| Bgcolour: |
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| Num Episodes: | 28 (includes 2 specials) |
| Network: | Discovery Channel |
| Prev Season: | 2005 season |
| Next Season: | 2007 season |
| Episode List: | List of MythBusters episodes |
The cast of the television series MythBusters perform 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).
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Original air date | Overall episode No. |
|---|
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, the myth apparently was considered too controversial by Discovery Channel, which thought testing the myth could provoke prisoners to try similar things.
Kari, Tory, and Grant tested to see if vodka...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...can remove cigarette smoke smell from clothes. | Plausible | The difference was noticeable between the control jacket and the one sprayed with vodka before washing. Grant described the control jacket as having an "oaky smell" to it, while on the vodka jacket, he could not detect such a smell. |
| ...can kill bees like an insecticide. | Busted | The control water killed more bees (two) 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 (though they seemed to fly in a weird manner as if they were drunk). |
| ...can be used as a bathroom cleaner. | Plausible | Vodka proved to be less effective than a commercial bathroom cleaner but still serviceable. |
One widely circulated photo showed a systematically and neatly sliced Piper PA-44 Seminole. The damage was caused by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...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 runaway engine and stand-in tail section produced a result that was almost identical to the shredded plane seen in the photo. The incident was later confirmed as having taken place, with the photo coming from a newspaper article in Australia. Furthermore, the accident, which happened in August 2001 at Parafield Airport near Adelaide, occurred after a pilot tried to hand-start a Saratoga after its electrical system went flat, inadvertently sending the plane running amok and crashing into five other planes, including the Seminole in the myth's photograph.[1] This supported something Adam and Jamie had learned during the course of testing the myth, which was that modern airplanes do sometimes need to be hand-started if that happens and can run away if someone is not at the controls. |
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 gunpowder, with a stick in place of a drillbit, the friction from the drill did light the tinder on fire. This myth was tested legitimately in the 2012 season's "Duct Tape Island" with a bamboo bow drill and duct tape string. | |
| ...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 steel wool and the ends of a battery. | Confirmed | It took several tries, but the ends of the battery eventually heated the steel wool (through electric resistance) enough to light it on fire. A clip from a survivalist TV show with Ron Hood also showed this myth to be 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. |
This was the third episode where myths from previous episodes were revisited, as well as the third episode to focus on just one experiment.
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 the MythBusters' 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 5feet away, or the full-scale version, where the object was to ignite a replica trireme from 100feet 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 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, led by Professor David Wallace, 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 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:
The MythBusters also addressed fans' criticisms that suggested they try to light the ships' sails instead of the body of the ship, and showed the sails diffused the light due to their composition and the wind blowing against them, thus they could not be as easily set on fire compared to the body of the ship.
The myth would be visited a third time in 2010 in the President's Challenge, only to be re-busted.
Adam and Jamie took on a myth prevalent around football circles, made more prevalent during the time of prolific punter Ray Guy, whose kicks carried so much distance and had so much hangtime, some had suspected the footballs he used were filled with helium.
The Build Team takes on the bullet catch magic trick and sees whether it is possible to do the trick for real.
The Build Team took on a piece of American folklore regarding Benjamin Franklin's discovery of lightning as electricity. The folklore description is not historically accurate (as mentioned by the Build Team), although it is a popular misconception.
In this myth, Adam and Jamie tested some of the more prevalent myths based on flatulence. Throughout the myth, the MythBusters were careful to use only the scientific term "flatus" as opposed to the more common "fart", to prevent coming off as insensitive to the viewers (although "fart" had been used and aired uncensored by the MythBusters before and since).
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flatulence can be induced by consuming beans. | Confirmed | While Adam consumed a diet of beans for one day, his rate of flatulence doubled. | |
| Flatulence can be induced by consuming carbonated soft drinks. | Confirmed | While Kari consumed only carbonated drinks for one day, her rate of flatulence doubled. | |
| Flatulence can be induced by consuming beef. | Busted | Jamie's rate of flatulence did not change after he consumed a diet of beef for one day. | |
| It is possible to flatulate so much, 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. |
This is also referred to as "Flatus Burning."
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 did not affect anyone but John the Researcher. The vodka still gave no results. | |
| ...painlessly remove plastic bandages. | Plausible | Both a control bandage and a 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 used as an improvised ice pack when mixed with water in a sealed plastic bag. (This myth was not seen in the version aired in the US.) | Confirmed | After the mixture was put inside the refrigerator overnight, the vodka (which has a lower freezing point than water) prevented the water from freezing, making the mixture cold and malleable. When tested against a commercial ice pack for twenty minutes, the mixture worked just as well, although the commercial ice pack was slightly better by about half a degree Celsius or one degree Fahrenheit (about 18.3°F for the commercial ice pack against 19.4°F in the vodka/water mixture). Tory even joked after the test that the mixture could make a good slushie to drink after use. | |
| ...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. |
This was the fourth episode in which myths were retested (counting the Archimedes Death Ray revisit).
The MythBusters revisited the Confederate Rocket myth with some new information from viewers. This was revisited in "More Myths Revisited".
At the insistence of viewers, the team retested the popular arrow-splitting myth seen in the film The Adventures of Robin Hood.
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 under water?
This myth originated from the episode "Do-It-Yourself, Mr. Bean" of the British comedy series Mr. Bean starring Rowan Atkinson.
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. Tory wore the helmet for two tests. The first was an attempt at a local coffee shop to give his order to the clerk without telling her, which failed (although the women behind him claimed to receive the message he was trying to broadcast). In the second attempt, he attempted to make Jamie remove his trademark beret, with no effect, while Jamie was filming the wrap-up for Facts About Flatulence. (Tory, in fact, is visible in the rear of the shot during that episode, wearing the helmet.) | |
| ...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, no actual predictable control of the mind's state occurred. Also, the magnet may have affected the EEG machine's readings. | |
| ...subliminal sound. | Busted | The test failed to produce any effects. | |
| ...remote hypnosis. | Partly 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. However, a later myth busts the possibility that one could coerce another person into doing something against his will through hypnosis, so while someone's brainwaves can be influenced through hypnosis, true "mind control" cannot be achieved with it. |
This myth came from New Zealand in the early 1930s, where an epidemic of exploding pants had rampaged, injuring and even killing farmers.[3] The culprit was a then-unfamiliar chemical substance that farmers began using in large quantities at the time.
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 were ways found on the Internet that one can supposedly beat this conglomerate and get cheap, easy, and spectacularly improved fuel efficiency for cars. The cars were a Toyota Camry and an Oldsmobile Toronado.
Theories were tested to see if cheap fuel efficiency can be achieved with...
| Myth statement | status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...carburetor magnets. | Busted | There was no change to fuel efficiency. | |
| ...acetone mixed with the gasoline. | Busted | The acetone was less fuel efficient. | |
| ..."miracle carburetor" supposed to get 300 miles per gallon. | Busted | This was far less fuel efficient. | |
| ..."water fuel cell". | Busted | The cell did not 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 is no word on damage to the engine from using used cooking oil, a Mercedes-Benz diesel-fueled car did run on it. However, the MythBusters speculated that once this alternative fuel achieves a significant interest level among the public, used cooking oil will be hoarded as a marketable 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.) |
The MythBusters tested the validity of some Hollywood heist scenes, using a purpose-built "assault course" with Grant operating the security system as mission controller, while two "crack teams" (Adam and Jamie, plus Tory and Kari) attempted alternate myths.
Though present in a number of movies, the myth came primarily from the movie Firetrap, in which Max Hopper (Dean Cain) scales a duct silently using magnets. Adam and Jamie were tasked with the entry phase—scaling a 20-foot air duct stealthily. After each had devised his own system, they tested whether a person can surreptitiously scale an air duct by using a system of...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...magnets. | Busted | Jamie's "supermagnets" (ten 500lb strength ones) could hold his weight and allowed him to make it to the top of the duct, but they caused far too much noise on the way up to allow for a stealthy entrance. | |
| ...suction cups. | Busted | Adam's suction cups were able to hold his weight as well and were relatively much quieter than Jamie's magnets, but the climb was still clearly audible. Furthermore, the mechanisms Adam used to control the vacuums often failed, which caused him to slip and fall down the vent, blowing his cover. He did, however, make it to the top of the vent, once he perfected the method of operating the device in sequence to his steps up the vent. Finally, breaking through the grate of the air duct at the end was much too noisy, also blowing his cover. |
Before Grant started the myth, he stated that he found that the highly visible, brightly colored light beams seen in movies do not exist in the real world, as not only would it defeat the purpose of making the laser system hard to get around, but real light moves far too quickly to be seen by the naked eye, thereby making such laser systems impossible to create in the first place. In its place, he fashioned a makeshift system using laser pointers that worked on the same principle (breaking the beam sets off the alarm).
Each part of the myth came from the movie Entrapment—specifically, the scene where Gin Baker (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and Mac MacDougal (Sean Connery) infiltrate Bedford Palace to steal a priceless mask. Kari and Tory took this on as their first challenge and tested whether a person can successfully navigate a system of laser beam detectors by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...blowing cosmetic powder across the beams to identify their position, as Gin did with the final beam. | Busted | While visible beams can be seen, they are detectable only when the powder is airborne, which is not very long. Also, as Kari found, blowing too much powder can cause enough of the beam to break and set off the alarm. Furthermore, most laser systems use invisible infrared laser trip beams. | |
| ...using night vision goggles (inspired by Mac's use of a night vision camera to navigate Gin). | Busted | None of the beams are visible through the goggles—Tory was able to see only the points where the beams were hitting. He said that the goggles actually made it harder to get through the lasers because of their effect on his peripheral vision. | |
| ...pointing another laser at the photodetector—another technique that Gin used once. | Busted | While the technique is workable enough with visible-beam systems, the fact that infrared beams cannot be readily detected or traced makes locating the relevant photocells too difficult in a real-world situation. |
After getting through the visible lasers, Kari and Tory faced the real-world equivalent: infrared photo-beam detectors. They tested the following methods:
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...the Entrapment techniques (cosmetic powder, night vision goggles, or both) | Busted | Neither Kari's makeup nor Tory's night vision goggles helped them see the infrared beams, and while a combination of the two allowed Tory to catch a momentary glimpse of the infrared beams, Kari still found that she had a problem in that it was still possible to break the beam by blowing too much powder forward. | |
| ...using an optical doorway | Busted | In a scene not shown in some versions of the episode, Kari built an apparatus that deflected the beams from mirror to mirror until it reached the receptor while creating a doorway that she and Tory could walk through. However, the device was massive, and just sticking it in was enough to set off the alarm. When Grant temporarily disabled the alarm to give them time to set it up, it did work, but it was deemed busted due to its impracticality. |
To access the jewelry room, Adam and Jamie tested whether glass doors can be breached silently (i.e., without setting off a sonar alarm trained to detect smashing). This was inspired by films often featuring scenes where cat burglars cut holes in glass and remove them with suction cups. Adam and Jamie tested the following techniques in an hour-long practice session and during the test itself:
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...gently cutting the glass and removing it with a suction cup | Busted | The suction cup could not remove the glass. | |
| ...thermal shock (extreme hot and then freezing cold to fracture glass along a circular groove) | Busted | When Jamie tried it during a practice run, the method failed catastrophically, so it was not used in the actual test. | |
| ...tapping a hole in the glass | Busted | Although it did work, it was far too noisy and set off the alarm during the test. | |
| ...drilling a hole | Partly busted | The drilling caused some noise but not enough to trip a sonic alarm. It did, however, cause the entire glass panel to break, but because it was tempered and laminated, the glass held together. Jamie then used pliers to pick out the pieces until an arm-sized hole could open up, allowing access to the doorknob on the other side, but it was a near-impossible task to do consistently. |
This myth also came from Entrapment and is the final act of the Bedford Palace mask heist. Tory and Kari faced this as their final challenge, attempting to retrieve a golden Buster idol while testing whether a person can successfully fool a pressure sensor under a glass case by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...squeezing in a knife between the glass and sensor and using a piece of gum to hold the sensor in its original position, as Gin did. | Busted | The sensor is extremely sensitive. Even the slight lifting of the case needed to insert the knife can set it off, and it took three attempts just to get the knife in. Also, the freshly chewed gum is too pliable to keep the sensor held down once the knife is removed. | |
| ...squeezing in a knife between the glass and sensor and using duct tape to hold it in place. | Plausible | This was Plan B in case the movie myth was busted, as Tory reasoned that they would bring tape if they were in a heist. If one can get the knife in without setting it off, the knife can then be held in place with tape to keep the sensor depressed. | |
| ...overloading the pressure sensor. | Plausible | In a segment not shown in some versions of the episode, right before the safecracking, Adam set off a pressure sensor that Grant installed on the floor right in front of the safe. He successfully overloaded it, though, turning the pedestal that had held the Buster idol on its side and putting it on the sensor to overload it. |
As their final challenge, Adam and Jamie were tasked with cracking a safe that turned out to contain a golden jeweled scepter. Adam took the lead and tested whether a safe can be quickly cracked by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...using a stethoscope. | Busted | Modern safes are designed with this old technique in mind, and the tumblers proved too quiet to be heard even with amplification. | |
| ...drilling a hole and visually causing the tumblers to fall into place. | Plausible | After prying off the safe knob, with help from a borescope and a length of piano wire, Adam managed to crack the safe, but it would take time that may not be available to a surreptitious safecracker (for Adam, 45 minutes), especially given the fact that the safe for the test was rated to be crackable by a professional safecracker in only 5 minutes—although most safecrackers are not normally required to be quiet in doing so. |
In a final twist, Grant and Tory challenged Adam to scale a 23-story building by using his suction cups as a cat burglar might in order to get to a helicopter on the roof.
A popular saying states that sugary cereal is less nutritious than its box.
Note: Adam and Jamie admitted in an interview that they tried an earlier test of this myth using rats in cooperation with a university. However, of the three groups they used, they found that one of the rats in the group fed cardboard ate the others in the sample when they returned. The decision was later made by Discovery to leave the segment unaired.A diagram by Leonardo da Vinci blueprints a steam-powered cannon that Archimedes supposedly built.
This is also referred to as "Which has the whitest teeth." This myth was less a challenge than an inside joke. The MythBusters received many emails from fans complaining about Adam's brown teeth. This was not aired in the US. However, on the Discovery Europe version, it is included in the episode.
Whirlpools are an ancient maritime fear. According to the myth, a tidal whirlpool can sink...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...a container ship. | Busted | For this to happen, the whirlpool would have to be significantly stronger than any maelstrom ever recorded. When tested at the appropriate scale, the whirlpool did not have any noticeable effect on a model container ship. | |
| ...a fishing trawler. | Busted | While the scale test did affect a model fishing trawler more visibly than the container ship, the most it did was buffet the model and knock it slightly off-course. Even then, it was not enough to capsize the model, let alone sink it. | |
| ...a person. | Plausible | A whirlpool can generate a vortex large enough to pull down a swimmer and, especially if combined with the effects of dizziness and disorientation (which caused Adam to vomit after mere seconds), induce drowning. The MythBusters tested only according to the most powerful maelstrom ever recorded, and they did not determine the minimum size needed to submerge a swimmer. |
A fan claims that he saw a car capsize when a snowplow passed by in the opposite direction at high speed.
This is the first segment not to be assigned a "busted", "plausible", or "confirmed" rating, as there was no myth to be proved or disproved. Adam and Jamie did the tests simply to dissect the process and determine what actually makes a so-called Diet Coke and Mentos eruption, such as the ones seen on Kari's FHM shoot and on EepyBird.com. However, they did compare their results to the many differing theories given by experts as to how the geyser works, "busting" all of them. (None of the theories had the full list of contributing factors for the geyser, only partial explanations.)
The MythBusters also set a new record for the cola geyser at just over 30feet by using a nozzle, beating the previous record of 18feet, set by the person who popularized the phenomenon, Steve Spangler. They extended the geyser to 34feet by using rock salt, which is more porous and hence provides even more nucleation sites per area than Mentos.
In this episode, Adam and Jamie also created homemade pyrotechnics using water, liquid soap, and methane, and smoke bombs from saltpeter and sugar; demonstrated a way to blow the canister off a stack of Pringles chips by using hydrogen gas, leaving the chips intact; and assembled a dry ice bomb. Adam also implies that more improvised explosives may be tested for a future episode. Despite the "do not try this at home" disclaimers, the MythBusters concluded that Diet Coke and Mentos geysers are safe enough for people to try, even for children (with the exception of getting into trouble by their parents).
A spinoff myth was tested in "More Myths Revisited".
As opposed to the earlier "Crimes and Myth-Demeanors", which focused on security systems as seen in movies, the MythBusters attempted to break real-world security systems, which were all installed in the original assault course.
Fingerprint readers take a sample of a fingerprint and match it with an approved-person database. The particular door-mounted scanner tested optically samples the fingerprint, and it had some extra "liveness-sensing" features that supposedly looks for pulse, body heat, and sweat (though, in the end, the door-scanner ended up being fooled much easier than the low-tech fingerprint scanner on Jamie's laptop).
The process was twofold—first, obtaining the thumbprint for the lock (which Kari did by tricking Grant into copying a stack of CDs, thus giving them a copy of the master print) and then devising a method of successfully transcribing the fingerprint to the point that it could be used to bypass the lock. Adam and Jamie used various techniques before finding a technique involving copper-coated circuit boards, acetate, acid washing, and manually amplifying the lines in the fingerprint to their original quality.
After that, the two of them transcribed Grant's thumbprint onto various mediums and then tested whether the biometric fingerprint lock could be cracked by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...a copy of an approved fingerprint etched in latex. | Confirmed | Adam first planted the latex on his own thumb to give it warmth and pulse and then found that licking the latex sample (to simulate sweat) was enough to fool the scanner. This allegedly marked the very first time that particular lock had been broken. | |
| ...a ballistics gel copy of an approved fingerprint. | Confirmed | Jamie was also able to fool the sensor after adding some moisture to the ballistics gel print. | |
| ...a paper copy of an approved fingerprint. | Confirmed | Licking the paper sample (to simulate sweat) was enough to fool the scanner. |
Thermographic cameras note any changes in the temperature gradient within its field of view (as seen in the 1992 film Sneakers). Kari, Tory, and Grant tested whether a thermal motion sensor can be fooled by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...cooling the body down using a CO2 fire extinguisher. | Busted | Not only was the sensor not fooled, but using a fire extinguisher on a person is dangerous. | |
| ...a neoprene diving suit. | Busted | The neoprene suit did insulate Tory's body heat from his surroundings—until the suit itself warmed up. | |
| ...being covered in mud. This was inspired by a technique used by Dutch Schaefer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to fool Predator thermal sensors. | Busted | Like the neoprene suit, this worked only until the mud warmed up from body heat. Also, Tory left behind mud tracks while attempting this, making him easier to track. | |
| ...heating the room to body temperature. | Busted | Heating the room from the ceiling immediately set off the sensor, while heating the room from the ground did not. However, the sensor was still sensitive enough to detect the difference between human body temperature and the ambient temperature. They also attempted piping the heat in from below and then having Grant strip down to his boxers (as close to naked as he dared in an attempt to emit exactly 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but that was also unsuccessful. | |
| ...wearing a highly insulated fire proximity suit. | Confirmed | In a scene not shown in some versions of the episode, they found that the suit blocked the body heat, preventing the sensor from seeing the wearer. However, a small breach in the suit around Tory's buttocks area triggered the sensor when pointed towards it. Despite that, though, he found he was able to beat the thermal camera by entering the room backwards. | |
| ...placing glass between the intruder and the sensor. | Confirmed | Glass blocks out the longer wavelength infrared light used by thermal imaging systems. Kari and Grant were successfully able to hang a pane over the camera by using a clamp and drop right into the room. |
Ultrasonic motion detectors note any Doppler shifts caused by a moving intruder. Kari, Tory, and Grant tested whether an ultrasonic motion detector can be fooled by...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...wearing thick-padded clothing. | Busted | To test this, Kari made a Big Bird-like costume-cum-stealth suit out of a thick yellow rug, but the sensor was still able to pick up her movement. | |
| ...wearing a suit made of fiberglass. | Busted | Kari made a second suit made of the said material, but the alarm went off the instant she set foot in the room. | |
| ...holding a bedsheet in front of oneself. | Confirmed | The bedsheet absorbed enough of the ultrasonic waves to mitigate any return signals. | |
| ...moving extremely slowly. | Confirmed | Although it took Kari 20 minutes to cross a relatively short hallway, she moved slowly enough to stay below the detector's sampling threshold. |
This myth was based on a scene from the movie The Score, where Nick Wells (Robert De Niro) uses this technique to break into a safe containing a glass relocker.
The MythBusters tested one of Nikola Tesla's publications.[5]
Kari, Tory, and Grant began by examining the news story that 24-year-old Philip Quinn had been killed two years beforehand in his trailer home in Kent, Washington after he heated a lava lamp on his stove, only for it to blow up and send a glass shard into his chest. This earned them the moniker of "MSI: Myth Scene Investigation", an homage to CSI. They eventually tested whether the following can potentially blow up with lethal consequences if heated on a stove by heating the material in question on a stove and placing a ballistics gel torso with an actual human ribcage and a fake heart near the stove so that they could examine potential injuries:
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...a lava lamp | Confirmed | All lava lamp tests produced violent reactions, with the reactions differing depending on the lamp's design:
| |
| ...a can of beans | Confirmed | The cans of beans tested exploded with force proportional to the size of the can. Larger cans explode more violently than smaller cans, especially since large cans do not have a weakened pop-open top, but the Build Team concluded that any can of beans on a stove is potentially lethal. | |
| ...a can of potted meat (such as Spam) | Busted | Though the can of potted meat exploded rather violently, the explosion did not have enough force to be deemed lethal. | |
| ...a large glass jug of milk | Plausible | The jar of milk exploded violently, though not with a large amount of force. The Build Team concluded that an exploding jar of milk could be lethal if a person happened to be standing over it. |
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A piece of straw can penetrate all the way through a palm tree if propelled by hurricane-force winds. | Busted | Propelling a piece of straw at a palm tree at a distance of 50cm (20inches) at 320mph (the world record for recorded wind speed at ground level), the straw managed to penetrate the tree only a quarter of an inch. Even firing at the tree while it was bent (to increase the size of the pores in the surface of the tree) at point-blank range added no additional distance into the tree. A piece of reed was tested as the sturdiest organic object that might be mistaken for a piece of straw. At both ranges, the reed managed to go only about two inches into the tree. Additionally, Jamie tried a piece of piano wire, and at 50 cm, it flew not only through the tree but also through a sheet of plywood on the wall behind it, partially embedding itself into the concrete wall. | |
| Wind alone can blow the feathers off a chicken. | Busted | Even wind speeds faster than those ever recorded could not remove any of the feathers of a tethered chicken. The whole bird would more likely be blown away completely. |
The Build Team tested world-renowned polygrapher Cleve Backster's theory of primary perception.
Adam, Jamie, Buster, and the Build Team are watching movie myths they have done in the past, and they decide to dedicate a whole episode to them. This episode is a two-hour special.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Dukes of Hazzard A car can jump a significant distance using a pile of soil as a ramp and land with minimal damage or loss of momentum. | Busted | The car managed to jump 172feet, 3feet short of the estimated span of the gorge jumped in the movie. However, the car crashed nose-down and the front and engine were crumpled, busting the myth (and the car). It is somewhat widely known that stunt cars are often heavily damaged by bigger jumps and must subsequently be scrapped (see The General Lee). | |
| Big Trouble in Little China A lock can be broken by shooting it with handguns. | Busted | The 9-mm pistol and the .357 Magnum failed to open either the padlocks or the deadbolts. | |
| Various movies: A lock can be broken by shooting it with shotgun slugs or high-powered rifle ammunition. | Plausible | Both types of ammunition were able to disable the locks by completely obliterating them. However, the MythBusters note that this lock-busting method would be very dangerous in real life due to ricochet or spalling. Because of this hazard, military and SWAT units use a special shotgun cartridge called a breaching round to break through doors. | |
| Goldfinger or Austin Powers in Goldmember: A car can be equipped with a discreet ejector seat. | Plausible | A pneumatic ejector seat fitted into a boxy Toyota car seemed to fool most of the people who inspected it, and the seat successfully launched a test dummy out of the car. However, the design of the car plays a huge role in concealability, which is why Jamie and Adam opted for a roomier, boxier car rather than one of the flashy and sleek sports cars often seen in spy movies. Sports cars have windshields that extend partially over the front seats, making it difficult for an ejector seat to properly launch without hitting the frame. | |
| Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom A person can fall through layers of awnings and survive. | Plausible | Buster was broken into pieces during the fall, but he "survived" his fall (according to the shock sensors) with less-than-lethal (but still serious) "injuries". Tory then demonstrated the movie method of using pre-cut awnings and safety wires (after Adam was prevented by the show's insurance from doing it himself). | |
| Underworld One can escape through a floor by shooting through it in a circular pattern. | Busted | A fully automatic MP5 failed to break through the support beams underneath the floor in any reasonable amount of time, even with the assistance of a 12-gauge shotgun. Tory also had to fire all 360 of his rounds of ammunition to even come close to breaking through. Finally, due to the close proximity of the shots to the shooter, flying debris and the possibility of ricochets make this method extremely dangerous. | |
| The Count of Monte Cristo A sword can cut off the blade of another sword. | Busted | The team tested impacts between various types of swords. A genuine Japanese-constructed katana sliced through a replica stainless-steel sword, and it also broke a genuine sword through stress fracturing. The katana bent a rapier until it snapped, but it did not cut through the blade. When a Claymore struck the katana, the katana flexed but did not break. A Viking sword then severely nicked the claymore. In the end, though some swords did break, none of them were actually "cut" by the impacting sword. A spinoff myth was tested in "More Myths Revisited". | |
| Unofficial Myth: The MythBusters really know how to ruin a movie. | Confirmed | Tory storms out at the end of the special and says, "You guys 'really' know how to ruin a movie", to which Adam replies, "That's confirmed." |
A compressed air cylinder can...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...blast itself through a concrete wall. | Confirmed | Once the MythBusters constructed a launch tube and perfected shearing off the cylinder's valve, the cylinder shot entirely through their constructed cinder block wall and damaged the solid concrete wall behind it. The MythBusters were also aware of recorded instances of such a thing happening. | |
| ...power a speedboat. | Busted | The two cylinders could only propel the modified speedboat 120feet at a maximum of 5lk=inNaNlk=in. A second attempt resulted in the boat barely making half the distance and barely registering any speed at all. |
This was the fifth episode where myths from previous episodes were revisited.
This marked the first time a confirmed myth was disputed. In this case, the claim was that the rocket launched not due to the two-part hybrid reaction but simply due to the release of the pressurized nitrous oxide.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is more fuel efficient to drive a pickup truck with its tailgate down, rather than up. (From Tailgate Up vs. Tailgate Down) | Re-busted | Using a calibrated fuel flow gauge, Adam and Jamie first re-busted the Tailgate Up vs. Tailgate Down myth, then went on to test various other truck configurations (hard top, mesh tailgate, and no tailgate). | |
| A plastic mesh tailgate provides superior fuel efficiency compared to the standard metal tailgate. | Confirmed | Again using a calibrated fuel flow gauge, Adam and Jamie proved that the mesh was the most efficient way to configure a pickup truck. The fans stated that the truck mesh was the worst tailgate to use, which the MythBusters proved wrong. |
The MythBusters tested the following myths concerning standard disposable butane lighters.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A lighter can explode when placed under a welding tool. | Confirmed | The heat generated from the welding tool was hot enough to cause the plastic lighter to melt and release its fuel, which ignited, causing a small explosion. |
| A lighter can explode when put in a laundry dryer. | Busted | A lighter was left in a running laundry dryer but suffered no significant damage and therefore did not explode. |
| A lighter can explode when hit with a golf club. | Partly confirmed | Hitting a lighter with a golf club did not make the lighter explode, but when the MythBusters decided to hit the lighter while it was lit, it exploded rather violently. |
| A lighter can explode on a car dashboard. | Busted | The lighter was put in a toaster oven to simulate the maximum temperature that the interior of a car can reach, around 180°F. There was no reaction for several hours, and the lighter finally exploded when the MythBusters ramped the temperature up to over 350°F, well above any temperature that can be expected in the interior of a car in atmospheric conditions. |
| A single lighter can be lethal if it explodes. | Busted | The MythBusters placed a lighter in a pair of jeans on a pig carcass used as a human stand-in and put it under a welding tool. The sparks and heat from the tool managed to set the pants on fire and burn the flesh but failed to ignite the lighter. |
| 500 lighters packed inside a car can explode with lethal force. | Plausible | The MythBusters placed 500 lighters in a car and slowly heated it up. One by one, lighters began to rupture and release gas fumes. When the MythBusters finally triggered an igniter, the gas fumes exploded, blowing out all of the windows and setting the car on fire. The myth was deemed possible as long as a suitable ignition source is present. |
Using a Colt Peacemaker and a Navy revolver, the MythBusters tested whether an Old West gunslinger could...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...drop a coin and fire his pistol five times before it hits the ground. | Busted | Using replicas of actual Wild West pistols, Grant, Kari, and Tory attempted the stunt themselves. However, Grant and Kari were unable to clear the pistols from their holsters in time, and Tory was able to get off only one shot. Grant then built a device that showed that the pistols consistently jammed when the MythBusters tried to fire them so quickly. The MythBusters finally turned to a professional gunslinger, Larry Hamby, but he could fire only three shots, and he stated that firing five in that period of time would be "extremely difficult". With no results, the myth was busted. |
| ...shoot a hole through a silver dollar. | Busted | The MythBusters used actual period silver dollars for the test. A professional gunslinger proved that hitting the coin was possible (if thrown correctly, on the first try) by piercing a lead coin. Both the Peacemaker and Navy revolver were able to only dent the silver dollar. While a .357 Magnum could easily pierce the coin, the myth was busted because the .357 was not introduced until the 1930s—gunslingers did not have access to it. However, retrying the myth with lead coins instead of silver did yield large holes from both period weapons. |
| ...save a man from being hanged by shooting the rope. | Busted | Firing at a rope with the pistols, even at point-blank range, failed to break the rope. The bullets were merely deflected off the rope. A professional gunslinger armed with a more powerful Winchester repeating rifle managed to shoot and break the rope, but it required multiple tries to pull off. With the difficulty involved in shooting and breaking the rope, the myth was considered busted. The gunslinger also commented that it would have been easier to just shoot the executioners. |
This myth was part of a well-known engineering cliché: "Like a lead balloon, you cannot make a concrete glider fly."
See also Lead Balloon.
This is the last episode to use the original opening sequence and the last before filming started in high-definition.
A portion of this myth was revisited in "More Myths Reopened".
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A bullet can be shot into the empty chamber of another revolver. | Confirmed | The MythBusters were actually able to fire a bullet straight down the chamber of the test revolver. The bullet went in and lodged itself inside the chamber, matching the picture they had. | |
| A sniper can kill another sniper by shooting straight through the scope. (see Carlos Hathcock) | Busted | Using a police industry-standard SWAT sniper rifle and standard police match ammunition, the MythBusters fired several shots at a scoped rifle mounted on a ballistics gel dummy. The bullet was unable to hit the dummy. It was either stopped or deflected by the multiple layers of lenses in the scope, leaving the dummy relatively unharmed. Without any clear evidence that a bullet can penetrate a sniper scope, the MythBusters decided to label the myth as busted. This myth was originally labeled "busted", but due to much debate by viewers, it was revisited in episode 75. Using a period-accurate scope (this myth originates from reports of Carlos Hathcock in the Vietnam War), it was found to be plausible. | |
| During the Civil War, two soldiers' bullets collided in midair and fused. | Plausible | The MythBusters first tried to mount two Civil War rifles in front of each other so that when fired, the bullets (lead Minié balls) would collide in midair. However, this proved impossible because they were unable to get the guns to fire at the same time. Instead, they aimed a single rifle at a bullet suspended in the air. The fired bullet hit dead center, and the MythBusters found that both bullets had fused into a single mass. Though very unlikely, it is possible for two bullets to collide and fuse in midair. |
This myth was brought up by concerned viewers, who feared that Jamie was in risk of suffering from the myth each time he banged two hammers together as part of a build.
This myth was revisited in "More Myths Reopened".
This was the first episode to feature the new opening sequence and be filmed in high-definition.
Anti-gravity is a hypothetical force that eliminates the effects of gravity on an object (as opposed to counteracting it). The MythBusters tested various devices that claimed to produce anti-gravity.
Christmas tree fires are common during the winter holidays and cause millions of dollars in damage annually in America alone. The MythBusters tested one hypothesis on the cause of a Christmas tree fire.
The MythBusters test various holiday myths.
If a frozen turkey falls, it can...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...crush a foot. | Confirmed | The frozen turkey completely crushed a ballistics gel foot, breaking many of the simulated bones embedded in it. |
| ...crush a dog or cat. | Plausible | Two ballistics gel replicas of dogs were used and were completely crushed. When they were taken to a vet for analysis, the vet stated that if the dogs managed to survive their injuries, their prognosis would not be good. The myth was deemed plausible because the MythBusters were unwilling (and unable) to test the myth on real animals. |
The following myths state that a turkey can be cooked with...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ...a microwave radio. | Busted | The MythBusters were unable to attach the turkey to a full-size radio antenna, though the manager stated that the antenna used only several watts of power compared to the several hundred used by microwave ovens. The MythBusters then tried to test the myth on a smaller vehicle-mounted microwave dish, but the only heating recorded was from sitting in the sun. |
| ...a radar. | Busted | The MythBusters attached the turkey to the spinning radar antenna on the, but when the turkey was measured, they found that it actually lost heat. Frustrated with the lack of results, Tory inserted an explosive stuffing into the turkey and put it in a microwave, resulting in a large explosion. |
The MythBusters tried several household methods in an attempt to prevent a freshly cut Christmas tree from shedding its needles over six weeks. One can keep needles from falling off the Christmas tree by adding...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...fertilizer. | Busted | Fertilized Christmas trees lost the most needles, and they became very discolored. | |
| ...bleach. | Plausible | The bleach was tied with nitric oxide at fewest needles lost, but the tree looked sickly. | |
| ...lemon lime soda. | Plausible | Lemon lime soda was somewhat effective in retaining needles. | |
| ...pain reliever. | Plausible | Pain reliever was somewhat effective in retaining needles. | |
| ...nitric oxide from Viagra, referred to as "Santa's little helper" on-show as a form of self censorship, and that brand name was never mentioned on the show. | Plausible | The nitric oxide was tied with bleach at fewest needles lost, but the tree looked sickly. | |
| ...hairspray. | Plausible | Though declared the winner for being both the best-looking and among the best in terms of controlling needle loss, the added flammability of the hairspray to the drying Christmas tree could increase the tree's natural fire hazard risk. | |
| ...urethane. | Plausible | Urethane was somewhat effective in retaining needles. | |
| ...nothing (control). | Busted | The tree that received normal water lost more needles than any other tree except the one that received fertilizer. |
The MythBusters created a Rube Goldberg machine using Diet Coke and Mentos.
During World War II, an Allied airman, Alan Magee, fell out of the underside ball turret of his B-17 at 220000NaN0 and survived. The MythBusters test one version of this story. According to the explosives expert used for the episode, this was the largest explosion executed for MythBusters up to that time with 5000NaN0 of dynamite and detcord and was ignited with 2 blasting caps as Adam mentions in the dialog: one for the detcord, and the other for the balloons. The resulting explosion traveled at a velocity of 210000NaN0 per second, destroying the train station and killing the airman, proving that it was impossible for a bomb shockwave and human body to equalize pressure.
Throughout the series, Jamie had always pressured his M5 Industries employees and MythBusters production staff to turn the lights off whenever they leave a room to save electricity. The Build Team tested whether Jamie was correct in his assertion. During this myth, Grant and Kari visited the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department in California to see the Centennial Light.