MythBusters (2009 season)

In the original video, the ball was made of sculpted Styrofoam. The creators of the video sought the advice of LEGO Master Model Builders and claimed that they gave them the one-million piece estimate, though the company claims it never gave them such an estimate.

Thinking that the high viscosity of the syrup may have affected the results, Adam and Jamie replaced it with a mixture that was only slightly more viscous than water. Adam again swam three lengths in each pool and found that his syrup time was now only 2.8% slower than in water. A third batch, this one about as viscous as maple syrup, was prepared for both Adam and Olympic gold medalist swimmer Nathan Adrian. Adam and Nathan swam 5.4% and 9% slower here than in water, respectively (though Adam and Jamie decided to disregard Nathan's results, since he was so familiar with swimming in water that he lost his technique in the syrup and thus could not deliver a consistent performance). Based on the results for light and medium syrup, which they considered to be within the margin of error for their testing method, Adam and Jamie declared the myth plausible.

The Build Team was brought in to determine the terminal velocity, based on one specific type of skydiving suit and the diver's body position. From several jumps, they determined that the diver could reach a maximum speed of 122 miles per hour (196 km/h) in a vertical position.

Meanwhile, Adam and Jamie designed and built a seesaw that could effectively deliver the energy of the falling skydiver to the girl without buckling. Adam did some small-scale tests to correlate drop height and maximum launch height, and also to follow the girl's trajectory in the air.

Next, the Build Team did some bungee jumping to find a way to accelerate the diver to terminal velocity without having to drop him from several hundred feet up. Their solution: attach the ends of a heavy-duty bungee cord to the diver and the ground, haul the diver up using a crane, and release him so that the cord would snap him downward at high speed.

A wetsuit filled with an alginate/water mixture and dressed in a skydiving suit was used to represent the diver. The team set up the equipment at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, using the heavy-duty bungee cord and a pair of guide wires to make sure the diver dummy would hit the target accurately, and found that they could indeed reach 122 miles per hour. The girl dummy was outfitted with "shock watch" stickers to measure the forces exerted on it, and three drops were carried out. The results:

• 1st: diver hit slightly off-center and burst on impact; girl flew 55 feet (17 m) up and 70 feet (21 m) laterally, but suffered enough force to kill her
• 2nd: sand-filled inner tube used for diver; girl hit the guide wires
• 3rd: girl flew 130 feet (40 m) up at an angle (equivalent of 200 feet or 60 meters straight up), but experienced a g-force of 42 g which would cause serious injury even before she hit the ground

Based on the need for a super-strong seesaw and the injuries inflicted on the girl, the team declared the myth busted.

For full-scale testing, they started at a firing range and used a .45 caliber pistol to measure the distance a bullet would travel before hitting the ground. Since the ground there was not level, they set up a second test at Fort Mason. Once they had properly fine-tuned their mechanism to fire and drop the bullets at the same time, they found that the two bullets landed within 39.6 milliseconds of each other. Commenting that this difference was less than the duration of one film frame (shot at 24 frames per second), and thus short enough for the human eye not to notice, they declared the myth confirmed.

The Build Team set up a nitrogen-powered cannon to deliver a powerful uppercut to Buster, stronger than the best heavyweight boxers. Buster's socks stayed on after the hit, though one of them slid down somewhat. In the next test, they swung a heavy pendulum (roughly 1,700 pounds (770 kg)) down into Buster's chest, first with shoes and socks, then with socks only. The second swing left Buster with one sock almost off his foot, but further scrutiny revealed that it came loose when that foot dragged along the ground after impact.

The team then set up an explosion, using 500 pounds (230 kg) of ANFO and mannequin legs in socks at distances between 15 and 55 feet (4.6 and 16.8 m). Rupture discs calibrated to burst at 100 pounds per square inch (690 kPa) were set up at each distance as well, to evaluate the likelihood of a person's survival. The blast stripped socks off at 15 and 25 feet (4.6 and 7.6 m), bursting those discs and the one at 35 feet (11 m); at the longer distances, both the discs and the legs were intact. Since a person who lost his socks in this explosion would also be killed, the team declared the myth busted.

To investigate further, Adam and Jamie did some smaller-scale tests, varying the oil/water ratio and the shape of the cooking pot. The latter had no apparent effect on the fireball height, but they decided to use a 2:1 ratio (2 US qt (1,900 mL) of oil, 1 US qt (950 mL) of water) for further full-scale work in a mockup kitchen set. Under these conditions, they were able to get a 30-foot (9.1 m) fireball; however, they declared the myth busted because the original 8:1 ratio did not generate the stated result.

In a further test, they set up a shelf to drop an unopened can of soup into the oil, reasoning that having all the water-based material at the bottom of the pot would more effectively launch the oil when it vaporized and exploded. The result was a fireball with an estimated height of 100 feet (30 m).

In a related test not aired in the actual episode but shown on the MythBusters website, Kari made an ice sculpture of a pig's head. The pan hammer only broke off the snout of the ice head; the rest of the head was shattered after it fell off the table.

In a test shown only in the MythBusters website (and aired in versions of the episode shown outside the US instead of the deadbolt test), a second padlock test was done using a large heavy-duty padlock. There, Tory was unsuccessful in breaking the room-temperature lock after four minutes; he only broke part of the bunker's lock hasp. When a second lock was dipped into liquid nitrogen, it took Tory only five hits and 14 seconds to smash it.

With accelerometers on his body to measure his speed changes, Buster was dropped from 20 feet (6 m) into the air bag and a dumpster full of foam rubber. The two trials yielded g-forces of 11.4 g and 9.9 g, respectively, indicating that a leap into the dumpster would be survivable and perhaps even more comfortable than jumping into the airbag because of the lower g-force involved. Adam then attempted the dumpster jump from the same height; upon landing, he was able to climb out and run away. He and Jamie classified the myth as plausible, but not recommended, since a person making the jump would have no way of knowing ahead of time whether the dumpster contents would safely break the fall.

At this point, Kari withdrew from further work to go on maternity leave and was replaced by Jessi Combs. The team made a full-size human analog from pork and a model skeleton, filled its chest with simulated internal organs, dressed it in a suit and Mark V dive helmet, and lowered it to a depth of 300 feet (90 m) in the ocean. After the suit was properly pressurized to 135 pounds per square inch (930 kPa) to match the water depth, they cut the air supply. The pressure change caved in portions of the helmet and caused it to fill with flesh, blood, and organs from the body being crushed upward. Based on this result, the team declared the myth confirmed.

They decided to use 22,000 tablets (roughly 10 years' worth, based on two tablets provided with every meal) in their first full-scale test. After lining the cell with plastic, they mixed the tablets with 350 US gallons (1,300 L) of water but did not see any rise in pressure. Realizing that the gas was probably leaking out around the plumbing pipes, they removed the fixtures and brought in the equivalent of 100,000 tablets worth of solid and powdered antacid. When the water was added, the resulting pressure—a peak of 4 pounds per square inch (28 kPa)—bent the door outward severely until the plastic lining burst at its lower edge. In the end, Adam and Jamie agreed that while the method could perhaps be used to break open a prison cell, there was a fatal flaw; if the prisoner was inside the plastic, they would rapidly be overcome and suffocated by the amount of carbon dioxide released from the tablets, and if they were outside the plastic, the resulting pressure from the bag pressing on their body would cause compressive asphyxia and/or fatal internal injuries. Based on this, and the unfeasibly large number of tablets required, they deemed the myth busted.

Jessi suggested that the team add the hazard of an oncoming car's headlights, and Grant placed a robot on the course for this purpose. When Tory tried to drive the course, the glare from the lights caused him to crash almost immediately. Finally, he put on a set of night vision goggles and attempted one more run, with Jessi chasing him on a go kart outfitted with a siren and flashing lights to simulate a police car. He performed badly, complaining of a lack of depth perception and a narrow field of view, and was soon caught by Jessi. Since no one was able to negotiate the course well without lights, the team declared the myth busted.

They then devised separate methods for determining whether a person would be startled enough to drop his gun if it were hit. Adam built a paddle with a gun butt and allowed Jamie to hit it with a baseball bat, delivering roughly the same kinetic energy as a bullet; he dropped it on impact, but Jamie was not satisfied with the result. He attached a short side barrel to a revolver, intending to fire a bullet out of it so that the recoil would match the kick of a bullet in flight hitting the gun. This rig did not work properly, so he removed the side barrel and attached a second grip upside down on top of the revolver frame, mounted on a swivel.

Each man held the gun in all three positions ("draw," "shootout," "hostage") while the other triggered it remotely at a random time. Jamie dropped it in "draw" and "hostage," but not in "shootout," while Adam held onto it in every situation. Owing to the difficulty of hitting the small target of the revolver, the high risk of shrapnel injuries, and the unpredictable reactions of the person holding the weapon, Adam and Jamie classified the myth as busted.

The team theorized that hidden ramps placed on either end of the gap may have helped the bus to make its jump safely. After outfitting their full-size bus for remote-control steering on an airfield, they did a speed test and found that it could go up to 58 miles per hour (93 km/h), rather than the 70 miles per hour (110 km/h) depicted in the film. With the 50-foot target distance scaled down to allow for the lower top speed, they jumped the bus off a ramp; it fell far short of the target, but remained relatively intact until it hit a concrete safety barricade. Since the bus could not make the jump, the team declared the myth busted.

The team conjectured that the car in the film may have been weighted at its rear end in order to make it behave as it did. They performed some small-scale tests to determine the best speed and whether or not the ramp was needed, then set up a second car for another jump. This time, they ran at 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), with the ramp removed, and were able to skip the car all the way to the other end of the pond and drive it away. Since the scene had proven impossible as shown in the film (with the original speed and the ramp), the team declared the myth busted.

• Toilet seat - 2
• Cell phone - 6
• Shopping cart handle - 10
• Hotel room TV remote - 44
• Computer keyboard - 65
• Light switch - 332
• Paper money - 936
• Kitchen sponge - Too many to count

In descending order, the sponge, money, light switch, and keyboard were found to have the highest numbers of dangerous germs. Adam and Jamie recruited a college class to take swabs from 10 of each item, again including 10 toilet seats for comparison, and incubated them as before. This time, the ranking (in descending order of average germ count) was: sponge, money, keyboard, toilet seat, light switch. Because some items did have more germs than the toilet seats, the myth was labeled as confirmed.

When they loaded the bamboo cannon with industrial powder and set it off, the resulting explosion destroyed the barrel and wrecked "Kirk," but the Gorn was undamaged. Finally, they made a second cannon, reinforced its breech with plywood, and fired it with the same charge, injuring "Kirk" far worse than the Gorn and leading the team to declare the myth busted.