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Putting Star Wars to the MythBusters Test
Posted by
Zonk
on Tue Jan 31, 2006 03:52 PM
from the jamie-i-am-your-father dept.
from the jamie-i-am-your-father dept.
DangerTenor writes "The cast of the show MythBusters chat about their pasts with ILM, talk about some Star Wars myths (Can you avoid freezing to death in a blizzard overnight by gutting a dead animal like a tauntaun and getting into its carcass?) and why R2-D2 is the perfect sidekick." Not as cool as our interview, but pretty neat.
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The Mismatched 'MythBusters' 473 comments
biohack writes "Most fans of the MythBusters would agree that the two hosts of the show, Adam and Jamie, are 'diametrically opposed in every aspect of their lives'. The Christian Science Monitor story about the MythBusters explores the connection between the backgrounds of the hosts (who knew that Jamie had a degree in Russian literature?) and their creative differences on and off camera." From the article: "It took Hyneman a of couple years to feel comfortable talking in front of a camera, let alone to strangers on the street. 'You have to remember that I'm a guy who is happiest in a dark room just thinking,' he says. 'I'm not a sociable person. I don't like to talk.' Savage, on the other hand, is outgoing. They're clearly the Oscar and Felix of myth busting ... 'Jamie is all about total, complete, and utter control. Thinking first and then acting. Adam is about acting first and then thinking.'"
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That Tauntaun thing... (Score:5, Informative)
(Yeah, I am a Star Wars Geek.)
Re:That Tauntaun thing... (Score:5, Funny)
You mean would be cruel to the animal. The intern, on the other hand, well, they're interns!
Re:That Tauntaun thing... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Sounds like a social occasion (Score:5, Insightful)
The Real Myth (Score:5, Funny)
Talk like this, I do (Score:5, Funny)
Re:The Real Myth (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact there are real human languages that have OSV order.
More info at ahref=http://www.akerbeltz.org/beagangaidhlig/gra
Re:The Real Myth (Score:5, Informative)
No, is not English VSO. Is English SVO [wikipedia.org]. Sound VSO languages retarded.
Deathstar (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Deathstar (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Deathstar (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Deathstar (Score:5, Funny)
I don't have a good reason. It just seems like that's what the Empire would use.
Re: (Score:5, Interesting)
I guess that's why Darth Vader had to send out the TIE fighters...
Water cores (Score:5, Insightful)
Indeed, the pressure *would* be significant, and the water would either be in a solid or supercritical liquid phase - it'd be pretty unlikely that you'd find it possible to drive a submarine through it in either case, though, even if the submarine itself would be constructed to withstand the pressure and temperature at the core.
Of course, IANAP, though, so YMMV.
Water Phase Diagram (Score:5, Informative)
Note regions VIII-XI. With enough pressure yes, water will solidify. HOWEVER there is a temperature point at which the water will no longer solidify (not shown on this scale although you can see the "liquid dome" is increasing as temperature increases. Eventually if you go far enough to the right there is a point where only vapor exists, regardless of pressure.
So while GP is correct that pressure will solidify water there is also extreme temperature that will counteract the pressure. One must wonder why water cores don't exist in real life...
Re:Water cores (Score:5, Interesting)
There are twelve known physical types of ice [lsbu.ac.uk]. Look at the phase diagram carefully. Even at 10,000 gigapascals there are forms of ice. Most of these types are denser than water. What we typically think of as "water ice" is specifically called Ice-1 (there are two subtypes, cubic and hexagonal). Ice-2 through Ice-10 are all denser than water, with Ice-10 being 2.5 times as dense. That's some heavy ice. Ice-11 is less dense than water, but Ice-12 is again denser.
Our observations of water here on earth are not really representative of all the forms of H2O in nature. On the contrary, a big part of the reason why life is able to exist on this planet is that we are almost exactly at the triple point of water. By the weak anthropic principle, we only observe those forms of water that are conducive to the existence of life.
The only good wars... (Score:5, Funny)
A 50 footer? (Score:5, Informative)
Huh? Jamie Pierre just broke the skiing cliff-drop record [localnews8.com] with a 245-footer in Grand Targhee. I haven't seen the video yet, but supposedly he didn't even land it cleanly. (The New Zealander who previously held the record hit a 225-footer into slush, landing on his back with a backpack full of foam.)
C'mon, a 50-footer won't even get you into a movie nowadays unless you throw at least a 720...
The lightsaber myth... (Score:5, Interesting)
Even the most uninformed fan knows that it's not just the light, but it's plasma being shaped into a cylindrical shape approximately 1 meter in length (according to the Episode III novel) that gives the lightsaber its power. (Yes, and the Force, but let me just talk about the saber for the moment...)
One of the problem has to do with the state of the plasma, often called the fourth state of matter. It is by no means solid, and yet the fact that the lightsaber has a distinct shape when activated and the fact that two lightsabers can clash in a duel mean that there is a solid-like boundary to the blade that is inviolable. On the contrary, often we see the blade cutting through other objects and body parts with frightening ease. (Just ask Count Dooku.)
Which brings me to another issue: The power required to confine the plasma in a blade-like configuration (be it magnetic or otherwise) may well exceed the power to generate the blade in the first place. It seems almost redundant for a weapon of this type to be built, as the builder can control and direct the flow of plasma with a device no more than 30 centimeters in length. As someone else said regarding construction of Dyson Spheres, "If you can build it, you don't need it."
Re:The lightsaber myth... (Score:5, Funny)
Ah, but of course! [howstuffworks.com]
Re:The lightsaber myth... (Score:5, Funny)
Clearly there is some kind of quantum coherence going on in the plasma that effectively makes each lightsaber a single giant fermion. Then the Pauli exclusion principle keeps any two lightsabers from occupying the same space. This is why the only thing (other than Chuck Norris) that a lightsaber can't cut through is another lightsaber.
Don't read if you love Star Wars (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:nice try, but faulty. (Score:5, Funny)
I find your lack of faith disturbing...
Real myth needs busting (Score:5, Funny)
(Personally I suspect some post-Imperial propagandist doctored the data).
Re:Starwars and the crew (Score:5, Funny)