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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 2 include:
[edit] Episode 14 — "Myths Revisited"
This is the first episode where the MythBusters retest earlier myths that had been commented or criticized by fans or had not performed as per their original expectations and test spinoff myths related to earlier myths.
[edit] Breakstep Bridge
This myth was retested for the episode but ultimately did not air in the US version - although the Robin Banks-narrated Discovery Europe version did include it. This myth is also included in the DVD version of MythBusters Outtakes.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Soldiers marching in unison can cause harmonic oscillation in a bridge and cause it to collapse. (From Breakstep Bridge, Season 1, episode 12) |
Plausible |
The first time the myth was tested, the miniature bridge was flawed enough in its design to get an inconclusive answer, but with this test, just testing the natural resonance frequency of a simple wooden bridge, resulted in a plausible conclusion, but it is very improbable.
View video clips of the test on the Discovery Channel website.
|
[edit] Chicken Gun
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A frozen chicken will penetrate aircraft or train windshields better than a thawed chicken. (From Chicken Gun, Season 1, episode 9) |
Plausible |
When re-visited, frozen chickens could penetrate sets of layered glass panes better. Listed as Plausible because it's uncertain the original myth actually occurred. |
[edit] Ice Bullet
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| An ice bullet can kill someone without leaving a trace. (From Ice Bullet, Season 1, episode 1) |
Re-Busted |
They retested using slow-frozen bullets that were stronger than the ones they used previously. The bullets simply vaporized when the trigger was pulled. |
[edit] Cell Phone Destruction
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Using one's cell phone while pumping gas/petrol can cause an explosion. (From Cell Phone Destruction, Season 1, episode 2) |
Re-Busted |
The battery of retests the MythBusters performed reaffirmed their original Busted verdict. |
[edit] Biscuit Aerosol Bazooka
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Leaving a can of aerosol spray or cola inside a hot car can cause it to explode. (Spinoff of Buscuit Bazooka, Pilot 2) |
Busted |
The aerosol cans didn't explode inside a car after sitting in the sun for hours. Both aerosol and cola took temperatures of over 300 °F (150 °C) to blow. This myth was later revisited in season 5, where it was revealed that Adam had ended the test too early and that soda will explode at 140 °Fahrenheit (60 °Celcius). |
[edit] Exploding Implants
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| An inflatable brassiere can explode inside an airplane as it climbs in altitude. (Spinoff of Exploding Implants, Season 1, episode 2) |
Re-Busted |
The different types of inflatable brassieres tested proved capable of maintaining their integrity even at altitudes fatal to humans. |
[edit] Peeing on the Third Rail
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Urinating on an electric fence can cause electrocution. (Spinoff of Peeing on the Third Rail, Season 1, episode 3) |
Busted/Plausible |
Upon retesting the myth on an electric fence it was found to be Plausible, but the rail was still Busted. Distance was the factor, as the urine stream breaks up less at the close range needed for urinating on the fence than urinating on the third rail, thus ensuring a direct line of current between one's body and the electrical source. |
[edit] Goldfinger
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Covering one's body in gold paint can kill a person by skin asphyxiation like in the James Bond movie Goldfinger. (From Goldfinger, Pilot 3) |
Re-Busted |
When Adam re-tested the myth, his vital signs did not change except for body temperature, which actually dropped (the myth stated that body temperature would go up due to the paint). The original anomalies with Jamie's test were likely due more to Jamie's own physiology than the application of the paint. |
[edit] Episode 15 — "Scuba Diver, Car Capers"
[edit] Forest Fire Scuba Diver
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A SCUBA diver can be sucked up by a firefighting helicopter and dumped on a forest fire. |
Busted |
The type of pumps used in firefighting helicopters cannot continue running once in the air. As soon as the pump is shut off, any caught diver would simply drop back into the water. The pumps also do not have enough suction to suck in a person in the first place. |
[edit] Car Capers
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| If a car's tailpipe is plugged with objects, the engine will be destroyed. |
Busted |
All of the objects used were shot out immediately after the engine started up. |
| If a bullet is shot through the fuel tank, it will explode. |
Busted |
The gas tank did not explode.
This was revisited in MythBusters Revisited. |
| A car door can protect a person from bullets in a shoot-out. |
Busted |
The car door did not stop the bullets shot at it. |
| A car's engine will be destroyed when liquid drain clog remover is put into the tank. |
Busted |
The engine still ran. |
| A car's engine will be destroyed when bleach is put into the tank. |
Plausible |
The engine soon died out but wasn't ruined from the experience. The following morning, the inside of the gas tank was covered in rust. |
| A car's engine will be destroyed when sugar is put into the tank. |
Busted |
The engine ran even better than without the sugar. |
| Adding mothballs to the fuel tank increases the horsepower. |
Plausible |
The engine still started, but it soon started spluttering. When Jamie pressed the accelerator, the engine sounded more powerful. |
| Cola can be used as a substitute for radiator coolant. |
Plausible |
The engine ran with cola in the radiator, but it may cause damage. |
| If a radiator is leaking, cracking an egg into the radiator will plug the holes. |
Plausible |
The engine was started after the contents of an egg were poured in, and the leak stopped. |
| A piece of metal can destroy an engine when it falls in the carburetor. |
Busted |
A penny dropped in could be heard rattling, but the engine still ran. |
| Bleach in the oil can destroy the engine. |
Confirmed |
The engine started but it soon started smoking, and very quickly overheated. The engine was so hot, that the undercarriage started burning and Adam fried an egg on the tailpipe. The engine was ultimately ruined. |
[edit] Episode 16 — "Ancient Death Ray, Skunk Cleaning, What Is Bulletproof?"
[edit] Ancient Death Ray
The MythBusters take on a myth from antiquity, where it is claimed that Archimedes constructed a solar-powered weapon by reflecting sunlight onto Roman ships. The result of the test sparked so much controversy, especially around engineering circles, that an entire episode (Archimedes' Death Ray) was dedicated to a retest.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Archimedes constructed a death ray by reflecting sunlight onto, and thus igniting, Roman vessels. |
Busted |
In order to have any effect, the mirror would have to be impractically large, and even then, the temperature of wood only raised a few degrees. On the Discovery website, however, a challenge was thrown out to the viewers to come up with an experiment to prove it plausible, and so far, a few of the entries seem to have done so. When all the tests were completed the myth was conclusively busted. |
[edit] Skunked!
The smell of skunk musk can be removed with…
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| …tomato juice. |
Plausible |
Neither the two MythBusters, nor their builder Scottie, could detect the odor of skunk after they had been covered with the tomato juice. (It has been suggested that the strong odor/aroma of tomato juice masks the skunk smell until the human nose becomes desensitized to the smell of tomatoes, at which point the skunk musk is again noticeable.) |
| …commercial cleaners. |
Plausible |
The commercial cleaners tested had limited success at eliminating the odor of skunk musk. |
| …a custom mixture. |
Confirmed |
A mixture of soap, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda proved to work best for actually eliminating the aroma of skunk musk. The precise formula may be found in the skunk article. |
| …beer. |
Busted |
Beer did not work. |
| …a douche. |
Busted |
A douche had also no effect at all. |
[edit] What is Bulletproof?
Adam and Jamie test whether some things that are mythically held to be bulletproof are actually bulletproof - included among them was an assertion by Jamie in the first season on their lexan barriers being bulletproof.
Can bullets be stopped by…
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| …a book? |
Busted |
A hardcover book of at least 400 pages can potentially stop a .22 rifle shot, but anything stronger would shoot completely through. |
| …a deck of playing cards? |
Busted |
The deck failed to stop any bullets. |
| …a Zippo lighter? |
Busted |
The lighter failed to stop any bullets. |
| …a quarter-inch polycarbonate shield like that used by MythBusters? |
Busted |
The shield failed to stop any bullets. |
| …an inch-thick polycarbonate panel rated bullet resistant? |
Plausible |
They tested using a four-sided box made of bullet resistant polycarbonate laminate. The panels stopped .22, .357, & .44 magnum bullets but a .30-06 Springfield shot from an M1903 penetrated both front and rear portions of the box. |
[edit] Episode 17 — "Elevator of Death, Levitation Machine"
[edit] Elevator of Death
This myth is fueled by the story of an elevator attendant found alive but badly injured in an elevator car that had fallen down a shaft in the Empire State Building after a B-25 Medium Bomber crashed into it in 1945.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| It is possible to survive by jumping up at the last moment before a freefalling elevator hits the ground. |
Busted |
The jumping power of a human being cannot cancel out the falling velocity of the elevator. The best speculative advice from an elevator expert would be to lie on the elevator floor instead of jumping. Adam and Jamie speculated the attendant survived because the tight elevator shaft created an air cushion. This together with spring action from slack elevator cable could have slowed the car to survivable speeds. |
[edit] Levitation Machine
Adam and Jamie try to build a hovercraft from vacuum cleaner parts, and after finding it plausible, decide to compete against each other in a homemade hovercraft racing contest. Adam, along with Tory and Christine (dubbed Team Savage), built the heavier Lillypad Flyer, while Jamie, Scottie, and Kari (dubbed Hyneman's Heroes) worked together to make the Hyneman Hoverboard.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| An average person can build a home-made makeshift hovercraft on a budget of under $500.00. |
Partly Plausible |
While they did cheat and go slightly over-budget both Adam and Jamie built two separate functional hovercraft. While Adam's "Lilypad Flyer" and Jamie's "Hyneman Hoverboard" were both rather impractical they worked nonetheless. It was also disputed whether or not the hovercrafts could be properly labeled as levitation machines. |
[edit] Episode 18 — "Beat the Radar Detector"
[edit] Plywood Builder
Adam and Jamie test a construction related myth, and also put several other objects said to be able to act as a parachute to the test.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Holding a large sheet of plywood will slow a fall from a building enough to make it survivable. |
Busted |
The fall was almost completely uncontrollable and the impact was still deadly. Even under the best possible conditions the fall was not survivable. Even when the myth was stretched to custom-built constructions of the five individual plies of the plywood, neither Adam's nor Jamie's designs were any improvement. |
| Opening an umbrella will slow a fall from a building enough to make it survivable. |
Busted |
Though different umbrellas did slow a fall, the impact was still deadly. A real parachute was also tested but found to be unable to properly arrest a fall from only 60 feet (18 meters). The best an umbrella can do is hold the person somewhat upright, causing less damage to the head. |
[edit] Beat the Radar Gun
This is the first myth entirely tested by the Build Team.
It is possible to legally beat the police speed radar and/or lidar by…
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| …jingling a set of keys. |
Busted |
The keys had no effect at all. |
| …dangling a disco ball from the rear-view mirror. |
Busted |
The disco ball had no effect at all. It is also illegal (in California, where the show is filmed) to have anything large and obstructive hanging off the rear-view mirror. |
| …dangling CDs from the rear-view mirror. |
Busted |
The CDs had no effect at all, and are also illegal in California. |
| …covering the hubcaps in tin foil. |
Busted |
The tin foil did not have any noticeable effect. |
| …covering the entire car in tin foil. |
Busted |
The tin foil acted as a large reflector and actually enhanced the detection ability of the radar . |
| …jamming the lidar by lining the front license plate with light-emitting diodes (LEDs) |
Busted |
The LEDs were not strong enough to interfere with the lidar. |
| …jamming the lidar by covering the entire car with LEDs. |
Not tested |
While the idea did come up in the brainstorming phase it was too impractical to test on the full-scale car. |
| …jamming the radar by bouncing microwaves at it. |
Busted |
Kari's magnetron failed to jam the police radar. |
| …shooting scraps of tin foil behind the car as chaff. |
Busted |
There were too many rogue variables to get the system to work properly, particularly wind. The car was still detectable and the chaff did nothing to disrupt the radar. This solution would also likely result in a much stiffer penalty for littering. |
| …spinning a wheel of mirrors on top of the car slower than the actual speed of the car. |
Partly Busted |
Tory's device actually tricked the radar into displaying the car as going one or two miles per hour slower, but not enough to help. The device itself was highly impractical. Unlike the rear-view mirror attachments, the roof mounted device was actually not illegal in California. |
| …painting the car matte-black to absorb the radar and light beams. |
Busted |
The all black paint did nothing to reduce the detectability of the car. |
| …painting the car with special radar absorbing paint, like a stealth aircraft. |
Not tested/Not Practical |
The special paint is loaded with iron and goes on like frosting. It was so heavy that the toy car used in the preliminary tests could barely move. It was never properly tested on the full scale car, because it would be more expensive than just paying off any speeding tickets. |
[edit] Episode 19 — "Killer Quicksand"
[edit] Killer Quicksand
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| "Killer Quicksand" like in the movies (i.e. quicksand that slowly sucks any person or animal unlucky enough to fall into it under) really exists. |
Busted |
Quicksand is denser than water; the greater the density of the liquid, the greater the buoyancy of objects within. Adam and Jamie got into the tub of quicksand and were entirely safe, floating with the quicksand about waist-high. They concluded that any victims found in quicksand likely died for some other reason (e.g. exposure to the elements). |
[edit] Appliances in the Bath
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| One can be killed by dropping an electrical appliance into a bath full of water |
Confirmed |
The electrocution effect is increased if the appliance drops farther from the drain or if the water has more salt in it (such as due to urine or epsom salts). They also proved that devices (and probably by extension, sockets) with GFCIs are effective at preventing these electrocutions, as a GFCI-equipped hairdryer cut off on contact with the water. |
[edit] Exploding Tattoo
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Tattoos can explode when exposed to an MRI. |
Busted |
The compounds in the pigments of most tattoos simply do not react to magnetic fields. Old pigments of the color black, which had iron in the composition, could cause some discomfort at most. |
| Tattoos can explode when exposed to a transmitter |
Not in this episode |
This chapter of the myth was not shown in this episode. See Special 4 — "MythBusters Outtakes". |
[edit] Episode 20 — "Exploding Jawbreaker"
[edit] Exploding Jawbreaker
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A jawbreaker can explode when bitten after being heated in a microwave oven or standing out in the sunlight while still in the wrapper. |
Confirmed |
Microwave heating of a jawbreaker can cause the different layers inside to heat at different rates, yielding an explosive spray of very hot candy when compressed. During one test, a jawbreaker did indeed explode, catching Christine on part of her face and neck, and Adam on part of an arm, as the "jaw rig" they had set up was not enclosed by safety screens. Both suffered light burns. When heated in a toaster oven to replicate the conditions of being left out in the sun, the jawbreaker did not explode, but the insides were molten enough to be potentially harmful. Various explanations for why this could occur, including chemical tainting, all further strengthened the Confirmed assessment. |
[edit] Static Cannon
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A construction worker accidentally killed himself with static charge after sandblasting an 8" PVC pipe. |
Busted |
No static charge built up on the pipe in initial testing. Even after they were converted into a Van de Graaff generator and a Leyden jar, the amount of static electricity produced was too small to actually kill a person. The original circumstances of the myth preclude any significant static buildup—resting the pipe on metal jack stands allows the pipe to discharge to the ground while sand in the air from the sandblasting can dissipate static charge the same way humidity can. |
[edit] Killer Deck
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| An ordinary playing card can actually kill a person if thrown with enough power. |
Busted |
Adam was already fairly adept at throwing cards, his maximum speed being 25mph; this failed to cause any injury. After trying some designs for a card-throwing machine, Adam and Jamie settled on a design that could throw cards at 155mph. When this device was used on Jamie, it caused a small cut that only drew a small amount of blood. |
[edit] Episode 21 — "Ping-Pong Salvage"
[edit] Ping-Pong Salvage
Adam and Jamie explore the possibility of raising a ship with ping-pong balls, originally conceived in the 1949 Donald Duck story The Sunken Yacht by Carl Barks.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Ping-pong balls can be used to raise a sunken ship. |
Plausible |
Even though it took an impractically large number of ping-pong balls (27,000), when enough of them were piped into the Mythtanic II, the boat rose to the surface.(Although it should be noted that it took far fewer balls than they expected.) |
[edit] Carried Away
The Build Team takes on a gag used in many comedic works, where a baby or small child could be lifted into the air and fly away unintentionally when given helium balloons.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A 4 year old child can be lifted by a bunch of party balloons. |
Busted |
It would require such a large number of balloons (3,500) to lift an average four-year-old girl (44 lb.) just a few feet off the ground that there is no way the myth could have happened unintentionally. |
See also Larry's Lawn Chair Balloon from Pilot 3.
[edit] Episode 22 — "Boom-Lift Catapult, AC vs. Windows down"
[edit] Boom-Lift Catapult
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A boom-lift can potentially catapult its operator 200 feet (60 metres), in a concept similar to a traction trebuchet. |
Busted |
When a car engine was dropped from the boom lift it barely even wobbled, much less catapulted Buster (It didn't even "spill his coffee"). In an attempt to duplicate the myth result, the boom lift was converted into a counterweight trebuchet, mounted on several shipping containers to give it clearance to rotate. On its first throw, it threw Buster at a steep (downward) angle towards the ground, and then collapsed between the containers, destroying it. |
[edit] AC vs. Windows Down
Adam and Jamie tackle not so much a myth as what they call an "urban puzzle". The debate arises because both methods of cooling influence a car's fuel efficiency—air conditioning requires a lot of power to run, but at the same time, open windows create drag.
- Revisited in MythBusters Revisited, Season 3, episode 38
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Running a car with air conditioning on is more fuel efficient than running with the windows down. |
Partly Busted |
Tests were performed under varying conditions (55 mph versus 45 mph). Also, the 55 mph test was using a computer to estimate fuel efficiency based on air intake, not actual fuel consumption, and showed A/C was more efficient. The 45 mph test consisted of running the tank until it was empty, and showed open windows were more efficient. This experiment--or one like it--is sometimes cited by the Magliozzi Brothers on Car Talk when presented with this question. |
[edit] Episode 23 — "Exploding House"
[edit] Bug Bomb
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Overusing bug bombs can blow up a house. |
Confirmed |
A house actually exploded in San Diego, California because a family used too many bug bombs and an accidental spark ignited the chemicals in the air, as the MythBusters were able to prove in their test, although it took dozens of bug bombs to produce only a small explosion. |
[edit] Talking to Plants
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Talking to plants helps them grow. |
Plausible |
Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the Mythbusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all. |
[edit] Needle in a Haystack
Adam and Jamie competed against each other in a contest to bust an old adage. While Jamie teamed up with Christine and Scottie in a machine known as Earth, Wind & Fire which burned the hay to leave the needles behind, Adam, Kari, and Tory used the Needlefinder 2000, a machine that relied on water to separate needles from the hay (in the theory that needles would sink in water while hay floated). Each team had to locate four needles among ten bales of hay—three of steel of varying sizes and one of bone. Adam's team won the contest, in great part because his team's machine "processed" their haystack more quickly.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| Modern technology can render the phrase "like finding a needle in a haystack" obsolete. |
Busted |
While it is possible to find a needle in a haystack, even using specialized machines to do so takes a considerable amount of time, particularly since bone needles can't be picked up by magnets. The task is difficult enough to still make the saying viable. |
[edit] Episode 24 — "Ming Dynasty Astronaut"
[edit] Ming Dynasty Astronaut
The MythBusters take on a story, taken from the 1945 book Rockets and Jets by Herbert Zim, describes a Ming dynasty astrologer named Wan Hu and determine whether he really was the first astronaut in space as a result.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A 15th Century astrologer from China made it into space on a throne powered by 47 bamboo rockets. |
Busted |
The combined heat from all 47 gunpowder-powered bamboo rockets caused them to explode, nearly destroying the throne and doing significant damage to the stand-in astrologer (Buster) before it ever got off the ground. A throne powered by 47 modern I-power rocket engines shot violently to one side, due to uneven firing, and weight balance, but would not have had the thrust to lift the chair very far at all, let alone all the way into space. When the testing of this myth was finished, Buster, who had been badly burned and severely damaged, had to be remade. |
[edit] Free Energy
By far the most popular of the submitted myths are myths regarding perpetual motion - it was claimed in an interview by Adam that there was enough material to create three seasons of busting potential free energy machines. The ones that were tested in this episode consist of some of the more well-known such devices - the ring oscillator (referred to as a G-strain amplifier)), the Bedini motor (where the power generated from a motor is used to recharge itself), the Minto Wheel (a solar-powered temperature wheel), and ones that were based on extracting electricity from radio waves (a 100' antenna to utilize radiant energy; this was shown to have produced an electrostatic shock during setup).
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A free energy device can be made to harness enough energy to power a house. |
Busted |
Free energy itself is a scientific fantasy. Almost all of the free energy devices the MythBusters built consumed more energy than they produced and the one 'successful' device (the Minto wheel) only produced enough electricity to power half a wrist watch screen, and was ridiculously large for such a small amount of energy. One test (different than the included radio device), cut for time and shown on "MythBusters Outtakes" involves coils of baling wire being used to siphon off electricity from nearby PG&E power lines in the Santa Cruz Mountains. |
[edit] Ceiling Fan Decapitation
The myth of decapitation by jumping into a ceiling fan has two versions, both of which were tested: jumping up into the blades from below and jumping forward so as to carry your neck into the blades from the side.
| Myth statement |
Status |
Notes |
| A regular house fan can cause decapitation. |
Busted |
Normal household fans do not have the power even to inflict serious injury while spinning at top speed—they are more likely to break first. An industrial fan is capable of inflicting a fatal injury, but is not powerful enough to take a head off. Even a purpose-built razor-sharp, stainless steel fan powered by a lawn mower engine could not completely sever a head from the neck. |
[edit] External links
