| Bgcolour: |
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| Num Episodes: | 21 (includes 3 specials) |
| Network: | Discovery Channel |
| Prev Season: | 2011 season |
| Next Season: | 2013 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).
On February 28, 2012, Discovery Channel announced that the 2012 season would commence airing on March 25, 2012.[1] The season aired in a Sunday time slot, instead of its previous Wednesday time slot.
On December 6, 2011, while taping for the "Cannonball Chemistry" story, a home-made cannon test sent a cannonball through a residential neighborhood in Dublin, California. No one was injured, but the cannonball did considerable property damage, crashing through the walls of a family's house and landing in a car.[2] [3]
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Original air date | Overall episode No. |
|---|
The Build Team does not appear in this episode.
Marooned on a tropical island (Oahu, Hawaii) with only a pallet of duct tape, Adam and Jamie had to use it to perform the tasks needed for survival. Their goals were to...
| Myth | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...build a distress signal. | Confirmed | They built a giant SOS on the beach, weighted down with rocks at the corners and visible from altitudes up to 41NaN1. Jamie noted that the tape's gray color made it a less-than-ideal material for attracting attention. | |
| ...make clothing. | Confirmed | While building the signal, the heat and exertion began to take their toll on Adam, so he made a sun hat. Both men later made sandals from branches and tape to protect their feet as they moved around the island. | |
| ...find fresh water. | Confirmed | Adam found a pond, but Jamie warned against drinking the water because it was stagnant. After a night of sleeping on emergency mats made by sticking tape strands directly to the ground, they searched separately the next day. Jamie built a solar still on the beach, using the plastic overwrap from the original pallet in addition to tape, but collected only a few ounces of water after several hours. Adam followed areas of lush vegetation and eventually found a freshwater spring; he then made a container to carry several liters of water back to Jamie. | |
| ...find food. | Confirmed | Jamie made spears from tree limbs and tape and successfully caught fish with them, while Adam hunted wild chickens in the forest. He tried to use a snare without success, then put together a tape net and camouflaged it, planning to reel it off the ground when a chicken ran over it. The first chicken slipped out of the net, but Adam was able to catch and hold the next one. Adam later noted that he and Jamie did not cook the chicken, but instead ate food provided by the crew in its place. | |
| ...build a fire. | Confirmed | Adam built a bamboo bow drill, using tape as the string. After several attempts and broken strings, he successfully got a fire going. | |
| ...build a shelter. | Confirmed | Adam strung up tape hammocks in a clearing and added overhead canopies and floor mats. He also put together chairs, a table, and a chess set using pieces of wood. | |
| ...stay focused. | Confirmed | Jamie took some time to experiment with building a surfboard from tape pontoons and teaching himself to use it. Although his own inexperience and a series of leaks ultimately caused the project to fail, he noted that it did succeed in keeping his mind sharp and occupied. The chess set in the shelter also helped both men in this respect. | |
| ...escape the island. | Confirmed | Adam and Jamie set out to build a seaworthy craft that could hold them and several days' worth of supplies. They designed a canoe with an outrigger for stability, using a bamboo frame and a tape hull, and put together an impromptu worktable to keep dirt out of the tape as they worked. After six hours of construction, they launched the canoe and steered it into the oncoming breakers with little trouble. Seven hours later, Adam sighted land and they put ashore—on the island they had just left. |
| Myth | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A vehicle fitted with square wheels can provide a smooth ride if driven fast enough. | Plausible | Adam and Jamie designed a set of square wheels to support the weight of a pickup truck, then cut the treads off a set of tires and fitted them on. They set up a test course, using a heavy-duty pickup equipped with vibration sensors, and drove a control run (using round wheels) at speeds up to 600NaN0. When the square wheels were mounted, the ride was very rough at first but began to smooth out as the speed was increased. However, one wheel fell off after only a few seconds when its bolts snapped. For small-scale testing of other wheel orientations, Adam and Jamie returned to the shop and built a cart to run on a treadmill. They found that if two wheels, diagonally opposite each other, were turned 45 degrees out of phase with the other two, the cart achieved a balance of smoothness and stability. A full-scale test at almost 200NaN0 caused the tire treads and brake pads to come off the wheels. Despite the mechanical failures, they classified the myth as plausible, based on the sensor readouts and their own sensations. | |
| Square wheels can give an advantage in hill-climbing when compared to round ones. | Busted | Adam and Jamie set up a dirt track consisting of a straight stretch leading to a steep uphill run. They believed that the square wheels might reduce pressure on the soft dirt and/or allow the car to dig in and get better traction. However, the truck climbed the same distance up the hill with either round or square wheels, leading them to judge this myth as busted. |
Inspired by a scene in the film Date Night, in which a taxicab and sports sedan stuck together by their front bumpers perform a series of maneuvers in city streets. The Build Team obtained two cars similar to those used in the scene, tore off their front bumpers, and built a hitch to hold them together nose-to-nose. Driving at 400NaN0, with Tory in the cab and Grant and Kari in the sedan, they tested the cars' ability to...
| Myth | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...drive in a straight line. | Confirmed | For the first test, Grant and Kari successfully pushed Tory backwards, but could not steer very well. They obtained a similar result in reverse, with the cab pushing the sedan. | |
| ...go around a 90-degree turn. | Busted | Grant and Kari began by pushing Tory, but were unable to turn. When they introduced changes to replicate the movie scene more closely—wet pavement, bald rear tires on the cab—they obtained the same result. However, one last test with Tory pushing caused the cars to overshoot the turn and veer off in the opposite direction. Grant hypothesized that this result was due to the fact that the cab had rear-wheel drive, while the sedan had all-wheel drive; the cab's rear wheels slid out when it lost traction in the attempted turn. | |
| ...complete a 180-degree spin. | Confirmed | After receiving some tips in defensive driving, Tory pushed Grant and Kari at 500NaN0 toward a patch of wet pavement. When they turned their steering wheels in opposite directions, the cars went through a 180-degree spin, suffering some damage to their wheels and tires. Grant explained that the film maneuver was accomplished with extensive car modifications and a stunt driver. |
Adam and Jamie attempted to re-create a scene in the film . They set out to determine whether a group of six people in a suspended spherical cage could...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...swing over to one side of a ravine, using only their own body weight. | Busted | They built a cage from steel tubing and tested it for safety and ability to swing, then took it to a firefighter training facility with a building that could be used as a cliff. With the cage hanging on an 800NaN0 cable held up by a construction crane, they were unable to get it to swing on their own. Four circus trapeze performers were brought in to replicate the size of the group in the film scene, but the six still could not reach the building. One final attempt with the cable shortened to 400NaN0 failed as well, so Adam and Jamie declared this portion of the myth busted. | |
| ...grab and hold on to vines on the ravine's vertical face. | Plausible | A section of rope rigging was hung from the building to represent the vines in the movie scene. When the crew hauled the cage back and let it swing over, the six prisoners were able to grab hold and keep their grip. | |
| ...climb to the top of the ravine. | Plausible | They climbed 121NaN1 to the top of the rigging and pulled down a Jolly Roger flag hung there. |
Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team explored five myths concerning the superiority of one gender or the other in various activities. For each myth, they chose 10 men and 10 women.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men are better overall drivers, but break the speed limit more often. | Confirmed (1st half) / Busted (2nd half) | Adam and Jamie had the volunteers drive a police vehicle course, accompanied by a professional instructor who graded them on a 100-point scale. Volunteers did not speak and wore special clothing to disguise their genders. The men earned a higher average score (79, vs. 71 for women); in addition, seven of the men broke the speed limit, while nine of the women did. | |
| Women are better at reading people's emotions based on their eyes. | Confirmed | Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team had their pictures taken while showing expressions for five different emotions. Jamie's pictures were not used because his expression did not change noticeably from one picture to the next (it was later revealed that Jamie faked his inability to show emotions, as can be seen in this video). The eyes of the other pictures were displayed to the volunteers, who had to guess the emotions. The women responded more quickly than the men and achieved a higher average number of correct responses (10.6 vs. 9.6). | |
| Men are better at cooking on an outdoor grill. | Busted | Adam and Jamie set up four outdoor grilling stations and split the volunteers into groups of four to cook at the same time. Provided with the same ingredients, each had one hour to cook the same four dishes—vegetables, a chicken drumstick, a hamburger, and a steak. Adam, Jamie, and Ric Gilbert, a California Barbecue Association Hall of Fame Pit Master and Certified BBQ Judge, evaluated the food on a 100-point scale without knowing the cooks' genders. Average scores were 46 for the men and 42 for the women; Adam and Jamie decided that the difference was not large enough to declare that either gender was better at grilling. | |
| Men are better at following maps. | Busted | The Build Team selected the start and end points for a highway drive and marked them on a map. Each volunteer studied the map for five minutes, then rode along to give directions to the destination as Grant drove. Kari and Tory, in the back seat, graded the performances on a 100-point scale and penalized for mistakes such as backtracking and excess mileage. The men and women earned a 74 and 77 average, respectively, too close to indicate an advantage for either gender. | |
| Men are better at packing a car for a road trip. | Confirmed | Adam and Jamie brought in two similar cars, put together a load of luggage that would fit into either of them, and split the volunteers into 10 man/woman pairs. The load contained a combination of bulky and fragile items, as well as a doll to stand in for a baby. Pairs of volunteers had 15 minutes to pack separate cars, after which Adam drove them through a course while Jamie and Kari evaluated the overall quality of the packing jobs on a 100-point scale. The average score for the men was 51, while the women scored 45, with the men being able to pack the cars slightly faster, suggesting slightly better performance for the men. |
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Certain types of footwear can seriously impair a person's ability to drive. | Busted | Adam and Jamie tried six different footwear types in a driving simulator to measure their time to move from the accelerator to the brake pedal. The three that gave the slowest times—high heels, wedges, and snow boots—were chosen for full-scale testing. After practicing a variety of stunt driving techniques, they laid out a course and drove it in both their regular shoes and each of the three chosen footwear types. None of them affected their lap times by more than two seconds, leading them to decide that footwear had no effect on driving performance and classify the myth as busted. | |
| Driving with a full bladder is as dangerous as driving under the influence of alcohol. | Busted | They set up a typical driver-education course and Adam drove it twice, with Jamie evaluating his performance on a 100-point scale. For the first run, Adam drank enough water to put a severe strain on his bladder, as indicated by a medical ultrasound scan. Before the second, he drank enough alcohol to put himself just below the legal limit for intoxication in California (0.08% BAC), and had a police officer ride along. He scored 70 and 25 on these two runs, respectively, and he and Jamie judged the myth as busted due to the markedly worse result from the "intoxicated" run. |
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superglue can be used to attach a room's furniture to its ceiling, creating the appearance that the room has been turned upside down. | Confirmed | The Build Team did preliminary testing in the shop to determine the amount of force that the glue could support, using a barbell rig built by Tory. One drop gave way under a weight of 6500NaN0. Using 7 drops and a construction crane, they were able to lift a station wagon (estimated weight 40000NaN0) and keep it aloft for several seconds before it fell loose. They then built a mockup of a typical hotel room and gave themselves a 6-hour time limit to secure all the furniture to the ceiling, with sheets, cushions, and other items glued in their proper places. Although a few items gave them trouble, including a television set with a waffle-pattern base and a plant in a wicker basket, they were able to finish the job in time. | |
| Superglue is strong enough to restrain a driver during an automobile accident, without the use of a seat belt. | Busted | They chose a car with leather upholstery and placed two Buster dummies in front: the old Buster wearing a seat belt on the passenger side, and a new model (Buster 4.0) dressed in a jumpsuit and glued into the driver's seat. When Grant towed the car into a set of concrete barricades at 350NaN0, passenger Buster survived while driver Buster came loose and hit his head on the windshield. They found, however, that the glue had held while the material of the seat and Buster's clothing had ripped away. In a second test, they dressed Buster in a rubberized wetsuit and glued him into a fiberglass racing seat in the car, with the intent of improving the materials' mechanical strength and adhesion. He still tore out of his seat on impact, leading the team to declare the myth busted at this point. For a final test, they attached one steel plate to Buster's back and a second to a specially built seat frame, to act as "ideal" surfaces for adhesion. When they glued the plates together, he stayed in his seat through impact. |
Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team explore four previously tested myths, using viewer suggestions for improvement or new tests.
A challenge from viewers to try new feats using excavators, based on "Excavator Exuberance" from 2011. Adam and Jamie attempted to...
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ...thread a needle. | Confirmed | They set up a dummy and placed a needle in one hand, and attached a clamp to the excavator's bucket to hold a piece of thread. Jamie worked the machine while Adam guided him; after several minutes, the thread went through the eye of the needle. | |
| ...pour a glass of wine. | Confirmed | A wineglass and sealed bottle were placed on a table, and the bucket was fitted with an attachment to pick up and hold the bottle. Once Adam had it in position and tilted to a suitable upward angle, he shot the cap off with a paintball gun, allowing the wine to pour into the glass. |
The Build Team answers a series of randomly chosen letters sent in by viewers, answering questions and doing a series of short tests.
| Question/Topic | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Is it good to start with a bang? (Based on "Better to End with a Bang" from 2008) | The team built a mockup of an office cubicle, placed Buster at the desk, and set off a 10NaN0 charge of C4. After watching the explosion, they concluded that starting with a bang was indeed good. | |
| Blueprint drawings used to introduce segments | Crew member Eric Haven inherited the job from the team, drawing on his experience as a comic book artist. | |
| Favorite high-speed camera footage | Grant: Car skipping across the surface of a pond from "Car Skip", 2009 Tory: Adam falling off a treadmill from "Stone Cold Sober", 2008 Consensus: Exploding cement truck from "Cement Mix-Up", 2005 (although no high-speed footage was recorded due to a camera glitch) | |
| Is Jamie really as stoic as he appears on the show? | The team members commented that he occasionally shows excitement in his own subdued way. | |
| Favorite tool in the shop | Kari: Plasma cutter Grant: Forklift customized with mecanum wheels Tory: Portable cutoff saw | |
| Favorite moment on the show | Grant: Racing a remote-controlled car against a second car dropped from a helicopter in "Racing Gravity", 2009; hitting a car with a pickup truck front end mounted on a rocket sled in "Binary Fender Bender", 2011 Kari: Tory being towed behind a cruise ship in "Supersize Cruise Ship Waterskiing", 2007 | |
| A request for details on filming explosions; a request to determine whether a washing machine or clothes dryer gave a better explosion when blown up with a 10NaN0 charge of C4. | To answer both letters at once, the team took a camera crew out to the bomb range and showed the mechanics of setting up camera angles. Although the two explosions appeared very similar and destroyed one of the cameras, the team chose the dryer as being slightly more impressive. | |
| Favorite machine built for the show | Grant: Sword-swinging robot (first used in "Catching a Sword", 2007) Kari: Giant hamster ball ("Beat the Guard Dog", 2007) | |
| A viewer-submitted trivia quiz about past episodes | Adam gave the quiz as a series of buzz-in questions, with Kari winning by a large margin, Grant coming in second, and Tory coming in third | |
| Most surprising moment on the show | Tory: Busting of "Bull in a China Shop", 2007 Kari: Positive result (ruled Plausible) of "Chinese Invasion Alarm", 2005 | |
| Use of animals in myth testing | Some animals have proven easier to work with than others. | |
| Most embarrassing moment on the show | Grant: Stripping down to his underwear; vomiting on camera Tory: Wearing a bra; failing to jump a bicycle over a toy wagon Kari: Acting as the subject for a test of whether girls pass gas (see Franklin's Kite, 2006) |
| Myth | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is impossible to swallow a spoonful of ground cinnamon without drinking any water. (Cinnamon challenge) | Busted | Each team member tried to swallow a spoonful, with medical personnel standing by. Kari and Grant coughed and spat out large clouds of powder, with Grant vomiting up a small amount as well. Tory tucked his spoonful into his cheek and eventually managed to swallow it after letting enough saliva accumulate in his mouth. The team commented, however, that this activity was very uncomfortable and dangerous, due to the powder's tendency to absorb saliva and potential to cause respiratory infections. | |
| A van loaded with leaking containers of flammable gases can explode when it receives a signal from its keyless remote. (A previously unaired segment entitled "Vanishing Van".) | Confirmed | The team filled a van with gas containers and rigged these for a slow leak. They triggered the remote and were shocked when the van instantly blew apart, confirming the myth on the first try. The segment was shelved since the quick result gave no chance for the team to expand on the myth's background or the processes involved. | |
| Which will fall faster, a sixpack of light beer or regular beer? | They fall at the same rate | The team hoisted a sixpack of cans of each beer type up on a construction crane and dropped them at the same time from 1000NaN0. After the packs landed at the same time, they switched to sixpacks of bottles and got the same result. Tests with other objects, including a piano, a grandfather clock, and a toilet, showed no differences in time to hit the ground. | |
| A bullet from a .50 caliber Desert Eagle pistol cannot penetrate 25 watermelons. | Confirmed | Tory and Kari set up a line of melons, but Kari's shot only penetrated the first three. They noted the parallels between this test and the use of a .50 caliber sniper rifle during "Bulletproof Water" (2005), in which the bullet could not reach a target past a few feet of water. |
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A person armed with a knife cannot win a fight against one carrying a pistol. | Busted | As Jamie practiced knife-throwing techniques, Adam made a leather belt holster and worked on quick-drawing with a paintball pistol. Based on a scene in The Magnificent Seven, they then faced off against each other, standing 161NaN1 apart; Jamie used water balloons with the same weight as his knives, and both attacked at the firing of a starter pistol. Though Jamie was consistently able to throw his "knife" before Adam pulled the trigger, after several trials Adam was able to shoot Jamie and dodge the thrown balloon. Next they investigated the scenario of a charging knife wielder. Adam and Jamie determined that Jamie could run 241NaN1 before Adam could draw, cock, and fire his pistol. When Jamie ran at Adam with a foam knife from this distance, Adam was able to shoot him; a second test at 201NaN1 gave the same result. However, when Jamie started at distances of 161NaN1 or less, he successfully stabbed Adam without being shot. They decided that a knife wielder at close quarters could have an advantage over a gunfighter, depending on the circumstances, and declared the myth busted. | |
| In a sword fight, the first person to attack will lose. | Busted | After Adam and Jamie received kendo training, Adam built a rig to randomly determine whether he or Jamie would have to attack first, and a second one to indicate when a hit had been scored. Each of 20 bouts ended in either a tie or a victory (defined as being the first to land a blow to the head) for the person who attacked first. |
Adam, Jamie, Tory, Kari and Grant explored eight firearm-related movie scenarios.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bullets can retain lethal speed when fired into several feet of water. Based on a scene in the film . | Busted | Adam and Jamie presented footage from 2005's "Bulletproof Water" to demonstrate the manner in which bullets quickly lost speed after being fired into water. | |
| Firing a bullet into the side of an airplane at altitude can cause a large amount of suction that massively expands the bullet hole and sucks out the passengers. | Busted | This was mentioned in the SBS version of the episode. Adam and Jamie presented footage from 2004's "Explosive Decompression", in which they failed to create a significant hole in a plane with a bullet despite the pressure differential, and only managed to damage the plane to the required extent by using actual explosives. |
To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Shark Week on the Discovery Channel, Adam and Jamie counted down their 25 favorite shark-related myths, including some that had not previously aired.
| Number | Title | Myth(s) or episode(s) featured | Result | Comments | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | Fighting Back | Jaws Special (2005) Eye Gouge (2008) | Plausible | Buster, then Jamie, then Adam each had a chance to drive sharks away by punching the snout and trying to gouge the eyes. | |
| Super Senses | In addition to possessing acute senses, sharks can detect electromagnetic fields from their prey by using the ampullae of Lorenzini located in their snouts. | ||||
| 23 | Chili | Busted | Testing hot peppers as a shark repellent | ||
| Magnets | Animal Magnetism (2008) | Busted | Magnets proved effective at repelling baby sharks, but not full-grown ones. | ||
| 21 | Dolphins | Supersize Shark (2007) | Confirmed | Myth: The presence of dolphins will deter sharks from attacking prey. | |
| 20 | Super Strength | Jaws Special (2005) | Busted | A diving shark tethered to flotation barrels can pull them underwater and keep them submerged. | |
| 19 | Confirmed | A shark can ram a boat with enough force to punch a hole in its hull. | |||
| 18 | Shark Stop | Busted | Myth: Sharks will die of asphyxiation if they do not keep moving at all times. Although some can die in this manner, most cannot. | ||
| 17 | Ancient Relics | Busted | Myth: Sharks have existed for 400 million years with no changes in their body structure. Although sharks have existed for that long, their current form emerged roughly 100 million years ago. | ||
| 16 | The Smell of Fear | Busted | Myth: Sharks can smell a single drop of blood in a swimming pool. They did not respond to human blood, but did notice a drop of fish blood diluted 1 million times. However, the volume of water in a typical pool would dilute the blood billions of times and make it even harder to detect. | ||
| 15 | Matching Sharks | Busted | Myth: All sharks have the same streamlined body shape and carnivorous feeding habits. Adam and Jamie presented facts about shark species that do not fit one or the other of these traits. | ||
| 14 | The Yummy Hum | Supersize Shark (2007) | Busted | Myth: A particular sound frequency (40 Hz) strongly attracts sharks. | |
| 13 | Dog's Breakfast | Dog Bait (2008) | Busted | Building a robotic dog that could swim and release scents to match a real one. A dog owner volunteered to let the cast use his pet, but they decided not to take the risk of having a shark eat it. | |
| 12 | Flapping Fish | Fish Flap (2008) | Confirmed | Test stopped early for Jamie's safety (he was in a child's rubber boat on the ocean, with increasingly aggressive sharks closing in) | |
| 11 | Jaws Special (2005) | Confirmed | Jamie's first time in a shark cage, testing the myth that it could be damaged or destroyed if a shark hit it at high enough speed | ||
| 10 | Shark Bite | No result | Various claims about the strength of a shark's bite. Adam and Jamie built a bite force tester, but could not get any sharks to bite on it. | ||
| 9 | RC Shark | Busted | Inspired by the results of No. 22, Jamie tried to use a system of magnets to control the movements of a baby shark, without success. | ||
| 8 | Sandpaper Shark | Confirmed | Myth: Sharkskin can be used in place of sandpaper. The cast was able to use a piece of skin to smooth pieces of wood, first by hand and then with a rotary sander. | ||
| 7 | Black Powder Shark | Black Powder Shark (2008) | Busted | A myth inspired by the film Deep Blue Sea | |
| 6 | A Knight's Tale | Busted | Myth: Full plate armor can protect a diver against sharks. When Adam put on the armor and dived in, many sharks were attracted to him, possibly drawn by the electromagnetic fields due to the metal (see No. 24). | ||
| 5 | Yum Yum Yellow | Busted | Myth: Sharks are attracted to the color yellow. The cast dropped several containers of bait, painted in different colors, and found no difference in the number of sharks drawn to each. | ||
| 4 | Night Dive | Fatal Flashlight (2008) | Plausible | Comments from the Build Team on having to dive at night | |
| 3 | Exploding Jaws | Jaws Special (2005) | Busted | Myth: A scuba tank will explode with lethal force if shot with a rifle. Although the tank failed to explode, the air pressure caused it to rocket around the test chamber in a way that could injure a shark or drive it away. | |
| 2 | Play Dead | Playing Dead (2008) | Confirmed | Adam's favorite shark moment, in which Grant and Tory had to jump into heavily chummed waters | |
| 1 | Sharks Are Evil | Busted | Adam and Jamie commented on the popular belief that sharks are evil creatures to be avoided at all costs. They pointed out the natural behavior of sharks, the high improbability of being attacked, and the large numbers that are killed every year to make shark fin soup. |
This episode was also called "Cliffhanger Bridge Boom" in Australia.
Adam and Jamie investigated two myths based on movie scenes involving the transportation and burial of dead bodies.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is easy to carry a dead body. | Plausible | Adam and Jamie set up an obstacle course to run with a 1500NaN0 simulated cadaver. They had to pick it up from a dinner table; put it into a closet and take it out again; drag it to a window and push it through; drag it up a flight of stairs, along a platform, and down another flight; and finally wrap it up in a carpet and stuff it into a car trunk. For a control run, each man ran the course using a wad of steel chain with the same weight as the cadaver. Adam posted a time of 3:06; Jamie struggled at the window and finished in 4:33. Both of them began to tire noticeably toward the end of the run. With the cadaver, though, they made much better time due to its weight distribution. Adam finished in 1:20, Jamie in 1:55, leading them to call the myth plausible. Adam and Jamie noted that unlike the steel weight, cadavers are actually much easier to carry since they can be slung over the shoulder to distribute the weight more evenly, and unlike the wad of chain, the cadaver could be moved more incrementally (lifting an arm or a leg at a time, rather than the whole thing all at once). | |
| A shallow grave can be dug in 20 minutes. | Busted | Jamie tried to dig a 21NaN1 deep grave, but hit hard-packed earth that slowed him down greatly. It took him over 2 hours to finish digging. |
Adam, Jamie, and the Build Team tested five myths chosen at random from viewer submissions.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|
| It is easy for a person to recognize the back of his/her own hand. | Confirmed | Adam and Jamie took pictures of the backs of 100 people's hands, 50 of each gender. Each of 12 more volunteers had a hand picture taken and mixed with 9 others of the same gender, race, and hand size/shape, and then had to try to identify it within 60 seconds. Volunteers wore gloves during the test to prevent cheating. Eleven of the 12 chose correctly, prompting Adam and Jamie to investigate the ease of identifying other body parts—namely, palms and teeth. Using the same methodology, 7 of 12 were correct on the palm test, 10 of 12 on the teeth. | |
| The "potty dance" can help a person with a full bladder stave off the need to urinate. | Plausible | For a control run, each Build Team member came to work with a completely empty bladder, drank 2 liters of water, then measured the time until he/she could no longer resist the urge to urinate. Tory lasted 1 hr 58 min; Grant, 1 hr 58 min; Kari, 2 hr 39 min. They debated the effectiveness of the "potty dance": distracting attention from the full bladder versus putting more pressure on it. The second day, they repeated the trial but allowed themselves to do the dance. This time, Tory lasted 1:30, Grant 1:52, Kari 2:46. On the third day, they tried various methods to relax as much as possible. Tory lasted 2:05, Grant 2:46, Kari 2:43. The team judged the myth plausible, but noted that results of different methods can vary widely from person to person. |
At the start of the episode, the Build Team apologized for the cannonball accident that occurred while they were testing this myth.
For their myths, Jamie and Adam were joined by celebrity chef Alton Brown, who is an enthusiast of incorporating science into cooking and had previously busted food myths on an episode of Good Eats reverentially titled Myth Smashers.
This episode was called "The A to Z of Explosions" in Australia.
The Build Team presents a series of 25 vignettes, one for each letter of the alphabet (except X and Y, which they combined), concerning the explosions that have been carried out in myth testing.
| Entry | Notes | |
|---|---|---|
| Audit Art | Record-keeping of the 752 explosions to date on the show, tracking size, number by season, and destructive potential, as well as an explosion of paint onto a canvas | |
| Bomb Range | A tour of the range and associated facilities, including the vehicle training area, firearms range, and safety bunker | |
| Cement Truck | A look back at the "Cement Mix-Up" myth from 2005, leading up to the final blast that obliterated a full truck | |
| Dynamite | Revelation that the "dynamite" used on the show is a different, safer explosive with the same energy content | |
| Explosions | Comments from Grant and Tory on the characteristics and types of explosions, illustrated by the destruction of a china cabinet using a charge of C-4 | |
| Food Glorious Food | Remembering various explosion myths involving food. Kari noted that all food items destroyed on the show were well past their expiration date and no longer fit for human consumption. | |
| Grenade | A look back at myths involving grenades, especially the "Red Bazooka" myth from 2011, using a rocket-propelled grenade launcher | |
| High Speed | Reflections on the intricate detail revealed by high-speed camera footage of explosions, illustrated by blowing up a television set with C-4 | |
| Implants | The testing Adam and Jamie carried out for the "Exploding Implants" myth from 2004, and the fun they had in the process | |
| J.D. | Explosives expert J.D. Nelson's contributions to the show, and his full-time work with the bomb squad in the Alameda County Sheriff's Department | |
| Kitchen | Appliances and entire kitchen sets destroyed in the course of myth testing | |
| Loud | Hearing protection used by the team and technical issues in broadcasting explosions, illustrated by measuring decibel levels of a running lawnmower and a C-4 blast | |
| Movies | Testing of movie-based explosion myths | |
| Nothing | The dangers that bomb technicians face in repairing/rewiring a device when it fails to explode | |
| OSECO | Comments on this company's rupture discs, used to evaluate pressures created by an explosion | |
| Pressure Vessel | Explosions caused by buildup of internal pressure in a container, illustrated by heating a can of shaving cream with a blowtorch until it bursts | |
| Quagmire | Complications in tests caused by heavy rain turning the bomb range into a muddy swamp | |
| Rockets | Mishaps that have caused rockets and rocket-propelled projectiles to explode during flight or on the launch pad. Includes comments by Grant and Tory on the reasons for the failure of the "Supersize Rocket Car" myth test from 2007. | |
| Safety | Extensive safety precautions observed during explosion testing. In an unaired scene, Tory (dressed in a full bomb suit) carried a balloon full of flammable gas onto the bomb range, with the risk of a stray spark setting it off. | |
| Toilet | Myths that have involved blowing up toilets by various means | |
| Underground | Explosions of buried materials, illustrated by setting off a buried charge with a flowerpot full of dirt placed above it | |
| Vehicle | A montage of vehicles destroyed in explosions | |
| Water | Comments on the different behavior of explosions in water and air, illustrated by setting off a charge within a beaker of water | |
| Xylophone | Blowing up some xylophones, and the standard yell of "Fire in the hole | " before any explosion is set off |
| Yelling | ||
| Zenith | The biggest explosion to date: "Homemade Diamonds" from 2009 (50000NaN0 ANFO) |