| Bgcolour: |
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| Num Episodes: | 22 (includes 3 specials) |
| Network: | Discovery Channel |
| Prev Season: | 2010 season |
| Next Season: | 2012 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 myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments (the myth is Busted, Plausible, or Confirmed). On March 16, 2011, Discovery Channel announced that the 2011 season would commence airing on April 6, 2011.[1]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Original air date | Overall episode No. |
|---|
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is possible to knock a dropped gun out of reach by shooting it with another one. | Confirmed | The Build Team chose three surfaces for testing - a dirt road, asphalt pavement, and a tile floor - and used a typical 9 mm pistol as a target. Grant tested the friction forces on each surface and found that the dirt and asphalt required 1.5 pounds of force to move the pistol, while the tile required 0.5 pounds of force. Using a Glock 9 mm pistol, the team was able to move the target gun a total of 16 feet in all three cases (six shots for dirt, four for asphalt, three for tile). They attributed this result to the effective transfer of kinetic energy from the bullet to the target. | |
| It is possible to start a playground merry-go-round spinning by shooting it. Inspired by a scene in the film Shoot 'Em Up. | Busted | The Build Team built a merry-go-round, placed it on a firing range, and found that 8.6 pounds of force were needed to get it to start turning. They then fired weapons at the outer portion of the handrails: a Glock 9 mm pistol, a Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum, and a .45 pistol. None of their shots turned the merry-go-round more than a fraction of an inch, but they did punch holes through the rails. A 12-gauge shotgun loaded with deer slugs gave the same result. The team added steel plates to the rails in an attempt to stop the bullets and force them to transfer their energy to the merry-go-round. After making this change, they tried another deer slug and managed to turn it by 1.5 inches; a shot from an Armalite AR-50 rifle turned it 8 inches and knocked one of the plates off. At this point, the team declared the myth busted and set about replicating the results, with Tory redesigning the merry-go-round's bearing system to reduce friction and Kari and Grant attaching more bullet-stopping plates. They were finally able to keep the device turning with steady streams of 12-gauge deer slugs and .416 Barrett rifle fire. |
See also: Blue ice (aviation).
The Build Team investigated the ability of everyday objects to reduce the likelihood of injury or death from an explosion. They began by detonating a 31NaN1 charge of C-4, with rupture disks at various distances set to burst at 13psi (injury) and 750NaN0 (instant death). Distances of 10and were found to be the thresholds of the death and injury zones, respectively, due to the blast shock wave.
For each object tested, they placed it at 10 and 20 feet, with rupture disks and a foam-cutout figure (to gauge shrapnel injuries) protected by it. They evaluated the question of surviving the shock wave by taking cover behind...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...a wooden table. | Confirmed | The tables were placed on their side, facing the blast, and the disks and figures were set behind them. Both figures were broken in the blast. The 10adj=onNaNadj=on table was destroyed, but the disks did not burst. At 201NaN1, the table was heavily damaged; the "injury" disk did not burst, but did buckle noticeably. The team noted that shrapnel from the splintered table might cause injury or death independently of the shock wave. | |
| ...a car. | Confirmed | The cars were placed to present one side toward the blast, with the disks and figures behind the front end. No injury was noted at 20 feet, while only the "injury" disk burst at 10 feet. | |
| ...a metal dumpster. | Confirmed | The disks and figures were placed inside the dumpsters. The team observed the same results as for the car and noted that the side toward the blast showed some deformation. | |
| ...a cinderblock wall. | Confirmed | Since the team only had enough time and materials to build one wall, they moved the blast site as needed to achieve the 10- and 20-foot distances. The 20-foot test was performed first; the wall stood, and the disk deformed but did not burst. After the wall was repaired, the 10-foot blast collapsed it and crushed the figure. However, the disks remained intact. |
Adam and Jamie compared movie sound effects to their real-world counterparts by recording samples of both. They looked into the realistic nature of...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...a punch. | Busted | They first hung up a pig carcass and took turns punching it, but had to pull their punches in order to keep from injuring their hands. The results did not resemble the movie sound effects, so Adam attached a ballistic-gelatin fist to a baseball bat and swung it at the carcass full force, with similar results. Sound designer Steve Boeddeker explained that the movie punch was heavily manipulated and built up from various sounds to build drama. | |
| ...a reloading gun. (Not in the version of the episode aired in the US.) | Confirmed | Adam cocked a .45 caliber pistol and its sound closely matched its movie counterpart. Steve explained that this is because modern sound engineers can record sounds of actual guns and save those sounds in a digital library for future use. This can apply to any gun regardless of size and caliber. | |
| ...a rattlesnake's rattle. | Confirmed | Owen Maercks, a snake expert, brought in a rattlesnake and coaxed it to shake its tail, producing a sound very close to its movie counterpart. | |
| ...a gun fitted with a suppressor. | Plausible | Adam and Jamie visited a shooting range and fired .45 caliber and 9mm pistols, both with and without suppressors. With the help of sound expert Roger Schwenke, they found that the suppressor reduced the sound level considerably, from 161 to 126 decibels for the .45. The movie sound effect was not a perfect match, but did have enough similarity to result in a "plausible" verdict. | |
| ...an explosion. | Busted | In the opening sequence of the myth, Jamie blew up a car rigged with primer cord and 20NaN0 gallons of gasoline. He, Adam, and Roger observed that the movie explosion had a longer duration and covered a wider range of frequencies. A second attempt, using 2.20NaN0 of C-4, gave a more substantial blast but still did not match the movie. |
A twist on "Spy Car Escape", with the focus on offensive rather than defensive methods to disable an enemy car. Adam and Jamie tested the use of...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...wheel-mounted spikes. | Confirmed | Jamie built replicas of wheel spikes from the films Goldfinger (a small blade wheel on a long central shaft) and The Green Hornet (a crown-like assembly on the hubcap). He and Adam drove side by side at 400NaN0, with Jamie using a set of devices on his passenger-side tires to damage Adam's driver's side as much as possible over 5000NaN0. Both film designs shredded at least one of Adam's tires and left deep gouges in the bodywork. Jamie then built a new device from a short pipe the same diameter as the hubcap, with the free end sharpened into blades. This design tore up Adam's bodywork, popped one tire, and pulled the other one off its rim, leaving the car sitting on its chassis. | |
| ...a hood-mounted machine gun. | Confirmed | Adam built two mounts to hold a fully automatic paintball gun on the hood of a car – one for a fixed position, and another that could be aimed with a joystick and camera/monitor system. He and Jamie did a control run, with Adam driving and shooting at a target vehicle with a handheld semiautomatic gun, but only scored one glancing hit. Next, Adam mounted a gun and a full ammunition hopper on his hood and chased Jamie, who drove a target car with the rear windshield removed. He was able to riddle the rear end and hit Jamie's head and seat a few times with the fixed mount; in the aimed-mount test, he got so many hits in such a short time that Jamie called an early end to the run. |
Adam and Jamie tested three impromptu remedies for a flat tire in the wilderness, without a spare being available. At a 2-mile off-road hazard course, they set up a typical highway vehicle and cut into one tire. They tried to drive using...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...straw stuffing in the tire. | Plausible | They removed the wheel, stuffed the tire with straw, and re-mounted it. The car performed adequately through one lap, but showed signs of losing its stuffing after the run. Adam and Jamie decided that straw could work as a short-term fix. | |
| ...a makeshift sled under the tire. | Busted | They forced a branch underneath the flat tire, running front to back, and lashed it to the wheel. Although Jamie was able to drive the car forward with a push from Adam, the branch came off at a speed bump. | |
| ...a replacement wheel carved from a log. | Confirmed | They cut a log section to size, made it as round as possible, and mounted it in place of the wheel. It performed well through one full lap, and Adam and Jamie decided that it was the best solution so far. |
Next they investigated ways to remedy a flat tire in an urban setting, setting up a road obstacle course. They tested...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...driving on the rim. (Jamie) | Plausible | After revving the engine until the wooden wheel broke, Jamie mounted a bare rim in its place. Despite the trouble with balance and poor acceleration, he was able to navigate through every obstacle in the course. | |
| ...a manhole cover. (Adam) | Plausible | Adam found a cover that was the same size as the tire, mounted it, and was able to drive the course successfully. | |
| ...driving with all four wheels modified. (Both) | Rims perform better | Adam and Jamie raced side by side on identical courses. Jamie's bare rims gave him better traction than Adam's manhole covers and allowed him to win the race at a steady speed. |
A countdown of the cast's 12 favorite myths involving forms of transportation.
| Name (in countdown) | Myth featured | Comments | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Plane Crazy | Talked Into Landing | "Breaking" a NASA flight simulator | |
| 11 | Out of Control | Instant Convertible | Trouble with setting up crashes (towing, remote control, etc.) | |
| 10 | Fuel for Thought | Don't Drive Angry | Grant and Tory reliving the stress that Kari put them through to test this myth | |
| 9 | 2 Wheels...Are Better Than 4 | Motor Bike Flip, Tablecloth Chaos | Adam and Jamie commenting on two motorcycle-related myths | |
| 8 | RC Freaks | Car Skip | Trouble with remote control systems on cars | |
| 7 | Stunt Driving | Drafting for Money, Knight Rider Ramp, Cyclists Drafting a Big Rig | Specialized driving by the cast. Includes a previously unaired segment from 2007 in which Tory drafts behind a truck while riding a bicycle. | |
| 6 | Controversy Corner | Airplane on a Conveyor Belt | The myth that has generated the most debate among viewers | |
| 5 | Putting It on the Line | Both versions of "Peeing on the Third Rail", from 2003 and 2004 | Adam urinating on camera to help build the original dummy for this myth, then later on an electric fence | |
| 4 | Pimp My Ride | Reverse Engineering | Extreme modifications to cars for testing myths | |
| 3 | Need for Speed | Sonic Boom Sound-Off | Adam vomiting as he breaks the sound barrier during a flight with the Blue Angels | |
| 2 | Taxi! | Supersize Jet Taxi | Testing complicated first by insurance company objections, then by pavement peeling off the runway | |
| 1 | Carmageddon | Adam: Donated Car Explosion Jamie: Ramp Jump Kari: Fixing a Car with Duct Tape Grant: Snowplow Split Tory: Elevator Car Cut | Each cast member's favorite myth involving automotive destruction |
Starting this episode, the theme music is "rearranged and performed" by The Dandy Warhols.
Adam and Jamie investigated three viral videos involving excavators. They tested the machine's ability to...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...row a barge on open water, using the excavator's bucket as an oar. | Confirmed | They set up two excavators (rather than one as shown in the video) on a barge and had a tugboat tow them 0.50NaN0 into San Francisco Bay. Their goal was to keep control of the barge's direction and maintain forward momentum toward the shore. The first attempt failed due to strong currents pushing them into the bay; when they started closer to shore, they were able to row to the dock. | |
| ...spin in place and allow a person tethered to the bucket to wakeboard. | Confirmed (Pure Unadulterated Fun) | Jamie operated an excavator set in the middle of a pond while Adam rode the board. After a few adjustments of bucket height and spin speed, Adam successfully stayed upright. He enjoyed himself so much that he created a special category for this myth: "Pure Unadulterated Fun." | |
| ...load itself into the back of a cargo truck. | Confirmed | Adam met with an expert machinery operator to work out the details of attempting this feat. By carefully manipulating the boom, bucket, and tracks, he was able to lean the front end against the tailgate, then turn the cabin around and lift the rear end off the ground so he could drive into the cargo bed. |
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| If a bear rips a hole in a grounded airplane's fuselage, the pilot can patch the hole with duct tape so that the plane can fly away safely. Based on news accounts of an Alaskan pilot who repaired his plane in this manner. | Confirmed | The Build Team obtained a plane with a fuselage similar to the one on the plane in the actual incident. After they assembled it and watched its owner take a test flight to confirm its airworthiness, Kari used a pair of clawed gloves to shred the relevant portions of the fuselage. As she and Tory started covering the damage with duct tape, Grant worked on the control surfaces needed to keep the plane stable in flight. The plane's owner then taxied on a runway and took off, spending over 30 minutes in the air with no observable deterioration of the tape despite the wind and temperature. | |
| It is possible to construct a workable airplane fuselage skin using only duct tape. | Confirmed | Using the same donated plane, the team ripped off every piece of the fuselage and covered the frame with tape. The removed material weighed the same as 5 rolls, but the team ended up using 17 rolls to build a layered skin intended to resist vibrations and rippling. When the plane was set up in front of a wind machine set to 500NaN0, Grant and Tory saw no damage in the tape. A test pilot then taxied on the runway and took the plane for a short flight at an altitude of 51NaN1, reporting no problems in wind gusts over the plane's original rating of 120NaN0. Grant commented afterward that calmer winds might have allowed the pilot to take a longer flight at a higher altitude. |
The Build Team tested viewers’ claims concerning the toughness of spray-on truck bedliner resin. They investigated its ability to withstand...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...a car crash. | Busted | The team sprayed one half of a car with bedliner, leaving the other exposed, and carried out crash tests. In 60NaN0 front- and rear-end collisions with a concrete barricade, the treated side showed much less damage than the untreated one. However, when Tory rammed each side with a second car at 250NaN0, the team found the same serious damage on both sides. | |
| ...a dog bite. | Confirmed | Grant built a robot modeled after a German shepherd's skull, calibrated to match its bite force. The team sprayed one sleeve on each of four jackets – denim, leather, canvas, quilted coat – and tested the robot on all eight sleeves. It easily bit through the untreated sleeves and damaged the dummy arms underneath, but could not penetrate the treated ones. Tory chose the quilted coat for testing against a police dog; after it had been completely sprayed, he put it on and suffered no injuries when the dog tried to bite him. | |
| …an explosion. | Confirmed | The team built wood-frame and cinderblock walls, one treated and one untreated of each type, and placed Buster behind each before setting off a C-4 charge 51NaN1 in front. The untreated walls were badly damaged and threw large amounts of debris on Buster, while the treated ones showed no damage and protected him. |
A countdown of the cast's 12 favourite locations for testing myths, with an emphasis on one myth that was tested at the location.
| No. | Name (in countdown) | Myth featured | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Home Sweet Home | No specific myth | M5 Industries, the MythBusters' home base, is examined. It includes details on the origins of the M5 name, the opening and closing of M6, the shop initially used by the Build Team in 2004 (roughly corresponding to the period between the formation of the Build Team and Scottie Chapman's departure), as well as M7, the Build Team's home since 2005 (roughly corresponding to Grant joining the Build Team). | |
| 11 | Don't "Quarry" About It! | Cement Mix-Up Knock Your Socks Off | The quarries used by the MythBusters are examined. Adam and Jamie detail the last-minute addition of the concrete truck explosion. The Build Team also details the damage control after the pressure wave from a quarry explosion caused collateral damage in nearby Esparto, California and why they have not been at that quarry since. | |
| 10 | African Adventure | Elephants Scared of Mice | The myths tested in South Africa are featured. Though initially they were filming for Supersize Shark, due to inclement conditions they decided to film an impromptu myth to better make use of their time there. | |
| 9 | Runaway Runway | Tree Cannon | The runway at Alameda is featured. The location is frequented so much (at the time of filming, most recently, the previous day for the finale of Fixing a Flat) that Grant recalls that some fans mistakenly believed that M5 was based in Alameda. Jamie notes that the hand-carved cannonball that was shot out of the tree cannon was never found, even after 7 years. | |
| 8 | Zombie Town | Elevator of Death | Abandoned areas are featured in this entry, with a special focus on the abandoned residential neighborhood nicknamed by the crew as "Zombie Town." The effort into cleaning up the site before "Elevator of Death" could be tested is detailed. | |
| 7 | Cool for School | No specific myth | University and government research facilities used by the MythBusters are detailed, with a specific emphasis on the rocket sled testing facilities in New Mexico Tech. Jamie also talks about the people who run these facilities and the insight they provide to the myths being tested. | |
| 6 | Thunderdome | No specific myth | The local power-generating stations used in myths that require high-voltage electricity, nicknamed the "Thunderdome" by Adam, is featured. | |
| 5 | Just Hanging Out! | 7 Paper Fold | The hangars at Moffat Field are featured. The Build Team recalls an owl dung that had to be removed from the paper between testing days as the paper was being laid out. | |
| 4 | Presidential Perks | President's Challenge | The MythBusters' three visits to the White House is featured, and featured is Jamie's speechlessness at Barack Obama's introduction speech congratulating the role of MythBusters in children's science education. The 500 students chosen in that test were all from the high school where Jamie's wife has been a longtime science teacher. | |
| 3 | It's Snow Joke | Spinning Ice Bullets | Myths tested in wintry conditions are tested. The Build Team talks about having to brave the weather in the Sierra Nevada mountains. | |
| 2 | Deserted Desert | JATO Rocket Confederate Rocket | The Mojave Desert is featured. Kari, then an intern at M5, details on her role in the pilot episode, having driven through the night to catch up to Adam and Jamie. Adam and Jamie detail on having an M5 truck stuck in the mud on two occasions during "Confederate Rocket". Jamie also notes that portions of the desert are cleared for types of testing that the MythBusters have yet to fully make use of. | |
| 1 | Home Away From Home | Sawdust Cannon | Nicknamed "home away from home", the bomb range is explored. Jamie talks about how some of the myths involving explosives would otherwise be illegal if the bomb range was not available. The Build Team details their experience with the non-dairy creamer cannon and how much more dangerous than it was originally anticipated. The challenges of working in rainy conditions, when the ground is wet and muddy. The episode ends with a montage of explosions from myths tested on the range. |
A countdown of the cast's 12 favorite myths involving water.
| No. | Name (in countdown) | Myth(s) featured | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 | Wettest & Wildest | Waterslide Wipeout | Building the massive, steep launch ramp for this myth, and Adam's experience sliding down it | |
| 11 | Water Bomb | Water Safe Black Powder Shark | Two of the cast's favorite myths involving submerged explosives | |
| 10 | Out in the Cold | Swimming in Syrup | Challenges of staying warm during the swimming time trials, filmed during winter in San Francisco | |
| 9 | Dive! Dive | Dive! | The Squeeze | The Build Team's unsavory experience with the pork dummy Tory built to help test this myth |
| 8 | MythBusters on Ice | Blue Ice | The Build Team reflects on their visit to a NASA low-temperature wind tunnel | |
| 7 | Under Pressure | Exploding Water Heater Steam Powered Machine Gun | Dealing with the energy and hazards of steam in myth testing | |
| 6 | Pool Cruelty | Bulletproof Water | Mayhem caused by firing high-powered weapons into a swimming pool | |
| 5 | Water Torture | Chinese Water Torture | Unpleasant experiences of Adam and Kari during this round of testing (Adam urinating on himself, Kari enduring the torture until a paramedic stopped the test and removed her) | |
| 4 | The Life Aquatic | Octopus Egg Pregnancy | Adam's discovery that the texture of his skin was unusually pleasant to octopuses | |
| 3 | Boatmageddon | Bifurcated Boat | The Build Team's repeated difficulties in setting up and performing their tests on land | |
| 2 | Hidden Depths | Adam: Eye Gouge Jamie: Fish Flap Build Team:Fatal Flashlight | Memorable shark myths, as chosen by each cast member (the Build Team's choice was unanimous) | |
| 1 | Rock the Boat | Building a Pykrete Boat | The inspiration for building a speedboat out of newspaper-based "Super Pykrete", stemming from the cast's second trip to Alaska |
Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team test four myths chosen at random from viewer submissions.
Adam and Jamie tested the myths that when people were presented with the Monty Hall problem, they would...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...tend to stick with their first choice. | Confirmed | After they built a game-show mockup set at a local theater, Adam acted as a game-show host and had 20 volunteers play a game of "Pick a Door." Once a player chose a door, Jamie opened an empty one and Adam offered the player a chance to switch; all 20 stayed with their original pick, many of them believing that they had a 50-50 chance to win at this point. | |
| ...be more likely to win if they changed their decision. | Confirmed | They built a small-scale simulator to do 50 trials each, with Adam always switching his choice and Jamie never switching. Adam won far more often than Jamie did, and Jamie explained the reason: because the player has a 2/3 probability of choosing a losing door at first, switching turns the odds in their favor. |
Adam and Jamie examined the effectiveness of handgun firing stances often used in movies to find out if they allow a handgun user to shoot faster and more accurately than the standard two-handed stance. They set up targets at 151NaN1 and each took a turn firing 8 rounds from a .45 caliber pistol (16 rounds for the two-gun trials), evaluating their performance on a combination of speed and accuracy. The techniques they tested were...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...the Weaver technique (two-handed). | Confirmed | This was the control technique because it is known to be effective and is actually used by law enforcement personnel. The final score for the control was 7.3. | |
| ...from the hip. | Busted | The final score for this technique was 2.8, far lower than the control. The main reason was that neither Adam nor Jamie had any way of knowing where they were aiming because they could not look down the sights on the pistol. They also had no ability to aim in the same place every time. | |
| ...from the shoulder, with a straight arm. | Plausible | The final score for this technique was 7.1, which was very close to the control. It was effective because, like the Weaver technique, Adam and Jamie were able to use the sights on the gun to aim well. | |
| ...from the shoulder with the gun turned sideways, gangster-style. | Busted | The final score for this technique was 1.3, the lowest score of all the techniques tested. Like shooting from the hip, Adam and Jamie were not able to aim using the sights. | |
| ...using two guns pointed straight ahead, fired alternately. | Busted | For both of the two-gun techniques, Adam and Jamie used twice as many bullets, which still gave an accurate comparison because the doubled amount of time counteracted the doubled scoring opportunities. The final score for this technique was 4.1, lower than the control. Adam and Jamie found it difficult to repeatedly switch looking down each gun between shots. | |
| ...using two guns with the arms crossed. | Busted | The final score for this technique was 4.6, which was also lower than the control. Like the previous technique, it was found difficult to manage two guns at the same time. Notably, however, the score for this technique was slightly higher than the previous technique. |
This myth was cut from the broadcast episode, but is shown on the version uploaded to the Banijay Science Youtube Channel.[2]