MythBusters - Who Ya Gonna Call?

An anonymous reader writes "The currently-airing Discovery Channel show MythBusters has been profiled in a Newsweek article. Basically, the show takes two former Hollywood effects designers as they set out to prove or disprove various folklore myths that have come about over the years, such as the actual effect of a poppy-seed bagel on a drug test, or what effect a penny dropped from the Empire State Building observation deck will have on a human at ground level."

topics topics topics

I've watched this show several times and I can't wait to see the one about the penny dropped off the skyscraper. I sent them an email, though, and asked them to answer these if they ever get around to it:

• Do you get wetter running or walking in the rain?
  
• Just how dangerous is it to answer the call of nature on the electrified third rail of a train track?
  
• Is cola really able to remove bloodstains and clean rust?

Re:topics topics topics

Cecil at Straight Dope [straightdope.com] (http://www.straightdope.com) has answered these and many other thousands of questions over the past 20-30 years. There is an archive with several hundred questions including the three in the parent.

Running In the Rain

Do you get wetter walking or running from point A to B in the rain? OK, let's make some key assumptions:
The amount of rain falling is constant and is equal between point A and B. Wind is not a factor. Assume that the rain drops are at critical velocity. You move through the path at a constant velocity.

Now, imagine freezing time - with all of the raindrops fixed in place. The rain that would hit you in 3s is maybe 100 feet up, while the the rain that hits you in 6 sec is 200 feet up. So, you simply convert the amount of time it takes to traverse A to B, and convert that to the vertical distance of the rain drops that would hit you when you get to point B. Then, you can simply use C^2 = A^2 + B^2, where A is the path length and B corresponds to the amount of time (rain height). So minimizing the C, total path length in the rain reduces how wet you get. Even if you moved at near-infinite speed, you would still get wet in the rain, but not as wet as someone who never moved.

Awesome

Glad to see them get press.

Might not be the best, or most factual show on TV, but it's sure entertaining.

Busted?

I wonder if there is any way of "busting" urban myths. Even after I send people to various urban legend sites to combat the more annoying email variety, it seems some people are just credulous or just want a good story to tell. I suspect that the reality of it is irrelevant, and busted or not, the same stories with be with us for a very long time.

And on the next episode...

They will explore whether or not a webserver can melt as a result of something called "The Slashdot effect".

Maybe...

Maybe when they get done debunkning all of the ULs you can find on Snopes, they can turn their crosshairs on huckster quackery such as cell-phone radiation shield stickers, magnet therapy bracelets and all the other crap that shows up on late-night infomercials.

THAT'S what I'd do to improve humanity.

Re:Maybe...

No, he'd just demand that pesky 'evidence' that snake oil peddlers worldwide have so much trouble coming up with. The nerve of him, to actually expect people making wild claims to substantiate them! It's ever so much easier to lie to people if you're never asked for, you know, evidence.

I'm quite in favor of debunking the likes of John "the biggest douchebag in the universe" Edward.

My favorite show

It's one of my favorite shows. Three thumbs up on the TiVo. For those interested here is a list of some of the topics they covered.

1. coke's ability to remove blood stains/rust/etc
2. do piercing's make you more susceptible to lightening
3. ice bullets (CIA myth)
4. the JADO rocket on the car in the desert
5. the weather balloon lawn chair story
6. running in the rain keeps you drier then walking
7. eel skin wallets erase credit cards
8. smoking on the toliet can kill ya
9. poppy seeds can make you test positive on a drug test
10. peeing on the third rail will kill ya
11. tree canon
12. ways to beat a breathalyzer
13. dropping a hammer in the water before you fall in will break your fall
14. penny off the empire state building
15. exploding cdrom drivers
16. breast implants explode in airplanes

anyway - good show... no answers listed - watch the show to find out.

Official Site

Here [discovery.com] is the official site for the show. There are a few fan sites that are navigable off of the main site too.

It's quite and entertaining and informative show, and should definately be Tivo'd (since, you know, we're all out on Friday nights).

They were almost really buried alive

Did you see the one that went wrong?

When they checked out the "Buried Alive!" urban legends by burying one in a metal coffin to see how long the air lasted, they didn't have all the information they needed.

The funeral home was happy to sell them a metal coffin but didn't tell them they bury coffins inside a concrete burial vault.

When the Mythbusters dumped several tons of dirt on the coffin with the tester inside the coffin began to collapse from the load.

They never did explain why they had that problem - A modern coffin can't be - and isn't buried by itself.

Myths and Urban Legends

If the Discovery show piqued your interest in busting commonly-held myths, check out www.snopes.com It analyses the truth behind those stories you always hear about Disney putting "SEX" in its movies, Richard Gere becoming involved with a gerbil, and other urban legends.

What about...

...the myth that Slashdotters can't get laid.

And more importantly, how are they going to test it?

An answer provided

From the article: "Is Jimmy Hoffa's body lying perfectly preserved in the concrete foundation of the Meadowlands sports stadium?"

No. Groundbreaking for the stadium at the Meadowlands (Giants Stadium) was in 1972, and Hoffa disappeared in the summer of '75. By then the stadium was not far from completion; the foundations had been laid long before.

However, the nearby New Jersey Turnpike is paved with concrete, and elevated portions of it are continually being resurfaced to deal with the effects of East Coast winters. Most people I knew when I was growing up in that area who had an opinion on the subject considered the Turnpike to be the most likely resting place for Hoffa.

Vint Cerf told me that Al Gore was in fact...

Vint Cerf [ibiblio.org] told me that Al Gore was in fact the strongest early supporter of making the old ArpaNet into the public utility we call the Internet. Without Gore's technical understanding and power in the U.S. Congress, it would have taken much longer.

For those who can remember back that far, there were many ArpaNet users who did now want the system open to the public. There was intense opposition to making the system open to commercial interests, too. Al Gore was a true visionary, in this case.

Re:what happens?

basically, they modified a rifle to fire a penny at about the same speed a penny would be falling at after traveling the 80 or so stories, factoring in updraft and the like. they then took small sections of sidewalk concrete and asphalt, along with a human skull embedded in balistics gel, and then fired the gun at all three multiple times.

oh, you say you want to know what happened during those shots? go find out yourself! you know how to use google, right?