| MythBusters (special episodes) | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Australia USA |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Discovery Channel |
| 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).
Special episodes listed here were aired separately to the normal season episodes and special episodes. Also included are "mini myths", videos available from the Discovery Channel website.
Contents |
During 2010, Discovery Channel aired a series of episodes that were titled "Buster's Cut". According to the episode introductions, these were edited reruns of earlier episodes featuring never before seen footage and behind the scenes information.
| No. in series | No. in season | Title | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|
| BO1 | Special 1 | "Best Animals Myths"[1] | March 24, 2004 |
| This was a re-cut of previously tested animal-related myths from different episodes. Chicken Gun, Goldfish Memory, Does a Duck's Quack Echo? | |||
| BO2 | Special 2 | "Best Electric Myths"[2] | May 6, 2004 |
| This was a re-cut of previously tested electricity-related myths from different episodes. Peeing on the Third Rail, Lightning Strikes Tongue Piercing, Microwave Madness | |||
| BO3 | Special 3 | "Best Explosions"[3] | May 9, 2004 |
| This was a re-cut of previously tested explosion-related myths from different episodes. Cell Phone Destruction, Raccoon Rocket, Tree Cannon, Exploding Toilet | |||
| SP11 | Special 4 | "Young Scientist Special" | April 26, 2008 |
| Myths tested: Discovery Channel's young scientist contenders help the Mythbusters tackle environmental myths: Are electric cars truly slow? Do increased CO2 levels cause accelerated ice melting? (Former Mythbuster Scottie Chapman returns to assist the testing) Are cows truly the single greatest air polluter? |
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| BC01 | Special 5 | "Alcohol Myths"[4] | June 30, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 110 (Alcohol Myths) originally aired October 22, 2008. | |||
| BC02 | Special 6 | "Duct Tape Hour 2"[5] | July 7, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 144 (Duct Tape Hour 2) originally aired May 12, 2010. | |||
| BC03 | Special 7 | "Knock Your Socks Off"[6] | July 14, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 125 (Knock Your Socks Off) originally aired October 7, 2009. | |||
| BC04 | Special 8 | "Viewer Special Threequel"[7] | July 21, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of special 12 (Viewer Special Threequel) originally aired November 19, 2008. | |||
| BC05 | Special 9 | "Bottle Bash"[8] | July 28, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 141 (Bottle Bash) originally aired April 14, 2010. | |||
| BC06 | Special 10 | "Unarmed and Unharmed"[9] | October 6, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 134 (Unarmed and Unharmed) originally aired December 9, 2009. | |||
| BC07 | Special 11 | "Phone Book Friction"[10] | October 13, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 106 (Phone Book Friction) originally aired September 10, 2008. | |||
| BC08 | Special 12 | "Duct Tape Hour"[11] | October 20, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 126 (Duct Tape Hour) originally aired October 14, 2009. | |||
| BC09 | Special 13 | "Curving Bullets"[12] | October 27, 2010 |
| This is a "Buster's Cut" of episode 123 (Curving Bullets) originally aired June 10, 2009. | |||
This episode aired first on Science Channel, as opposed to the show's regular home of Discovery Channel. A team of winners in Discovery's "Young Scientist Challenge" competitions tested environmental myths with the team. Former MythBuster Scottie Chapman returned to assist with a myth.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Greenhouse gases increase the amount of heat absorbed by air. | Confirmed | Airtight containers with carbon dioxide or methane added got one degree Celsius (2 °F) hotter than regular when heated by a hot lamp. |
| Electric cars are more sluggish than gasoline-powered cars. | Busted | They first had Jamie drive Brandon (a Young Scientist Challenge winner) in both a gas and electric consumer grade car, and blindfolded Brandon and covered Jamie's ears to see if they could tell the difference. Brandon couldn't tell, but being an experienced driver, Jamie was able to immediately tell based on the electric car's acceleration. Then Adam, Jamie, and Brandon built an electric go-kart using lithium iron phosphate batteries and tested it against a gas go-kart. Despite weighing twice as much as the gas go-kart, the electric go-kart performed about the same. Then they went to a professional track and watched the KillaCycle, an electric drag motorcycle race against a stock gas motorcycle. The gas motorcycle won by a slight margin. Then they had the X1 electric sports car race against an F430 Ferrari, and while the Ferrari's top speed was faster, the electric car accelerated faster and beat it in a drag race. Finally, they had the electric car race against a FJR50 Formula 3 race car. While the Formula 3 car easily beat the electric car, the electric car is considered a "street car," not a race car, and it did well enough that they proclaimed electric cars to be anything but slow. |
| Cows hurt the environment. | Confirmed | Cows emit methane—though not mostly from flatulence, but from belching — and their feces emit even more methane once they begin rotting. Since there are so many cows, the methane contributes significantly to global warming. |
| Cow manure can be used to help the environment. | Confirmed | Cow manure can be used to power things. The Young Scientists helped collect cow manure and extracted methane gas from it. Grant hooked up the methane gas and used it to power a hand lawnmower. They then saw that the farm where they had collected cow manure from received 90% of its electricity from its own manure-powered generator. |
The mini-myths are shown in video clips that are available from the Discovery Channel website, as well as during the commercials in between MythBusters episodes.
The Egg-uinox myth was perhaps too short to air in any episode, as it was easily and conclusively busted.[13]
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| An egg can be balanced on its ends only during the spring and fall equinox. | Busted | This is a Chinese folk belief, sometimes called Li Chun egg balancing after the first day of spring in the Chinese calendar. There is nothing special about the spring and fall equinoxes that allows an egg to balance on end. A person with enough dexterity can do it on any day of the year. Hard boiled eggs balance better than raw eggs, however. |
In a revisit of the Breakstep Bridge myth, Adam and Jamie decide that the suspension bridge that Adam had built was too stable to accurately test, so they build a simple beam bridge and test it under Adam's weight.[14] This test was also aired in MythBusters Outtakes.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| A bridge can be collapsed by the vibration caused by pedestrian traffic. The theory was soldiers break step on bridge, because if their march gets a resonant frequency of the bridge, it will snap the bridge. | Plausible | The bridge was able to hold Adam's weight until he started bouncing on it. |
The mini shark myths, while related to Discovery Channel's Shark Week, are not related to the movie Jaws in particular.[15]
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Sharks tend to be attracted to brighter colors like yellow. | Plausible | When all the results were calculated, the sharks tested preferred to go for the "yum-yum yellow" bait bag before the other ones (red, blue, black, white, silver). Though they did also go for the silver and black ones. |
| Sharks can detect a single drop of blood dropped into a pool of water. | Busted | The sharks detected fish blood, however they either did not detect human blood or did not care about it. Also, like any scent, the sharks weren't able to detect the blood until their noses came into contact with the blood particles, and the smell grew weaker as the blood got diluted by the water, meaning that a single drop of blood in a particular area of the pool would not be detectable by any shark that was not in that area, and was not swimming right into the blood. However, the MythBusters only used lemon sharks. Great whites or bull sharks might have gotten different results. |
| A shark's skin is rough enough to be used as sandpaper. | Confirmed | When compared to various grains of sandpaper, the sharkskin that Adam and Jamie acquired was comparable to a very high-grain (400 to 600) of sandpaper, and can be used as such, even on a rotary sander. |
| There is a rule of thumb a casual observer can use to adequately estimate the size of a shark. | Busted | Out of all the measurements taken of sharks of various species, only one (from nosetip to dorsal fin tip) could consistently be used to estimate the shark's size, and that requires knowledge of the specific shark species and an up-close measurement that would be too difficult and dangerous to be done by a casual observer. |
During live appearances by the MythBusters, they have screened additional segments that were not aired.
There were two additional myths addressed in addition to those in the Franklin's Kite episode. These two myths did not air because they were thought to be inappropriate for younger viewers.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Attractive women do not pass gas. | Busted | Kari wore underwear equipped with a microphone connected to an amplifier and a hydrogen sulfide meter. The meter malfunctioned, giving false positive readings. However, the microphone did record the sound of a released flatus.[16] |
| A flatus can be ignited. | Confirmed | Adam had some initial performance anxiety, but finally did release a flatus that could be ignited by a butane lighter.[17] The flammable methane within a regular flatus, despite only making up about 7% of the flatus' gasses, is still enough to set it alight upon release (when it first contacts and mixes with the air, but before it can diffuse altogether).
This segment was later aired as part of the "Top 25 Moments" special on June 16, 2010. |
Less a challenge than an inside joke. The MythBusters received many e-mails from fans complaining about Adam's brown teeth. This was originally planned for the "Steam Cannon" episode. However, on the Discovery Europe version, it is included in the episode.
| Myth statement | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Of all the MythBusters, Adam is the one with the brownest teeth. | Busted, then Confirmed | Jamie, Adam, Tory, and Grant all had their teeth checked by Kari. At first Jamie was the one with the brownest teeth, not Adam. However, after hearing the news, he had his teeth bleached to make them white again. After this, Adam did have the brownest teeth. The overall result, from best to worst: Grant, Tory, Adam, and finally Jamie (before his bleaching). |
BBC Two's editions of MythBusters are narrated by Rufus Hound in an energetic and irreverent style.
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