fans requested having this myth tested after the original Liquid Nitrogen myths were shown in the Hurricane Windows episode. In a test shown only in the MythBusters website (and aired in versions of the episode shown outside the US instead of the deadbolt test), a second padlock test was done using a large heavy-duty padlock. A third batch, this one about as viscous as maple syrup, was prepared for both Adam and Olympic gold medalist swimmer Nathan Adrian.
Since a person who lost his socks in this explosion would also be killed, the team declared the myth busted. The MythBusters tackle various myths relating to the handyman s secret weapon . After the suit was properly pressurized to 135 pounds per square inch (930 kPa) to match the water depth, they cut the air supply.
Based on this result, the team declared the myth confirmed. Adam and Jamie put a story of a prisoner s escape to the test, while the Build Team investigates a supposedly foolproof method for smugglers to avoid detection. They decided to use 22,000 tablets (roughly 10 years’ worth, based on two tablets provided with every meal) in their first full-scale test. A notice appears after the end credits honoring rocketry expert Erik Gates, who contributed materials and expertise for several segments.
This new, supersized test presented below looked onto the results. Adam and Jamie test a Hollywood chase scene jump, while the Build Team probes a gruesome diving disaster. This rig did not work properly, so he removed the side barrel and attached a second grip upside down on top of the revolver frame, mounted on a swivel. Each man held the gun in all three positions (“draw,” “shootout,” “hostage”) while the other triggered it remotely at a random time.
Finally, they built a second barrel out of plywood, reinforced it, and fired it with the same charge, injuring Kirk far worse than the Gorn and leading the team to declare the myth busted. Two additional myths, which did not have titles displayed: . Finally, he put on a set of night vision goggles and attempted one more run, with Jessi chasing him on a go kart outfitted with a siren and flashing lights to simulate a police car.
The pan hammer only broke off the snout of the ice head; the rest of the head was shattered after it fell off the table. Adam and Jamie tested whether a car would explode when driven off a cliff. The Build Team saw if a rocket could launch a cage containing a human. The MythBusters test new tangents from five previous myths. The Build Team tested various Hollywood corner shots. The results: Based on the need for a super-strong seesaw and the injuries inflicted on the girl, the team declared the myth busted. Adam and Jamie tested whether or not a person could.. To help test this myth, the MythBusters enlisted the aid of the Blue Angels and their F/A-18 Hornets. This myth was inspired by scenes from the film version of Wanted. The Build Team tested various myths involving popcorn. For full-scale testing, they started at a firing range and used a .45 caliber pistol to measure the distance a bullet would travel before hitting the ground.
The result was a fireball with an estimated height of 100 feet (30 m). Adam and Jamie tested whether windows should be open or closed during a hurricane, while the Build Team took on two myths involving liquid nitrogen. In a related test not aired in the actual episode but shown on the MythBusters website, Kari made an ice sculpture of a pig s head. They performed some small-scale tests to determine the best speed and whether or not the ramp was needed, then set up a second car for another jump.
Adam and Nathan swam 5.4% and 9% slower here than in water, respectively (though Adam and Jamie decided to disregard Nathan s results, since he was so familiar with swimming in water that he lost his technique in the syrup and thus could not deliver a consistent performance). The creators of the video sought the advice of LEGO Master Model Builders and claimed that they gave them the one-million piece estimate, though the company claims it never gave them such an estimate. This myth was not shown in the actual episode aired in the United States, but was featured in the version of the episode aired outside of North America and on the MythBusters website and included in the iTunes download as an extra scene.
Based on the sheer amount of materials and preparation, and the potential for the prisoner to die by suffocation or be affected by abrupt pressure changes, Adam and Jamie declared the myth busted. Jessi suggested that the team add the hazard of an oncoming car’s headlights, and Grant placed a robot on the course for this purpose. After lining the cell with plastic, they mixed the tablets with 350 US gallons (1,300 L) of water but did not see any rise in pressure.
The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives tales, and the like. Adam did some small-scale tests to correlate drop height and maximum launch height, and also to follow the girl’s trajectory in the air. Next, the Build Team did some bungee jumping to find a way to accelerate the diver to terminal velocity without having to drop him from several hundred feet up.
Owing to the difficulty of hitting the small target of the revolver, the high risk of shrapnel injuries, and the unpredictable reactions of the person holding the weapon, Adam and Jamie classified the myth as busted. The team theorized that hidden ramps placed on either end of the gap may have helped the bus to make its jump safely. The latter had no apparent effect on the fireball height, but they decided to use a 2:1 ratio (2 US qt/1,900 mL of oil, 1 US qt/950 mL of water) for further full-scale work in a mockup kitchen set.
Buster s socks stayed on after the hit, though one of them slid down somewhat. With the 50-foot target distance scaled down to allow for the lower top speed, they jumped the bus off a ramp; it fell far short of the target, but remained relatively intact until it hit a concrete safety barricade.
Adam then attempted the dumpster jump from the same height; upon landing, he was able to climb out and run away. The tested whether or not duct tape can.. Adam and Jamie test whether a dirty car gets better gas mileage than an equivalent clean car, while the Build Team test an old adage concerning beer, liquor, and hangovers. The MythBusters test two potential kitchen disasters, as well as whether cheese can be used with a cannon. To investigate further, Adam and Jamie did some smaller-scale tests, varying the oil/water ratio and the shape of the cooking pot.
He performed badly, complaining of a lack of depth perception and a narrow field of view, and was soon caught by Jessi. The girl dummy was outfitted with “shock watch” stickers to measure the forces exerted on it, and three drops were carried out.
Under these conditions, they were able to get a 30-foot (9.1 m) fireball; however, they declared the myth busted because the original 8:1 ratio did not generate the stated result. In a further test, they set up a shelf to drop an unopened can of soup into the oil, reasoning that having all the water-based material at the bottom of the pot would more effectively launch the oil when it vaporized and exploded. When Tory tried to drive the course, the glare from the lights caused him to crash almost immediately.
Because some items did have more germs than the toilet seats, the myth was labeled as confirmed. The MythBusters examine six small, bizarre tales. Since the scene had proven impossible as shown in the film (with the original speed and the ramp), the team declared the myth busted. In descending order, the sponge, money, light switch, and keyboard were found to have the highest numbers of dangerous germs.
The team set up the equipment at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, using the heavy-duty bungee cord and a pair of guide wires to make sure the diver dummy would hit the target accurately, and found that they could indeed reach 122 miles per hour. Adam again swam three lengths in each pool and found that his syrup time was now only 2.8% slower than in water.
He and Jamie classified the myth as plausible, but not recommended, since a person making the jump would have no way of knowing ahead of time whether the dumpster contents would safely break the fall. At this point, Kari withdrew from further work to go on maternity leave and was replaced by Jessi Combs. When the water was added, the resulting pressure—a peak of 4 pounds per square inch (28 kPa)—bent the door outward severely until the plastic lining burst at its lower edge.
Rupture discs calibrated to burst at 100 pounds per square inch (690 kPa) were set up at each distance as well, to evaluate the likelihood of a person s survival. The blast stripped socks off at 15 and 25 feet (4.6 and 7.6 m), bursting those discs and the one at 35 feet (11 m); at the longer distances, both the discs and the legs were intact.
The pressure change caved in portions of the helmet and caused it to fill with flesh, blood, and organs from the body being crushed upward.
