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Ask The Mythbusters

Posted by Zonk on Tue Nov 22, 2005 10:29 AM
from the she-blinded-me-with-science dept.
Who are the Mythbusters? Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the hosts of a unique and popular television show on the Discovery cable channel. Working from a background in the special effects industry and shooting on location at effects warehouse M5 Industries, Jamie and Adam attempt to shed light on hearsay, rumour, and myth. Along the way they usually run across a little bit of science, too. Today, you have a chance to put questions to them. We'll take the 15 best questions and pass them on to the gentlemen to be answered sometime soon after the Thanksgiving holiday. One question per comment, please, and keep things topical. We'll post their responses as soon as we get them back, so ask away.
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  • Favorites (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MikesOnFire (324035) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:31AM (#14090541)
    Lets start simple -
    What is your favorite Busted Myth and your favorite Confirmed one?
  • Have you ever been completely blown away by what you've found? Has there been an experiment where you two just sit back and say "Huh...who woulda thought?" Most of the myths are pretty easy to debunk, but I'm just curious as to whether or not there was actually one that you guys did that totally shocked you in being true.
  • by richdun (672214) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:32AM (#14090570)
    With an unlimited budget, what "myth" would you most like to test? How about using 1960s technology to try and land on the moon?
  • by skywalker107 (220077) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:34AM (#14090589)
    What Myths have you tested that have never made it on the show? What about them made you and the producers decide they didn't qualify to go on the air?
  • by Winterblink (575267) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:34AM (#14090591) Homepage
    What has been your most challenging myth to bust? And is there a particular myth you feel would be a challenging one to try taking on?
  • Injuries (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jacksonai (604950) <taladon@gmail.com> on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:34AM (#14090592)
    What is the worst injury anyone sustained while trying to bust a myth?
  • ultimate myth? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Antonymous Flower (848759) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:35AM (#14090602) Homepage
    What myth would the Mythbusters most like to investigate but lack the means to do so?
  • Cool (Score:5, Funny)

    by JWW (79176) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:35AM (#14090604)
    Mythbusters is a great show! Oh, yeah I should ask a question.

    I understand completely why you guys warn us to "not try this at home". But who warns you guys?

    Ok all joking aside. You guys do some really dangerous stuff on the show. What has been the scariest/ most hair raising moment on the show so far, a time when you might have thought "this is really going to hurt"?
  • upside down car (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Marqis (197235) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:35AM (#14090605) Homepage

    I heard that an F1 racing car has enough downdraft to drive upside down at speed. True or false?
  • Fact vs Fun (Score:5, Interesting)

    by elrick_the_brave (160509) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:35AM (#14090609)
    When I watch your show, it's obvious that there is a lot of fun going on. Who wouldn't like blowing up, breaking down, stinking up, falling down, and all-around destroying everything?

    For those of us not of TV-land.. how long does it take for you guys to produce an average episode.. how much of it is fun vs time spent working on getting it right?

    Would you consider a contest to have a guest helper? (Not that I am plugging this potential guest helper at all.. no!).
  • Is it true? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by robyannetta (820243) * on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:36AM (#14090614) Homepage
    Similar to a stunt in a famous James Bond film, can a person really be shot out of a submarine torpedo tube?
  • by tgd (2822) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:36AM (#14090619)
    What is Kari's phone number, and whats her favorite restaurant?
  • by hal2814 (725639) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:36AM (#14090626)
    Did you guys come up with the idea for the show or was it presented to you? If you came up with it yourself, how?
  • Budget (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wobedraggled (549225) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:36AM (#14090627) Homepage
    What is the most you can spend on one myth? What is the most spent so far on one myth? Thanks, and awesome show
  • q: (Score:5, Interesting)

    by TheBeardIsRed (695409) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:36AM (#14090628)
    What was the pitch process like for the show and what myths did you propose to sell the TV execs on it?
  • Impact on the World (Score:5, Interesting)

    by verbatim_verbose (411803) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:37AM (#14090636)
    Of all of the myths you have busted, has any one in particular stood out as changing the way much of the public thinks?
  • Gilligan's Island (Score:5, Interesting)

    by netglen (253539) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:37AM (#14090637)
    QUESTION: Is it possible to create batteries out of coconuts like in all those episodes of Gilligan's Island?
  • Computer myths? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Short Circuit (52384) * <mikemol@gmail.com> on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:37AM (#14090638) Homepage Journal
    Could you take on some computer myths? Like whether or not it was ever possible for a virus to destroy old monitors? It was rumored that if a virus could change the refresh rates to a too low or too high setting, you could fry some of the internal circuitry.
  • Critique (Score:5, Interesting)

    by CrazySailor (20688) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:37AM (#14090643) Homepage Journal
    How would you address the critique that you excessively extrapolate from a single data point to a generality?

    In particular I refer to a show where you were examining fuel mileage on SUVs with windows open vs. air conditioning. As an engineer, I believe that you failed to conduct adequate experimentation to demonstrate anything other than results at a single data point and you didn't make that clear to your viewers.
  • Source Material (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DigitalSorceress (156609) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:38AM (#14090657)
    I've been a fan since your first season, and in that time, you've covered quite a few of the big, classic myths and legends. Are you ever concerned that you'll "use up" all the best source material, sort of running out of steam as it were? or is the internet such a fertile ground for kooks and bad jokes that you figure you can go on indefinitely (or at least until you accidentally cause the spontaneous destruction of the universe while trying to prove a theory about the second gunman in the Grassy Knoll)
  • by dslauson (914147) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:38AM (#14090662) Journal
    Dear Mythbusters-
    It seems like it must be tempting to definitively call a myth "busted", even though the reality is that you just couldn't duplicate the results. Whether something is fact or fiction, scientifically a myth probably shouldn't be considered "busted" unless you have empirically show it to be implausable.

    You guys generally do a good job of this, though on occasion I've seen an episode where you seemed a little premature. What can you say about where you draw the line, and do you feel like you generally do a good job of following the scientific method to get your results?

    Also, can you get me that redhead's phone number?
  • by GigsVT (208848) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:38AM (#14090663) Journal
    Are Kari and Grant a couple? I noticed Grant let Kari use his TI-30Xa calculator. I can't imagine such a sacrifice would be made lightly.
  • by s20451 (410424) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:38AM (#14090666) Journal
    Let me firstly say that I like your show as entertainment. However, I do not like it as a form of true skepticism or as science. What you do is fun and interesting, but it is not rigorous. I'm thinking particularly of the time you tried to flip a taxi with a jet engine, which failed on your show, but which actually happened in real life. So it's not obvious that a failure on your show means anything.

    My question is this: are you taking yourselves too seriously as "myth busters"? (And a suggestion: why not let a physics prof supervise some of your stunts?)
  • Blasting Zone Myth (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fatboy (6851) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:39AM (#14090673)
    Hey guys, love the show. I was wondering why you have not tackled the "Blasting Zone" myth. You know, were you are asked to turn off 2-way radio equipment and Cell Phones when passing through a "Blasting Zone". I ask this because several years ago there was an accidental blast in my home town and many speculated on the radio that it was caused by RF from a cellphone. Several of us amateur radio operators kind of laughed at that because there are few guys that supposedly tried to set off a blasting cap with radios, just to see if it could be done. They went so far as to even wire the blasting cap into a 100 watt VHF (low band ~50Mhz) radio's antenna jack. Nope it didn't go off. Using inverse square law, it seems very unlikely that a cellphone or 2-way radio could set off a blasting cap at any distance.
  • Budget restrictions? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mr Bill (21249) on Tuesday November 22 2005, @10:39AM (#14090677)

    What sort of budget limits do you guys have for your show these days? I remember seeing some earlier episodes where money really seemed to be an issue (spending an extra $700 on helium for the weather baloon lawn chair seemed to cause some concern). Whereas these days you guys seem to have no problem blowing up cement trucks or catapulting a boom lift.

    As a corollary: Which experiment(s) ran rediculously over budget, and which one was surpirisingly cheap to pull off?