MythBusters (season 3)
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The cast/crew of the television series MythBusters performs experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. 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).
The myths the show has tested for accuracy in Season 3 include:
[edit] Episode 38 — "MythBusters Revisited"
- Original airdate: October 12, 2005
This episode is the second episode where the MythBusters team focus on retesting earlier myths, based on fan reaction (the first is Myths Revisited, Season 2, episode 14).
[edit] Blown Away
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A body struck by a bullet will be propelled violently backwards. (From "Blown Away", Season 2, episode 25) | Re-Busted | Even a .50 Caliber bullet does not have the momentum to knock a person backwards. If it were possible, the shooter would be knocked backwards as well - as per Newton's Third Law. |
[edit] Explosive Decompression
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Explosive decompression can occur when a bullet is fired through the fuselage of a pressurized airplane (From "Explosive Decompression", Season 1, episode 10) | Re-Busted | The Build Team tested the effect of air rushing past an open bullet hole, and surmised that the extra internal pressure caused by this would still not be enough to cause an explosive decompression. |
[edit] Who Gets Wetter?
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A person will end up drier running in the rain than walking. (From "Who Gets Wetter?", Season 1, episode 1) | Confirmed | When retrying the test in actual rain it was conclusively proven that the running test subject got less wet than the walking test subject. The use of artificial rain in the original test led to a false negative. |
[edit] Plywood Builder
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Holding a large sheet of plywood will slow a fall from a building enough to make it survivable. (From "Plywood Builder", Season 2, episode 18) | Re-Busted | After testing the speed of updrafts with a special rig on Tory's truck it was proven that you could not hold on to the piece of plywood if you were in free fall. A mere 45mph gust knocked it out of Tory's hands; updrafts from skyscrapers reach upwards of 90mph. |
[edit] Biscuit Bazooka Spinoff
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A black car heats up faster than an identical white car. (Spinoff of "Biscuit Bazooka", Pilot 2) | Confirmed | A fan wrote in and asked a follow up question: "Does the color of a car affect the way it heats up?". The MythBusters used two identical cars, one black the other white and left them both out in the summer heat with thermometers in both. By mid-afternoon the black car had heated up to a temperature of 135°F (55.5ºC) while the white car topped off at 126°F (52.2ºC), 9°F (3.3ºC) cooler. |
[edit] AC vs. Windows Down
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Running a car with air conditioning on is more fuel efficient than running with the windows down. (From "AC vs. Windows Down", Season 2, episode 22) | Partly Re-Busted / Partly Confirmed | The fundamental flaw in the MythBusters' test was that the point where the drag becomes powerful enough to inhibit a car's performance with windows down was inside their 45–55mph margin at 50mph. Going less than 50mph it is more efficient to leave your windows down, but going greater than 50mph it is more efficient to use your A/C. Since then, this particular bit of knowledge has been used frequently on Car Talk.[citation needed] |
[edit] Car Capers - Exploding Gas Tank
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A gas tank will explode when shot by a bullet. (From "Car Capers - Shooting Cars", Season 2, episode 15) | Partly Confirmed | It has already been proven that when shot by a normal bullet a gasoline tank will not explode. However, if a gasoline tank is shot by a tracer round from a great enough distance so that the round can ignite with air friction, it will cause the gasoline to catch fire. By the time this happened the tank was so riddled with bullets (from previous tracers that were fired too close to ignite) that there was no contained pressure, but the MythBusters surmised that had the tank been properly enclosed, it may have exploded; but overall it remains extremely improbable. |
[edit] Episode 39 — "Chinese Invasion Alarm"
- Original airdate: October 19, 2005
[edit] Chinese Invasion Alarm
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The ancient Chinese were able to detect an invading army tunneling beneath the ground by using a drum submerged in a shaft. | Plausible | Kari was able to hear Jamie and Tory's digging in an underground mine shaft in two of the three tests. She actually detected them better by listening to the drum compared to Grant's use of modern geophone equipment. |
[edit] Five-second Rule
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The "Five-second rule" is valid when it comes to food dropped on the floor. | Busted | This myth yielded a varied number of results, but in the definitive test where the only variable was time the myth was definitively busted. There was no real difference in the number of bacteria collected from 2 seconds exposure as there was from 6 seconds exposure. |
| The toilet seat is the cleanest place in the house. | Confirmed | Adam tested this myth just out of curiosity. When the results were compared to the bacteria samples from the "Five Second Rule" tests, the toilet seat actually proved cleaner than all other surfaces tested. |
| A dog's mouth is cleaner than a human's. | Partly Confirmed | The sample collected from Adam's mouth had much more bacterial growth than the sample collected from Lulu the dog. Jamie suggested, however, that the bacteria from the dog may be more potent. |
[edit] Episode 40 — "Confederate Rocket"
- Original airdate: October 26, 2005
Because the myth dealt with the making of explosive or dangerous materials, the ingredients used to make nitrous oxide and gun cotton were censored by substituting animal sounds for the actual chemicals.
- This myth was revisited in Salami Rocket.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| During the American Civil War, the Confederacy built and launched a two stage rocket 120 miles from Richmond, Virginia to Washington D.C. | Busted | While the MythBusters were able to construct and launch a hybrid rocket in under two days using only properties available to Civil War-era engineers, the rocket was not two stage, as per the myth and only travelled an estimated 500 yards. Adam and Jamie agreed that the myth would be impossible with the technology available during the civil war. |
[edit] Episode 41 — "Compact Compact, Vodka Myths"
- Original airdate: November 2, 2005
[edit] Compact Compact
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Two semi trucks that collided head-on welded together due to the accident. After being towed as a whole to the junkyard, workers were shocked to discover that the semis trapped a European compact car and its doomed driver between each other. | Busted | After obtaining two free semi trucks, their trailers, and an Italian sports car (a Fiat X1/9) from a fan, the Mythbusters rigged up the two semis to crash. After several mishaps and numerous technical problems, they manage to crash both semis and car, but one semi made it to the car earlier than the other semi, sending the car ricocheting to the side. The crash never "fused" together, instead resulting in a horrific mess of glass, metal, and fiberglass. |
[edit] Vodka Myths I
Vodka...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...can clean the odor off feet. | Confirmed | Comparison of a commercial foot powder wash vs. a Vodka wash showed that the odor was eliminated on both feet. |
| ...can kill bad breath. | Confirmed | After a mixture of 1 cup Vodka and 9 tbsp of cinnamon powder was left to sit for two weeks in a sealed flask and then strained, it managed to eliminate most odors on par with an over-the-counter mouthwash. The only bad breath smell not eliminated was from smoking cigarettes. |
[edit] Episode 42 — "Steel Toe-Cap Amputation, Bottle Rocket Blast-off"
- Original airdate: November 9, 2005
[edit] Steel Toe-Cap Amputation
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Steel-toe boots are more dangerous to one's toes than normal boots when a heavy weight is dropped on them. Whereas a normal boot would just crush the toes, a steel toe would curl and crumple in, cutting off the toes. | Busted | Using similar tests to those used to test steel-toe boot certification, Adam and Jamie determine that one's toes are much safer with steel toe boots than without. There was no toe-cutting curling of the steel toe, and even using a blade attachment didn't work, only glancing off the steel toe to cut right above where it ended. |
[edit] Bottle Rocket Blast-Off
The Build team attempt to recreate this Water Bottle Jetpack from a Japanese Game Show.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| According to a Japanese trivia game show, it is possible to use fifteen 3-liter sized water bottle rockets to launch a human 40 meters. | Busted | While bottle rockets, on their own, could launch 1/15 of Kari's weight a fair distance, their combination into one super-rocket system did not have enough thrust to give the crash test dummy the trajectory or distance stated by the television show, and was considered too dangerous by paramedics to feasibly launch a human being. More bottle rockets proved only to add to the difficulty and complications. The Build Team also found that water cooler jugs, while able to launch higher at the standard air/water ratio for water bottle rockets, were weaker than standard soda bottles (which are designed to hold carbonated liquids), failing at around 60 psi (413 kPa) less than the soda bottles (90psi (600kPa) as opposed to 150psi (1000kPa)). |
[edit] Episode 43 — "Sea-sickness - Kill or Cure?"
Original airdate: November 16, 2005
[edit] Seasickness - Kill or Cure?
Because Adam and Grant are very susceptible to motion sickness, they test non-pharmaceutical remedies for seasickness by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...using a cinnamon-flavored tongue spray. | Busted | The spray had no effect on Adam or Grant. |
| ...taking a ginger pill. | Confirmed | Both Adam and Grant made it through their spin-chair sessions without feeling ill. |
| ...using magnetized arm bands. | Busted | The arm bands had no effect on Adam or Grant. Some celebrities like Barry Manilow claim they work; they nonetheless do not operate on any valid scientific principles. |
| ...using an electro-shock wrist band. | Busted | The shocks made Adam and Grant feel mildly uncomfortable and they still got sick nonetheless. |
| ...using a placebo, like a vitamin or a sugar pill. | Plausible | While Adam didn't fall for it, Grant was successfully tricked into thinking he had taken a store-bought sea-sickness medication and did not throw up. Unfortunately, by falling for the placebo all his test results had to be thrown out on the grounds of psychosomatic influence. |
[edit] Tailgate Up vs. Tailgate Down
This was revisited in More Myths Revisited.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| It is more fuel efficient to drive a pick-up truck with its tailgate down, rather than up. | Busted | Driving with the tailgate down actually increased drag on the pick-up and caused it to consume fuel faster than the identical truck driven with the tailgate up. It was later revealed that the closed tailgate creates a locked vortex flow that created a smoother flow of air over the truck. With the tailgate down, the trapped vortex was dissipated and the drag increased. |
[edit] Finger in a Barrel
The Build Team take on a myth that forms a staple of cartoon physics.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A shotgun plugged by a human finger will backfire and explode injuring or killing the shooter instead of the intended victim. | Busted | Both test hands (composed of ballistics gel of varying firmness) were completely obliterated by the shotgun blast. Neither had the volume or strength needed to plug the barrel to create enough pressure to cause it to explode. Even under ridiculous circumstances like having the barrel clogged with dirt, being sealed off by a 4 inch spike welded into the barrel and by being blocked by a simulated squib load, the gun still didn't explode. The best results seen were minor deformations in the gun barrel. |
[edit] Episode 44 — "Paper Crossbow"
- Original airdate: January 11, 2006
[edit] Paper Crossbow
This myth was the first entry among those listed as one of the twelve myths that would not be tested in MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time. In an interview for Skeptic magazine, it had appeared that the myth itself was considered too controversial by Discovery Channel, who thought that testing the myth could provoke prisoners to try similar things.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A prison inmate can kill another inmate from across the hall, using newspaper for a paper crossbow. | Plausible | Jamie and Adam built separate crossbows for the myth and fired a few shots each. Testing proved that it is possible to kill someone using a paper crossbow, but it would require a precise shot to a vital spot (like a major blood vessel in the neck), which is difficult with improvised weapons such as a paper crossbow. The crossbows each became useless after a few shots, further showing that the shooter would have only a single shot to hit a vital spot. |
[edit] Vodka Myths II
Kari, Tori, and Grant test to see if vodka...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...can remove cigarette smoke smell from clothes. | Plausible | There was a noticeable difference between the control jacket & one sprayed with vodka before washing. Grant described the control jacket as having an "oaky smell" to it, while on the vodka jacket he couldn't detect any such smell. |
| ...can kill bees like an insecticide. | Busted | The control water killed more bees (2) than vodka, which failed to kill any. The bees sprayed with water went into a comatose-like state and awoke later the next day when they dried off. The bees sprayed with Vodka showed no ill effects at all. |
| ...can be used as a bathroom cleaner. | Plausible | Vodka proved to be less effective than a commercial bathroom cleaner, but still serviceable. |
[edit] Episode 45 — "Shredded Plane"
- Original airdate: January 18, 2006
[edit] Shredded Plane
A plane's tail section in a widely circulated photo was shredded by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...an angry wife with a chainsaw. | Busted | The slices made by the chainsaw were jagged while the ones seen in the photo were clean slices. |
| ...a runaway taxiing plane's propeller. | Confirmed | The full-scale test done with a run-away engine and stand-in tail section produced a result that was almost identical to the shredded plane seen in the photo. |
[edit] Fire Without Matches
Fire can be started...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...using the friction caused by rubbing two sticks together. | Confirmed | While the Build Team — in their own words — "cheated" and used a drill and some gun powder, with a stick in place of a drillbit, the friction from the drill did light the tinder on fire. |
| ...using a bullet. | Confirmed | Earlier tests using modern weaponry (and smokeless powder) were unproductive. Tory then modified an old musket and replaced the bullet with a piece of cloth. When the gun was fired, the black powder ignited the cloth, which then ignited the tinder into which it was shot. |
| ...using a soda can bottom polished with chocolate. | Confirmed | Chocolate was used to buff out the wear marks and ink marking and give the can bottom a reflective shine that could focus light and produce heat. While the can was not able to light tinder that was held by hand, the rig easily lit when the tinder was secured on a makeshift rig that kept it from moving. |
| ...using a steel wool and the ends of a battery. | Confirmed | It took several tries but the ends of the battery eventually produced a spark that lit the steel wool on fire. A clip from a survivalist TV show also showed with Ron Hood this myth was confirmed. This is also a requirement for the American Boy Scout Wilderness Survival Merit badge. |
| ...using ice. | Confirmed | Kari used a globe of specially produced clear ice about half the size of a bowling ball to produce smoke and later fire when she used it as a refractive lens. |
[edit] Episode 46 — "Archimedes' Death Ray"
- Original airdate: January 25, 2006
This is the third episode where Myths from previous episodes are revisited.
This episode, referred to as the MythBusters Mailbag Special: The Great Archimedes Burn-Off from within the episode itself, saw a retest of the Ancient Death Ray myth after fans of the series contested their original decision. To this end, the MythBusters commissioned a contest, challenging viewers to prove the myth plausible.
Candidates could enter in either of two categories: a smaller-scale version where the object was to ignite an object from five feet (1.5 meters) away, or the full-scale version, where the object was to ignite a replica trireme from 100 feet (30 metres) away (as per the original myth). For the smaller-scale version, two finalists, the team of Kari Lukes and Jess Nelson, both from UCSB, and the team of Brenden Millstein (Harvard) and Stephen Marsh (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) were chosen to compete against the MythBusters' own entry in the retest (which was ironically disqualified when it was found that the MythBusters had not followed the contest rules they had set out themselves). Only one entrant (Mike Bushroe, a NASA space scientist) entered a full-scale contest, however the winning entry was destroyed en route for the retest.
The MythBusters also invited a team from MIT, who had independently verified that a ship could be lit from afar using an array of mirrors, to retest the myth with Archimedean-era technology instead of the modern technology that was used in their own experiment.
While it was shown extensively that it is, in fact, plausible that an array of mirrors (or a parabolic mirror) could set objects on fire, the MythBusters stood by their original Busted verdict because of many factors:
- Syracuse, where the myth was supposed to take place, faced east, and thus could not take advantage of the more intense midday rays, instead relying on less powerful morning rays.
- The death ray would not work during cloudy weather.
- Enemy ships were likely to be moving targets, and thus the mirrors would need to be constantly be refocused.
- The historical records: there was no mention of the use of fire during the Battle of Syracuse until 300 years after the event, and no mention of mirrors until 800 years after the event.
- The impossibly large numbers of mirrors and personnel needed in order to light a boat with any reasonable speed.
- The availability of other weapons that were much more effective: flaming arrows and molotov cocktails were more reliable at setting an enemy ship ablaze, and were more effective over longer distances.
The MythBusters also addressed fans' criticisms that suggested they try to light the ships' sails instead of the body of the ship, and showed that the sails diffused the light due to their composition and the wind blowing against them, and thus could not be as easily set on fire compared to the body of the ship.
All in all, the MythBusters concluded that the Archimedes Death Ray was too complicated and impractical to be a viable weapon for its time.
Jess Nelson would return as the MythTern in later episodes, while Mike Bushroe would also contribute in later episodes as a researcher[citation needed].
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| An array of bronze mirrors can set a wooden ship on fire. (From Ancient Death Ray) | Re-Busted | The large scale array simply took too long to light the ship on fire. On top of that the ship only ignited when it was stationary and positioned at less than half the distance described in the myth. The myth was plausible at a smaller scale, however. Flaming arrows were fired from a ballista at the ship, but to little effect. The most effective (and plausible with Archimedes-era technology) method of lighting the ship ablaze was through the use of molotov cocktails. |
[edit] Episode 47 — "Helium Football"
- Original airdate: February 1, 2006
[edit] Helium Football
Adam and Jamie take on a myth prevalent around American football circles, made more prevalent during the time of prolific punter Ray Guy, whose kicks carried so much distance and had so much hangtime that some had suspected that the footballs he used were filled with helium.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A regulation NFL football will fly farther when filled with helium as opposed to compressed air at regulation pressure (13 psi). | Busted | Under the same amount of impulse force under the same atmospheric conditions, balls filled with helium showed no significant difference from balls filled with compressed air. It was also shown that, under the same impulse, both types of balls had the same initial velocity; since the helium-filled balls have a lower mass than the air-filled ones, the helium-filled balls have less inertia in flight: in fact, they may perform worse than air-filled balls over larger distances. |
[edit] Catching a Bullet in Your Teeth
The Build Team takes on the bullet catch magic trick, and see whether it is possible to do the trick for real.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| It is possible to catch a fired bullet in one piece with one's teeth. | Busted | A pig's teeth are significantly stronger than a human's, and yet were shattered by an impulse test when a bullet, held by a pig head's teeth under the same pressure as an average human's maximum bite strength, was suddenly forced forward by a force equivalent to a speeding bullet. Furthermore, the reaction time needed to perfectly capture a bullet in one's teeth is too short and has too tight a tolerance for any human to succeed. Finally, when the bullet was captured perfectly, the velocity that it traveled at completely destroyed even a full metal jacket bullet: it is impossible to catch a bullet in the same state as it exited a gun via solid mechanical means. |
[edit] Episode 48 — "Franklin's Kite"
[edit] Franklin's Kite
The Build Team take on a piece of American folklore regarding Benjamin Franklin's discovery of electricity.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity by flying a kite during a thunderstorm. | Busted and Confirmed | The experiment itself worked perfectly as described, but the current produced by artificial lightning (which is a fraction of what a real lightning bolt would contain) was fatal. Based on this observation, the Build Team concluded that Franklin could not possibly have survived a direct hit as the popular story of the experiment states. They also found that the kite need not be directly struck by lightning in order for the experiment to work. Experiment: confirmed; Story: busted. |
This is not an accurate description of the "Franklin kite story", as portrayed in historical sources. It portrays the popular misconception. According to H.W. Brand's biography The First American, the story is as follows.
Franklin flew a silk kite (with a hemp line holding a metal key near the end) underneath a cloud during a thunderstorm. Franklin connected the device to a piece of silk to insulate himself. After some time flying the kite, he noticed the fibers on the hemp line standing up as though charged. He touched the key with his knuckle and felt a charge from the accumulated electricity in the air, not from a lightning strike.
[edit] Facts About Flatulence
In this myth, Adam and Jamie test some of the more prevalent myths based on flatulence. Throughout the myth, the MythBusters are careful to only use the scientific term flatus as opposed to the more common fart, to prevent coming off as insensitive to the viewers. (Although the word fart had been used by Mythbusters and aired uncensored in at least two previous episodes: "Plywood Builder" and "MythBusters Revisited")
Flatulence can be induced by consuming...
| Myth statement | status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...beans. | Confirmed | While consuming a diet of beans for one day, Adam's rate of flatulence doubled. |
| ...carbonated soft drinks. | Confirmed | While consuming only carbonated drinks for one day, Kari's rate of flatulence doubled. |
| ...beef. | Busted | Jamie's rate of flatulence did not change after consuming a diet of beef for one day. |
| It is possible to flatuate so much that one can suffocate from the gas expelled. | Busted | The amount of potentially deadly gases found in an average flatus, such as carbon dioxide, is too low to cause its concentration to rise to fatal levels in a few hours, even in a small airtight room. In fact, breathing causes the CO2 levels to rise much faster. |
| Lighting a match will burn the odorous gases in a flatus. | Busted | Lighting a match does not reduce the concentration of hydrogen sulfide and methyl mercaptan, the odorous gases commonly found in flatulence. The smell of a safety match being ignited instead masks the smell of methyl mercaptan when tested individually. |
Two additional myths were filmed but not aired as part of the broadcast episode. These have been shown in an outtakes reel at live appearances by the MythBusters.
| Myth statement | status | notes |
|---|---|---|
| Females do not pass gas. | Busted | Wearing special undergarments fitted with a microphone and patched through a sound system and given a hydrogen sulfide meter, Kari was given the lead in this myth. Despite the meter malfunctioning and many hours without any sound broadcast over the speakers, Kari finally produced a flatus and busted the myth. |
| It is possible to ignite a flatus. | Confirmed | Adam began by welding attachments to an ordinary chair to allow him an optimal position. Adam waited patiently for a flatus to surface. Using a standard lighter, the high speed camera showed that the flatus did indeed combust, confirming the myth. |
It is likely that these myths were edited out to keep a scientific tone to the experiments, but time constraints could have played a role as well, since during multiple times during the experiments, the mythbusters made mention of the fact that the experiments were going to air.
[edit] Episode 49 — "Cell Phones on a Plane"
[edit] Helium Raft
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A person can fly using a life raft filled with helium. | Busted | The amount of helium required to lift a person off the ground (let alone the raft itself) is prohibitively immense, and such a raft of adequate size would be quite flimsy. In fact, the final test of the raft had to be aborted because of an unbalanced release of the ties, causing Adam to become entangled and destroying the raft in the process. |
[edit] Cell Phones on a Plane
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The ban on cell phones on aircraft is designed to force passengers to use the expensive in-flight phones. | Busted | It was found that cell phone signals, specifically those in the 800-900 MHz range, did interfere with unshielded cockpit instrumentation. Because older aircraft with unshielded wiring can be affected, and because of the possible problems that may arise by having many airborne cell phones "seeing" multiple cell phone towers, the FCC (via enforcement through the FAA) still deems it best to stay on the safe side and prohibit the use of cell phones while airborne. |
[edit] Episode 50 — "Bullets Fired Up"
[edit] Bullets Fired Up
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Bullets fired into the air maintain their lethal capability when they eventually fall back down. | Busted , Plausible, and Confirmed | In the case of a bullet fired at a precisely vertical angle (something extremely difficult for a human being to duplicate), the bullet would tumble, lose its spin, and fall at a much slower speed due to terminal velocity and is therefore rendered less than lethal on impact. However, if a bullet is fired upward at a non-vertical angle (a far more probable possibility), it will maintain its spin and will reach a high enough speed to be lethal on impact. Because of this potentiality, firing a gun into the air is illegal in most states, and even in the states that it is legal, it is not recommended by the police. Also the MythBusters were able to identify two people who had been injured by falling bullets, one of them fatally injured. To date, this is the only myth to receive all three ratings at the same time. |
[edit] Vodka Myths III
Vodka can...
| Myth statement | status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...remove poison oak. | Busted | For some reason, although most of the MythBusters were allergic to poison oak when they were young (especially Kari, who was exempted from the test because she had once had a dangerous reaction), it didn't affect anyone but John the Researcher. The vodka still gave no results. |
| ...painlessly remove plastic bandages. | Confirmed | Both a control and vodka-soaked bandage were quickly removed from hair-covered legs and, while not painless, the vodka-soaked bandage came off less painfully and removed less hair than the control. |
| ...be turned into high-quality vodka through charcoal filtration. | Busted | Through a double-blind taste test, the cheap vodka seemed to taste better with every subsequent filtration, although the top-shelf vodka beat them all. However, a chemical analysis showed no actual difference between the filtered and unfiltered cheap vodka. |
[edit] Episode 51 — "Myths Reopened"
This is the fourth episode in which myths are retested (counting the Archimedes Death Ray revisit).
[edit] Salami Rocket
The MythBusters revisit the Confederate Rocket myth with some new information from viewers. This was revisited in More Myths Revisited.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A hybrid rocket can be propelled with salami. (From Confederate Rocket) | Confirmed | Salami, like the paraffin used in the first test, was able to propel the rocket, although it tended to explode instead of providing even thrust. |
[edit] Splitting an Arrow
At the insistence of viewers, the team retests the popular arrow-splitting myth seen in the film The Adventures of Robin Hood.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| An arrow can be split in half through a direct hit in the tail by another arrow. (From Splitting an Arrow) | Re-Busted | Even after multiple direct hits on a solid wood arrow with the bone nock removed, a tail-to-tip split could not be achieved. It took an arrow made of hollow bamboo to create the splitting effect seen in the movie. Because with a normal arrow, the second arrow will follow the grain, which will lead to the side before it makes it to the end. Also their tests revealed that an arrow fired from a traditional bow wobbles in the air enough that it won't hit the end of the arrow straight. |
[edit] Guns Fired Underwater
It has already been shown that, in some cases, bullets become non-lethal when fired into water. But what happens when the whole gun is fired underwater?
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A modern firearm can be fired if completely submerged in water. (From Bulletproof Water) | Confirmed | All of the firearms (a 9mm, a .357, a 12-gauge shotgun, and a .30-06) were able to discharge underwater, however the bullets lose velocity rapidly and are rendered less than lethal beyond a meter. (The entire gun had to be completely submerged in water -- all pockets of air must be removed -- in order to prevent a possible explosion when fired.) Furthermore, the break-barrel shotgun (a relatively old design) destroyed itself when fired underwater. Finally, the water pressure might cause the spent cartridge to fail to leave the chamber and effectively reduce the gun to a one-shot deal. Obviously, revolvers would not have this problem, as they do not eject their spent cartridges after each shot. |
[edit] Episode 52 - "Mind Control"
[edit] Painting With Explosives
This myth originated on an episode of the British comedy series Mr. Bean starring Rowan Atkinson.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A small room can be quickly painted by detonating a stick of dynamite in a bucket of paint. | Busted | A stick of dynamite in a bucket of paint cannot distribute the paint evenly enough to fully paint the room; only 40% of the room (around the bottom and part of the ceiling) received paint, and the room took some shrapnel damage (even from a plastic bucket). Furthermore, Adam's and Jamie's customized contraptions, designed to help distribute the paint more evenly, failed to produce any successful result. |
[edit] Mind Control
Remote, non-consensual mind control can be achieved by...
| Myth statement | status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...a psionic helmet kit, ordered off the internet. | Busted | The test failed to produce any effects. |
| ...pulsed air. | Busted | The test failed to produce any effects. |
| ...a spinning magnet. | Plausible | While it is plausible that some sort of "mind influence" (determined by looking at EEG recordings) was achieved, there was no actual predictable control of the mind's state. |
| ...subliminal sound. | Busted | The test failed to produce any effects. |
| ...remote hypnosis. | Plausible | Enough pre-existing scientific evidence exists regarding hypnosis for the Build Team to call the myth plausible, and their EEG readings backed up that evidence. |
[edit] Episode 53 - "Exploding Pants"
[edit] Exploding Pants
This myth comes from New Zealand in the early 1930s, where an epidemic of exploding pants had rampaged, injuring and even killing farmers. The culprit was a then-unknown chemical substance that farmers began using in large quantities at the time.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Under the right conditions, farm chemicals can cause a pair of trousers to spontaneously combust if they are spilt on it and subjected to normal wear and abuse. | Confirmed | The Build Team tried to ignite cotton denim pant swatches soaked in fertilizer, gun cotton solution, black powder, and the herbicide sodium chlorate using an open flame, radiant heat source, friction, and impact, but only the herbicide could ignite with sufficient energy under the above conditions (except for friction), and it was particularly reactive to impact. In a full-scale experiment using Buster, paramedics on-hand stated that Buster would most likely survive from the blast with only some burns. Research confirms the herbicide as the culprit, as an accidental infestation of ragwort in the country caused a dramatic increase in herbicide use. The myth was deemed "confirmed" when the team accepted the word "explosive" to mean a sudden ignition and spreading of flame, as opposed to rapid air compression. |
[edit] The Great Gas Conspiracy
The "Great Gas Conspiracy" mentioned in the myth is the conspiracy theory that gasoline companies are secretly in league with the car manufacturers to produce fuel-inefficient vehicles, to fatten their profits and split the difference. The myths tested are ways found on the Internet that one can supposedly beat this conglomerate and get cheap, easy, and spectacularly improved fuel efficiency for your car.
Theories tested to see if cheap fuel efficiency can be achieved were...
| Myth statement | status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...carburetor magnets. | Busted | No change to fuel efficiency. |
| ...acetone mixed with the gasoline. | Busted | The acetone was less fuel efficient. |
| ..."miracle carburetor". | Busted | Far less fuel efficient. |
| ...hydrogen fuel cell. | Busted | The cell didn't work with the car, and while the car did start unmodified when pure hydrogen was introduced, the hydrogen was also violently ignited soon afterwards, making it an unlikely, dangerous - and expensive - alternative. |
| ...used cooking oil, rather than regular fuel. | Confirmed | Although there's no word on damage to the engine from using used cooking oil, a diesel-fueled car did run on it. However, the MythBusters speculate that once this alternative fuel achieves a significant interest level among the public, used cooking oil will be hoarded as a saleable commodity. The used cooking oil also did not quite fit the requirement of improved fuel efficiency, as it yielded approximately 10% less distance for an equivalent amount of diesel. (see biodiesel and straight vegetable oil) |
[edit] External links
- MythBusters Official site
- A Mythbusters Fan Club
- Episode guide
- MythBusters at the Internet Movie Database
- The cut facts about flatus experiments #1 and #2
| Main crew | ||
|---|---|---|
| Adam Savage - Jamie Hyneman | ||
| Build Team | ||
| Kari Byron - Tory Belleci - Grant Imahara | ||
| Related articles | ||
| Season 1 - Season 2 - Season 3 - Season 4 - Season 5 | ||
| Pilots, Specials and Mini-myths - Additional cast - M5 Industries | ||
