Mythbusters

[The Chronicler]

Thankfully, unlike the last two times, I was able to watch a version of the new episode that was complete, so no missing final half minute for me this time.

Could someone sitting in one of those large floating rings end up drifting over to a water fountain that then shoots them upwards and leaves them hovering atop that fountain?
Small scale tests showed some interesting hydrodynamics on how to get round objects hovering atop various types and arrangements of water fountains. Once they settled on an ideal design for the full scale experiment, it turned out to be such a massive and complicated project that they decided to call in some help from some of the finalists from The Search, Tamera and Allen to be exact. (To be honest, I had always imagined that if the new series were to later include some additional hosts, much like the so-called Build Team from classic Mythbusters, then those additional people would definitely be among the finalists from The Search, because they had certainly proven themselves to have made it at least that far.) After completing the rig, they then set it up inside a swimming pool at a summer camp (it was off-season there at the time). After trying the series of fountains in the best configurations and pressures they could possibly do, the best they were able to achieve was Buster and the floating ring only starting to rise before flipping over due to the uneven weight distribution. Busted.

Is it possible for a getaway driver to prevent getting stopped by a spike strip?
The first method involved filling the tires with A-B foam, but the many bumps in their obstacle course (after hitting the spike strip of course) caused the rigid foam to crumble and the tires deflated. The next method involved filling the tires with concrete, and although they were certainly resistant to the spike strip, their immense weight prevented the car from going much faster than 35mph, easily slow enough for the cops to catch. The final method was a driving maneuver seen in some movie (I forget what it's called) that involved power sliding to essentially kick away the end of the spike strip, but despite much training for the difficult maneuver and many tries, those spike were still able to take out the tire no matter which way they tried to hit the strip. Busted for all methods.

[The Chronicler]

I've heard that there's supposed to be a total of fourteen episodes this season, so after this most recent episode, there will be only three more left to go. Anyway, on to the latest episode.

Is it possible to blow open a safe with high explosives without destroying the cash inside?
They started by simply blowing up an empty safe, and it was immediately obvious they may have used too much explosives. Back at the shop, a small scale test showed that when a high explosive is detonated, the amount of time when there's an active flame is four times longer in a confined space like the safe than out in the open. Next, using analogue cash (since it's illegal to burn real money), they determined the temperature at which the cash would start to burn, then added small scale cash to the small scale safe and the explosion turned out to be quick enough that virtually none of the case was damaged. Finally at the full scale test, the first explosion turned out to be too powerful as much of the (analogue) cash was scorched and shredded, so next they tried scaling it down (a rather odd occurrence for a Mythbusters final test) to just enough to blow the door off the safe, and amazingly virtually all of the (analogue) cash was unscathed (albeit starting to blow away in the wind). Confirmed.

Do dogs resemble their owners?
This myth was tested in three different ways. First, ten volunteers and their dogs were brought in, but who owned which dog was kept unknown for the test. A dog show judge was brought in to provide accurate descriptions of each dog, and a beauty pageant judge was brought in to do the same for the owners. Once all the details were recorded, they attempted to match the dogs and owners, but ended up getting only one out of ten right. For the second test (with ten different volunteers and their dogs), a police sketch artist was brought in to sketch human portraits based on descriptions of the ten dogs, then they tried to match the sketches with the owners of the dogs they were based on, but they got only two out of ten right. Finally, for the third test, ten different volunteers without a pet dog were asked to choose one of ten available dogs that they would most likely want to keep, then after attempting to match the dogs with potential owners, the volunteers choices were revealed, and only one out of ten picks were correct. Busted.

[The Chronicler]

Although I'll continue with my summaries in spoilers for the remaining episodes of this season, I think that for future seasons, I'll go back to my old form of replies here that consist of just which myths were tested (and maybe I'll use spoiler text just for how it was called and not go into great length of how it was done). Anyway, on to the latest episode.

According to an old idiom, is it possible to knock someone over with a feather?
For the second time this season, Allen and Tamera were brought in to assist. By working in two teams, they came up with all kinds of wacky methods on how they could knock someone over with a feather. Many of them didn't work at all, and they ended up going to some rather absurd lengths before they finally got a couple methods that got at least one success. Confirmed.

Is it possible for a getaway driver to literally drive from the backseat of a car?
After confirming the initial aspects of the myth (a burglar who had broken his legs in his escape managed to drag himself into the backseat of a car left running and uses a walking cane to reach the pedals and make a getaway from the cops), they set up a course in an empty parking lot, and got some advice and training from a police officer who was highly skilled at pursuit. Once everything was set up (including a custom seatbelt for the odd sitting position), They then ran through the course with the police officer giving chase. Out of six runs, they managed to avoid getting stopped four times, though they admit that had the course been just a little longer, the officer would have gotten them every time. Even so, it was quite remarkable how well they were able to control the car like a normal driver, despite the rather awkward seating position. Plausible.

[The Chronicler]

Once again, the holiday season means it's time for the annual mega marathon on the Science Channel. (Thank goodness my dad decided a few months ago to switch to a different provider, so now I'm able to easily watch that channel again.) The marathon will end next Wednesday with the premiere of a new series, Mythbusters Jr., hosted by Adam Savage and six kids. I don't yet know much else beyond that, but it does seem interesting, and I'll be sure to post reviews here after each episode.

[The Chronicler]

Okay, so it looks like the six kids (all at ages 12 to 15) will be divided into different groups to test both myths featured in each episode. At least we got a bit of an introduction to them in the first episode, which was on last night. (I recently found a page that briefly describes each of these kids and what they're good at: https://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/mythbusters-jr/about ) Anyway, onto the myths tested in this week's episode.

Can you make a functional parachute out of duct tape?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Tested by Allie, Valerie, and Elijah, they used a real parachute as a template for making the duct tape version. Once it was completed, the experiment involved dropping Buster from a helicopter. Although the duct tape parachute did technically slow down Buster's fall to a safe velocity, it's heavier weight made it too unstable to remain open to work realistically. Busted.

Is a car driveable if you replace all four tires with duct tape?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Tested by Cannan, Jesse, and Rachel, they wrapped four rims with enough duct tape to fill the same volume of regular tires. For the experiment, Adam instructed 12-year-old Cannan to drive around the course first on regular tires, then on rims, and finally on the duct tape wheels. Cannan's 30 mph test went great, but when Adam tried it at 60 mph, the duct tape wheels began to fail spectacularly. Despite not being very durable, the duct tape wheels definitely performed much better than just the rims. Confirmed.

[The Chronicler]

Good thing I chose to watch the rerun of last week's episode that was on before this week's episode, because I had remembered incorrectly who tested which myths. I've corrected the error, and now on to this week's episode.

If you spray too much air freshener into a car, will an ignition source (electric spark or cigarette lighter) cause the car to explode?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Allie, Valerie, and Jesse started by determining which type of air freshener was most flammable, then did a small scale experiment to see how a container filled with either fully emptied or slowly leaking gas would react to either an electrical spark or the flame of a cigarette and lighter. All possible conditions resulted in an explosion, so for the full scale test with a real car, they went with the much more reliable spark to ignite the gas. However, the amount of gas from a fully emptied can was too rich to create an explosion, and after numerous tries only resulted in a fire. Even so, the slow leak version of the myth indicates a rare possibility that the mix of air and gas could become just right to create an explosion. Plausible.

Does a wet dog lose 70% of the water after just one shake?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Elijah, and Rachel set up the experiment by first weighing the dry dog, then give it a bath and weigh it again while completely soaked, and then letting it shake once and weighing it one more time to determine the percentage of water lost. They started with Cannan's dog, then with some help from (Mythbuster Search finalist) Tamara, got six more dogs of widely different breeds and repeated the experiment for all of them. The finally percentages ranged from as high as 80% to as low as 40%, with an overall average of 63%. Plausible.

[The Chronicler]

I found this week's episode to be quite interesting.

Could a bunch of lithium batteries inside a garbage truck ignite in a chain reaction? (as Adam calls it, "popcorn from hell")

Spoiler: ShowHide

Jesse, Valerie, and Cannan, with assistance from Cannan's older brother Carson, first tested which kind of lithium batteries are more prone to ignition from either pressure, heat, or exposure to water, and while all three methods worked, by far the most reactive battery type was the lithium-polymer pack typically used in RC cars. For the full-scale test, they got an actual trash truck, dumped a bunch of common trash in it with a few lithium-polymer battery packs, and then compressed the trash. The first battery almost immediately ignited, and although it took a while, the spreading flames eventually caused the other batteries to start igniting. Confirmed. (And of course, a very important lesson on why you need to properly dispose of batteries and not just throw them in the trash.)

Does an arrow actually fly straight? In relation, according to the legend of Odysseus, is it really almost impossible to shoot an arrow through twelve ax-head rings lined up?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Allie, Rachel, and Elijah, with assistance from Tamara, observed some shots from a professional archer, and the high-speed video showed just how much the arrow actually bends around while it's in flight. Then after setting up the Odysseus challenge, the professional archer did his best and rarely got much further than halfway. Next, they test fired a compound bow and a crossbow, and while the crossbow produced the least flexing arrows, the compound bow had the tightest grouping, making it best suited for the Odysseus challenge. Once they eventually got the compound bow accurately aimed, they incredibly completed the shot right on the first try. Plausible.

[The Chronicler]

Double new episodes this week!

First episode...

Does an outstretched slinky defy gravity when you drop it?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Jesse, Cannan, and Allie started by simply dropping an outstretched slinky and watching it on the high-speed video, confirming that while the top end drops like normal, the bottom end doesn't move at all until the top end reaches it, possibly due to the elastic force counteracting gravity. To see if a longer stretch has any effect, they added a tennis ball to the end of one slinky and dropped it simultaneously with a regular one. Amazingly, the weighted slinky stayed still longer than the regular one, giving the team the idea to ramp it up further. After further tests showing that adding a second weight to the top end would lengthen the hover time of the bottom weight, they ultimately ended up suspending a car from a bungee cord with a similarly heavy tank of water at the top held up by a crane. Even at that large scale, the car was able to remain completely still for a fraction of a second. Confirmed.

Does a standard #2 pencil have enough graphite to draw a line 35 miles long? Is that same amount enough to write 45,000 words?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Elijah, Valerie, and Rachel tested the first part with two different methods: Valerie and Rachel modified an office printer to have a pencil draw tight zigzags on the paper, while Elijah wrapped the paper around a giant tube and had that tube spin to make the pencil draw a tight spiral. Valerie and Rachel got theirs to go for over 11 miles, while Elijah's got only 3 miles, with the discrepancy due to Elijah sharpening the pencil while Valerie and Rachel had stripped the wood to use all of the graphite. For the second part, after mechanical options turned out to be ineffective, they were forced to just simply write out a single phrase over and over until they reached 45,000 words total, at which point only half of the pencil had been used up. Busted for both parts.

Second episode...

Can a regular domino knock over a series of progressively larger dominoes until there's one big enough to crush a car?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Jesse, and Rachel first determined that the maximum rate at which progressively larger dominoes could knock each other over was a factor of 1.5, which meant that it would take twelve of these increasingly larger dominoes for one to be big enough to crush a car. The first eight of the sequence were easy to set up and test, which helped to identify any probable issues and deal with them. For the final test, although that final domino needed a little extra nudge to topple over and crush the car, that fact that the chain reaction made it that far was still very impressive. Plausible.

In a game of Jenga, if the bottom layer has just one block in the middle, is it impossible to remove it without toppling the whole tower?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Allie, Valerie, and Elijah started by setting up the circumstances of the myth and despite many tries confirmed that it was humanly impossible, so next they decided to try mechanical solutions. After cutting larger blocks in hopes it would be easier, they each came up with different ideas: Elijah had the block attached to elastic bands that would yank the block away upon release, Allie had the block attached to a rope that was attached to her bicycle in hopes of yanking the block away as she as she sped away, and Valerie used a pneumatic flipper to flick the block away. All three efforts failed, but since it turns out the larger blocks meant more weight and in turn more friction, they tried again with the regular blocks, and while the first two efforts failed again, Valerie's method actually worked. Plausible.

[The Chronicler]

Another double episode, so I guess this is what they're doing now.

First episode...

Could spraying canned air into a paper shredder create an explosion?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Allie, Valerie, and Rachel first proved that the propellant from canned air is flammable, but only if the can is held upside down. Next, after disabling the safety features and numerous tests, they determined that an old motor being rapidly switched back and forth would create the most sparking, and the dust from shredded paper adding fuel for a potential explosion. While extreme circumstances, they did result in a small explosion, so naturally, they ramped it up with a monster paper shredder to get a bigger explosion. Confirmed.

Is it impossible to make mayonnaise during a thunderstorm?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Jesse, and Elijah first learned to make mayonnaise, then built a machine to automate the mixing portion for testing the myth. They then isolated the machine inside a chamber to replicate the parameters of a thunderstorm: higher humidity, lower air pressure, and electricity in the air. After testing all three of them separately and then together, there was no effect at all on the mixing process. And with extremes being inconclusive due to the electricity destroying the machine, it's fair to say no sane person at that point would even bother with making mayo. Busted.

Second episode...

Can flatus (farts) fuel a rocket?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Allie, Cannan, and Elijah used a mix of gases measured by Adam in an early Mythbusters episode, and while it wasn't quite as energetic as pure methane, it still provided some thrust. Then, after determining a proper mix of gas to oxygen, they built a small rocket out of a 5-gallon bottle and were able to launch it over 30ft into the air. Plausible.

Can a medical laser ignite a flatus (fart) and start a fire that spreads through the operating room?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Jesse, Rachel, and Valerie were unable to get the laser to ignite a balloon full of the gas, but were able to use it to ignite some of the cloth typically used in an operating room. They set up a room similar to an operating room and built a dummy with a vent for the gas, then tested the scenario where the laser ignites the cloth and the gas spreads the flames. The hydrogen in the gas made it hard to see the flames, but the thermal camera proved that the fire did briefly spread, even though this was still rather unlikely circumstances. Plausible.

[The Chronicler]

Three new episodes last night! If I've been counting correctly, then this should cover all ten episodes that were said to be the total of this season.

First episode...

Can you used a fire extinguisher to control your movement in space?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Jesse, Elijah, and Valerie first confirmed that a fire extinguisher does provide thrust. Next, to simulate the effects in space, they decided to reduce friction as much as possible by riding a hovercraft over newly resurfaced ice at a skating rink. But throughout each test, the fire extinguisher wasn't powerful enough to overcome the initial momentum, and usually didn't last very long anyway. Busted.

Is it really true that no one can hear you scream in space?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Allie, and Rachel started by building a vacuum chamber, then built a rig out of a bellows and a whoopee cushion to fit inside and produce noise. They measured the sound level as the pressure inside the chamber decreased, but the rig's motor interfered with the results, so next they tried a "last breath" type of rig to release one burst of noise at a full vacuum. Despite being very faint, it did produce a detectable noise at close range. Busted.

Second episode...

Can a giant electromagnet cause the level of carnage seen in a certain scene of Breaking Bad?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Elijah, and Allie tested the parameters in small scale and confirmed that a strong magnet can work through any type of wall and can wipe the information from a computer hard drive. However, at the full scale test, hardly anything happened, and that's simply because the magnet's strength decreases exponentially with distance. Busted.

Can you barricade yourself in a room using only the available furniture to keep a bad guy out?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Jesse, Valerie, and Rachel started with the classic chair wedged under the doorknob, and it worked surprisingly well, at least until they brought in professional strongman Tommy who was able to break the door open. Next, they tested two types of rooms. Jesse and Valerie used a detective's office and simply piled up the heavy stuff first with everything else on top, but Tommy was able to break through. Rachel and Adam then used a bedroom and chose to line up the furniture up to the opposite wall, and although Tommy still got through, it certainly took a lot more effort. Plausible.

Third episode...

Can the concept of a bug trap work at human scale?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Jesse, Valerie, and Rachel started by sticking down at lot of bug traps and trying to walk across them, but the paper it was on simply tore apart. Next, they tested the stickiness of various substances and the clear winner was rodent glue. Finally, they spread out a lot of the rodent glue on a large surface and tried to walk or run across it, but all of them very quickly got stuck (good thing they wore protective suits they could just tear away). Confirmed.

Is spider silk really stronger than steel?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Elijah, and Allie started by testing the strength of the thinnest steel wire they could get, then with assistance from a spider expert, acquired 500 spider silk strand to equal the density of that steel wire and repeated the test. The result was that the silk held two and a half times the weight that the steel held. Finally, they ramped it up with 25,000 silk strands and its equivalent density in steel, and again the spider silk held two and a half times the weight. Confirmed.

What are the best methods of stopping ants from passing through?

Spoiler: ShowHide

Cannan, Elijah, and Jesse, after getting some ants from an expert, decided to lay down the repellents in a circle and releasing the ants inside to see if any are able to escape. Busted were chalk, baby powder, clove spice, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Confirmed was olive oil (apparently because oil disrupts their antennae).

[The Chronicler]

I recently found out that Adam Savage will be hosting a new show on the Science Channel, called "Savage Builds". Basically, he's gonna try to build all kinds of crazy things, just to see if they're even possible (for example, the first episode is apparently going to be attempting a fully functional Iron Man suit). The series begins next Wednesday, and I'll definitely be interested in watching it.

[The Chronicler]

Okay, so it looks like there was an adjustment in the scheduling so that the first premiere of these new episodes is actually on the Discovery Channel on Fridays, right after BattleBots, with a second showing on the Science Channel the following Wednesdays.

Anyway, I did watch that first episode last night, and it sure was interesting. Adam had to rely on a whole team of people to assemble the Iron Man suit (based on a model from the movie and made out of titanium), then tested if it was really bulletproof, bomb resistant, and could fly (using a special personal flying rig made of small jet engines).

I haven't yet checked to see what else Adam will be building in this new series, but I'm definitely interested enough to keep watching it.

[The Chronicler]

Sad news... Grant Imahara just passed away...
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/grant-imahara-dead-mythbusters-host-was-49-1303101
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/grant-imahara-mourned-mythbusters-costars-sudden-death-184408256.html

[Sneak]

Just found out about this tragic news, when I decided to rewatch all episodes from the show...

Rest in peace.