MythBusters (2010 season)

Other materials were investigated for use as targets, starting with measurements of ricochet angles and speeds from only one plate. Cinderblock pavers were chosen over lead due to the latter’s tendency to make bullets tumble and lose too much speed. When Adam and Jamie set up three pavers and fired a TMJ round, they observed three ricochets and a less-than-lethal hit on the Jamie cutout.

Finally, they bent a piece of plumbing pipe into a curve to serve as a bullet guide, firing into one end toward a block of ballistic gelatin at the other. A 46-inch (117 cm) diameter curve, forming nearly a full circle, resulted in lethal speed and penetration on the target (with an Adam cutout in front of it). Adam and Jamie declared the myth busted, owing to the slow speed of the bullet after three ricochets.

Returning to the workshop, they set up some small-scale tests with saplings of three different types—Douglas-fir, redwood, and Alaskan cedar—and a miniature Buster figure. Preliminary trials showed that the fir could give the longest range for the same bending angle, so the team trimmed off the limbs and attached a tether to keep the payload in place until the right moment. With these modifications, the sapling flung “Mini McBuster” all the way to the other end of the shop.

At the plantation, the team found a full-size Douglas-fir and set it up in the same way, aiming at a bouncy castle 100 feet (30 m) away with a 40-foot (12 m) balloon “wall.” With 2,400 pounds-force (11,000 N) of bending force on the trunk, Buster flew almost all the way to the castle, but hit the ground just short of it. Because they were unable to hit their target even with the benefit of modern machinery and cutting off all the limbs, the team declared the myth busted.

The team declared the myth plausible at this point, then continued working in an attempt to get a higher flight. Tory built a launch guide and set up a 9 mm pistol to fire upward into the base of the tank as it sat on the burner, creating an instant nozzle. With the fire going and the tank about to burst, the team triggered the pistol and the resulting blast sent the tank into a high, spinning trajectory – enough to convince them that a propane tank could become a rocket under the right conditions.

They took the bridge to Mare Island Naval Shipyard, where they could set it up across a 104 ft (32 m) gap with a 50 ft (15 m) drop. During test runs to pre-stretch the parts and remove the tape's elasticity, they decided to connect the walkway and handrails with struts in hopes of reducing the wobble. A total of 196 rolls of tape were used to build the finished bridge, which was connected to steel frames on opposite ends of the gap. Adam and Jamie both made the crossing successfully, though Jamie had a much harder time keeping his balance due to his fear of heights and/or the stress of Adam’s previous crossing. Jamie commented that the elastic nature of the tape made it a poor choice for building bridges.

On the first test, a problem with the tow cable caused the car to hit one of the barricades; the tape took a glancing blow, but did not break. The second test ended with one of the wall’s anchor points breaking loose, while the wall itself remained intact. In the third and final test, the car hit the wall dead center and broke through, but not before the tape had stretched nearly 6 ft (1.8 m). Based on the amount of time and material that would be needed to construct a workable car stopper, the team declared the myth busted.

They then set up a party for Adam to host, with three “germaphobe” guests (Kari, Grant, and Tory, who were briefed to try to avoid contact with Adam) and three unsuspecting ones. Thirty minutes later, Adam, the whole table, and every guest except Kari – who admitted that she actually was a germaphobe – were heavily contaminated. In a second experiment in which Adam consciously did his best to avoid physical contact, all six guests came up clean.

Adam and Jamie declared the myth confirmed at this point, commenting that a healthy person would find it very difficult to avoid being contaminated by a sick one who did not attempt to keep from spreading his/her germs.

Tory then built a frame to attach to a pickup truck, with a heavy 14.3 lb (6.5 kg) glass sheet loosely mounted to hit Neck Man edge-on but break loose just before impact. The first attempt, at 80 mph (129 km/h) – the equivalent kinetic energy of a light pane traveling 300 mph (483 km/h) in an F5 tornado – sliced the head off. A second test at 40 mph (64 km/h) (150 mph (241 km/h) for a light pane in a less powerful F2 tornado) also cut completely through the neck. However, the glass did not break out of its holder, indicating that the momentum of the truck may have affected the result.

Back at the workshop, the team built a rig to throw ¹⁄₄ in (6.4 mm) thick panes (twice as heavy as the original ones) at 70 mph (113 km/h). After several tries, they were able to score a hit that completely and cleanly severed the head, leading them to declare the myth confirmed.

In the second test, the vehicles were placed so as to feel the entire 250 mph (402 km/h) wind. Within seconds, the car lost its hood and was thrown backward 250 ft (76 m). TIV2 held its position, while Dominator slid across the ground but did not tumble due to its low profile that kept the wind from blowing beneath it. The only signs of damage were a bent anchor spike and a twisted license plate holder, respectively. Noting that an occupant in either vehicle would easily have survived, Adam and Jamie declared the myth confirmed and stenciled their seal of approval on each one.

A prototype built from polyethylene, aluminum, ballistic nylon, and duct tape was taken to the Kalitta airfield; it could be folded up and carried in a backpack. For the debris test, Jamie fired wooden cylinders at the shield, using his soda-can launcher from "Cup vs Car". Buster and Adam each took a turn inside the shield, with no ill effects. Adam then stood in the 747's exhaust until he lost his footing, which occurred at 130 mph (209 km/h). This wind speed was used as a minimum that the shield would have to endure without any injury to Jamie inside. It tore apart at 135 mph (217 km/h) due to failure of the attachment points between the panels. After these were redesigned, Jamie was able to hold his ground in 180 mph (290 km/h) winds – the equivalent of an EF4 tornado.

Large-scale tests were first set up in a hangar at Naval Air Station Alameda, involving a 24 ft (7.3 m) long table with two dozen place settings. In the first test, Jamie hooked his sport cycle directly to the cloth; accelerating from a standing start, he pulled nearly everything off the table. Further trials - first in the hangar, with 200 ft (61 m) of slack and the cycle at 60 mph (97 km/h); then on the airfield, with 600 ft (183 m) and 100 mph (161 km/h) - left more items standing, but still overturned several of the settings. Finally, to replicate the results of the video, Adam applied dry lubricant to the tablecloth and then covered it with hard plastic, upon which the settings were placed. Although Jamie successfully yanked out the cloth from a standing start, he and Adam declared the myth busted due to the need to fake the setup.

For a more representative image, the Build Team visited UCSF to do a magnetoencephalogram study. Tory took the tests this time, resulting in an overall activity of 35%. In a third trial, this one involving a functional MRI scan, Tory registered 15% while at rest, but 30% as he told a story with the intent of activating as many areas of his brain as possible. Based on these totals, the team declared the myth busted.

In the first field tests, the weapon achieved a 230 yd (210 m) range; in an accuracy test, though, the mechanism repeatedly broke down and further shop work was needed. Adam and Jamie added wheels for maneuverability, as well as an angle finder to adjust the trajectory, and fine-tuned the reloading mechanism. They set up 5 targets at 90 yards (82 m) and brought in professional archer Brady Ellison to provide a benchmark for comparison. He hit the targets in 2 minutes, using 11 arrows. After further breakdowns and repair work, Adam and Jamie accomplished the feat with 15 arrows in 1 minute and 50 seconds. They classified the myth as plausible since they could find no records of this weapon actually being built and used in combat.

Once they had both sobered up, they had to remain awake for 30 hours in the M7 workshop, with various devices to keep them busy. They were not allowed any sugar, caffeine, or other stimulants during this time. The following morning, they drove both courses again for the “tired” test. Kari had 6 mistakes (city) and 210 times out/332 seconds (highway), while Tory had 5 mistakes (city) and 110 times out/77 seconds (highway). Based on the general worsening of their performance after going without sleep, the Build Team declared the myth confirmed.

In full-scale testing, Adam drove a typical 1970s sportscar through three tests: a timed quarter-mile, time to accelerate from 0 to 60 mph (0 to 97 km/h), and fuel efficiency for a 1 mi (1.6 km) course at 50 mph (80 km/h). The car's body was then removed, turned around, and reattached to the chassis, and Adam performed the same three tests. The forward car yielded averages of 14.0 seconds in the quarter-mile, 8.0 seconds in acceleration, and 0.87 lb (394.63 g) of fuel used. In reverse, the corresponding results were 16.6 seconds, 8.66 seconds, and 1.25 lb (566.99 g) of fuel; these unusual changes led Adam and Jamie to suspect that the tests were inconclusive. Finally, they brought the cars up to full speed – Adam in the reversed one, Jamie in an unmodified one – then put them into neutral and let them coast to the finish line. Jamie finished the race first, leading him and Adam to conclude that the cars really were more aerodynamic as designed.

Small-scale tests in the water chamber revealed that the board would not generate enough lift force to keep itself on a level path, leading the team to focus simply on the impact of the board against the windshield. Tory built a rig to launch it straight ahead, using bungee cords to provide the needed force; once it was properly calibrated, the team set a target vehicle directly in front and put Buster (outfitted with a human-analog neck) in the driver's seat. The board only glanced off at 40 mph (64 km/h), while at 85 mph (137 km/h) it penetrated partway but was stopped by the safety glass in the windshield. Having failed to replicate either the movie crash or its results, the team declared the myth busted.

As soon as the car hit the water, it turned over and the windshield broke and began to leak water. Adam had to wait to open a door until the car was completely filled, becoming heavily disoriented as the car did two more half-flips. He eventually surfaced, but admitted that he had had to use the air supply, and he and Jamie declared the myth confirmed.

The team then built a bulletproof glass box to serve as a small-scale kitchen, pumped in the methane, and tested three different weapons – the SIG Sauer, a 9 mm Glock pistol loaded with +P rounds, and a .44 Magnum revolver. None of these caused the methane to explode when fired, so the team switched to more flammable hydrogen gas. Without the milk, the Glock gave an explosion where the SIG Sauer did not, so they built a dollhouse-sized kitchen for mid-scale testing with the milk in place. This test ended in a blast that blew out the walls and roof, leading the team to classify both the movie myth and its underlying concept as busted.

Small-scale tests indicated that an average honeybee could carry 96 milligrams of weight; based on this result, it would take at least 23,000 bees to lift the laptop. Adam counted the number of bees per square inch in the frames, measured the laptop's surface area, and calculated that only 2,300 bees would fit onto it. As a further demonstration, Jamie used toy helicopters to show that any lift generated by the bees' wings would be counteracted by the force of air being pushed down onto the payload, making it impossible to lift anything as shown in the video. He and Adam declared the myth busted at this point, then devised a method by which the video could have been faked - by attaching fishing line to the laptop, covering it with bees, and hoisting it with an off-camera stick or handle.

To investigate the speeds needed to inflict a lethal injury at head or chest height, the team set up an air cannon to fire a Goliath beeetle analog at the force plate. An impact at 120 mph gave 285 pounds of force, while a test at 200 mph (described as the speed of the fastest motorcyclist ever to get a traffic ticket) yielded 500 pounds. Although neither of these was high enough to result in a fatal injury, the team deemed the myth plausible, since a heavy enough insect hitting just the right spot on a rider could lead to his death.

In the full-scale test, 500 high school students stood in for the Greek soldiers trying to set a boat's sails on fire, using first the bronze and then the modern mirrors. Both of these efforts failed, as did a third trial in which the boat was pulled close enough to the shore for Jamie (as an invading captain on the boat) to throw tennis balls and hit the students. Though Adam and Jamie declared the myth busted, Jamie noted that the reflections from the mirrors were extremely distracting and had blinded him temporarily, and that this may have been Archimedes' true intent in recommending their use in warfare.

Reverting to small-scale testing with a toy SUV, the team experimented with combinations of fist weight, vehicle speed, and center of gravity, but still could not get a flip. They declared the myth busted at this point, then attached a long lever to a full-sized SUV's roof in order to move the impact force away from the front axle, which served as the fulcrum for the car after impact. Even with this modification, the rear end only flipped 45 degrees into the air and did not somersault forward.

Declaring the movie myth busted at this point, Adam and Jamie turned their focus to making the bulldozer fly. They built two steel models and tried two different explosives – 4 pounds each of TNT (high speed) and ANFO (low speed). The TNT blasted one model to pieces, while the ANFO tore the other apart at the welds and threw the pieces far enough to convince Adam of its usefulness in this respect. For a full-scale test, they buried 250 pounds of ANFO under a bulldozer, with the goal of moving it away without destroying it. The resulting blast ripped the machine apart, left a deep crater, and threw pieces over 500 feet. Adam and Jamie commented that any explosive charge big enough to move the bulldozer would certainly kill the occupants of the buried car.

The team declared the first half of the myth busted, but Seth revealed that Black Beauty was equipped with a system to split itself in emergencies. Concentrating on the possibility of driving the front half, they cut the rear half off another car. After several adjustments, they were able to get the front started and drive it a short distance until it hit a wall. Seth then said that Black Beauty had a reserve fuel tank under its hood, so the team installed one in their half-car and took it to Petaluma Speedway for one more test. This time, Tory was able to complete 20 laps at speeds up to 40 miles per hour. The team decided that the idea of driving the half-car was plausible, if the driver made the needed extensive modifications ahead of time.