MythBusters S2: Nuts & Bolts in Their Heads

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The discussion revolves around the entertainment value and scientific accuracy of a popular experimental TV show. Participants express skepticism about the show's experiments, noting that important variables are often overlooked, leading to questionable conclusions. Despite this, many find the show engaging and entertaining, with some praising the creativity of the experiments, such as building a rocket from plumbing materials. The conversation highlights concerns about safety in experiments, particularly when participants engage in risky behavior without proper precautions. There is also debate over specific myths tested on the show, such as Archimedes' burning mirror and the feasibility of splitting arrows, with some arguing that the tests were not conducted rigorously enough. Overall, while the show is appreciated for its entertainment value, there is a clear divide on its scientific credibility and the thoroughness of its myth-busting approach.
cronxeh
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Ok so I'm watching this online and I just keep thinking that those guys are.. missing a few nuts n bolts in their head :rolleyes:
 
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Most of the time, they are missing several important variables in their experiments...
 
Indeed. The conclusions they reach arent always the right ones imho. As I was watching a bowling ball almost hitting them in their slingshot experiment my jaw just dropped :rolleyes:

Quality TV, very entertaining. I can't believe they've never been injured with so many flaws in experiments :eek:
 
They're not exactly scientists I don't believe. I've wondered about some of the things they have done but generally it's all rather interesting and entertaining.
And that redhead assistent of their's is a hottie.:!)
 
cronxeh said:
Quality TV, very entertaining. I can't believe they've never been injured with so many flaws in experiments :eek:
There was one where they build a replica of the arc of the covenant and the girl wired it up to an electric fence transformer to deliberately shock the other guy. He was kinda ticked.
 
lmao that was great adam(the guy) was really mad at them because he said it could have hurt him seriously
 
zoobyshoe said:
There was one where they build a replica of the arc of the covenant and the girl wired it up to an electric fence transformer to deliberately shock the other guy. He was kinda ticked.

I can honestly say engineering classes ruined this show for me. Ignorance is bliss! I can't watch those experiments without some crap from statics or dynamics class popping into consciousness and yelling "wrong!" :frown:
 
TheStatutoryApe said:
And that redhead assistent of their's is a hottie.:!)
HELL YEAH, she's HOT!
 
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The recenlty made a rocket out of plumbing pipe and parts. The thing was a monster at 200lbs. They made it in 2 days, and if flew very nice. I was very impressed. There not so stupid as you make them out to be cronxeh. What myth have they done that has been wrong? Id say 99.9% of their conclusions are good. Do you really think they would just go on tv and say, based on this equation this won't work? Then the show would be stupid, that's kind of why they are out to bust the myth. The show isint called 'fact teller' well tell you what's a fact because its common sense.
 
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  • #10
Mk said:
HELL YEAH, she's HOT!
She even has her own website of her artwork...
http://www.karibyron.com/
I think I'm in love.
 
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  • #11
I must say, she is tallented.
 
  • #12
cyrusabdollahi said:
The recenlty made a rocket out of plumbing pipe and parts. The thing was a monster at 200lbs. They made it in 2 days, and if flew very nice. I was very impressed. There not so stupid as you make them out to be cronxeh. What myth have they done that has been wrong? Id say 99.9% of their conclusions are good. Do you really think they would just go on tv and say, based on this equation this won't work? Then the show would be stupid, that's kind of why they are out to bust the myth. The show isint called 'fact teller' well tell you what's a fact because its common sense.

I didnt say they were stupid, I just said they didnt reach all the conclusions. From season 2 I personally thought it is possible to slingshot a guy over 200 yards and land on a matress. How is trickier, but theoretically its possible. I think by making a longer acceleration ramp for less G's and attaching a glider to the dummy, you can land a dummy even farther


Jamie: "I'm going to break some environmental laws when I shower tonight" :smile: :smile: :smile: :smile:
 
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  • #13
Well, if you can't provide an anwser, then you are not one to say what can and can't be done. I don't recall the myth saying anything about a glider on his back...You don't understand the point of the show, do you? YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE MYTH AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE!
 
  • #14
cyrusabdollahi said:
Well, if you can't provide an anwser, then you are not one to say what can and can't be done. I don't recall the myth saying anything about a glider on his back...You don't understand the point of the show, do you? YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE MYTH AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE!
Which they didn't do with the one about the guy sandblasting the PVC pipe. I thought right away, that myth was NOT busted. They didn't give it a proper test.
 
  • #15
cyrusabdollahi said:
Well, if you can't provide an anwser, then you are not one to say what can and can't be done. I don't recall the myth saying anything about a glider on his back...You don't understand the point of the show, do you? YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW THE MYTH AS CLOSE AS POSSIBLE!

:smile:

In the arrow splitting episode they used robotic control to do the tests. Nothing like the myth - Robin Hood splitting an arrow dozens of feet away. They couldn't get the robotic, modern day aluminum-pulley longboy from 15 feet!
 
  • #16
Umm, did you bother to pay attention why? They wanted to see if it was possible, after they said it would be impossible to do by a person. Thats what they do, they show it can't be done, and then try to do it by any means possible. You don't get the point still, do you? It would always split along the grain, no matter what. So the myth was busted, either way. How is this not a valid test to you?
 
  • #17
I didn't feel like they gave Archemedies Solar Beam a proper test. There have been others, which do not come to mind, that I felt were unfairly busted. Just 'cus they can't do it doesn't mean it can't be done.
 
  • #18
I agree with the solar beam test (sort of). They did do it at MIT, but the myth said an army of men holding mirrors, and they did show that the number of men that had to hold the mirrors at such a tight confine would not be plausable. The people at Mit had tables, I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the myth, no? If they were all HOLDING the mirrors, then yes, Myth confirmed.

http://web.mit.edu/2.009/www/lectures/10_archimedesImages/4_killianArrayClose_big.jpg
 
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  • #19
cyrusabdollahi said:
Umm, did you bother to pay attention why? They wanted to see if it was possible, after they said it would be impossible to do by a person. Thats what they do, they show it can't be done, and then try to do it by any means possible. You don't get the point still, do you? It would always split along the grain, no matter what. So the myth was busted, either way. How is this not a valid test to you?


There is a probability on that experiment. And I'm sure its totally plausible to split it from end to head, but odds are very slim.
 
  • #20
Ok, ill give you that much, maybe like .00000000000000000000000000001% chance. But I would still call that BUSTED. Common, be sensible.
 
  • #21
I'm very impressed with their workshop. They have a LOT of money in tools, and floor space. All their stuff is boxed up like the national archives. I want a workshop like that, man.
 
  • #22
cyrusabdollahi said:
Ok, ill give you that much, maybe like .00000000000000000000000000001% chance. But I would still call that BUSTED. Common, be sensible.

I don't think so. It was in that little probability that Einstein told you it was possible to see all molecules in one chamber, (1/2)^n. The probability says its possible. Odds are slim, but still. How is it related to the arrow? I don't know, but I know its possible. :biggrin:
 
  • #23
......ooookay......Good, I am glad we agree, myth BUSTED.
 
  • #24
cyrusabdollahi said:
I agree with the solar beam test (sort of). They did do it at MIT, but the myth said an army of men holding mirrors,
I'm trying to find the original source of this myth with no luck. Some sites are saying he just built a huge mirror.
 
  • #25
Thats not likely zooby. making a large mirror is a veryyyyy hard thing to do. He would need a mirror that is almost perfectly parabolic to focus the light if he wanted one big one. It HAD to be small mirrors.
 
  • #26
cyrusabdollahi said:
Thats not likely zooby. making a large mirror is a veryyyyy hard thing to do. He would need a mirror that is almost perfectly parabolic to focus the light if he wanted one big one. It HAD to be small mirrors.
That's why I want to find the original wording. Did he build a large mirror from many small mirrors, in which case it's quite possible to set a boat on fire from a distance? If he did it this way and had the focal point set to a distance he knew the boats would have to approach, then it's perfectly plausible.

As far as an army of men holding mirrors goes, I would like to see this tried with some substantial mirrors. A foot square per man is lame. An authentic army of men holding shield sized mirrors might do some real damage.
 
  • #27
An authentic army of men holding shield sized mirrors might do some real damage.

Not unless its they are all trying to focus the energy in one spot, which is very hard to do on with a moving ship. If its so far away it seems to be still, then its too far. If its so close that the beams will work effectively, then the ship will be moving to fast. Your screwed either way.
 
  • #28
I watched an episode this weekend where they determined that a human's mouth is dirtier than a dog's mouth. They took samples and incubated at 98.6 degrees. Lo and behold... the dog's sample had fewer colonies.

Big shocker.

A dog's body temperature isn't 98.6 degrees; it's around 101. Canine bacteria wouldn't have evolved to thrive at human temperatures...

We get fevers to kill bacterial infections. 101 degrees is pretty sick for a human. It goes the other way, too.
 
  • #29
cyrusabdollahi said:
Not unless its they are all trying to focus the energy in one spot, which is very hard to do on with a moving ship. If its so far away it seems to be still, then its too far. If its so close that the beams will work effectively, then the ship will be moving to fast. Your screwed either way.
That's why I'd like to find the original myth. Were the men on shore and the ships in a harbor? If so, the ships would have been anchoring and the men taking to small boats to get to shore and invade. Also, how many men is an "army"? If it's enough, there migh always be a large enough percentage of them hitting the side of the ship with their refections to heat it past combustion temperature.

Fixed arrays of flat reflecting mirrors can reach temperatures of 1000 degrees at a hundred feet.

The other thing that occurred to me is that these old wooden sailing vessels are still built by hand in various places around the red sea and they oil them heavily to make them more water proof. If the ancients did the same that might make them more combustable.
 
  • #30
Fixed arrays of flat reflecting mirrors can reach temperatures of 1000 degrees at a hundred feet.

At 100 feet, you might as well shoot arrows of fire and save yourself the agony...eh?
 
  • #31
"Splitting arrows" bothered me a bit in the failure to find some of the tricks used by arrowsmiths for straightening arrow shafts, that is, forming shafts with continuous grain parallel to the axis; they depended instead on milled dowels.
 
  • #32
Thats true. But I still say until someone can do it, I am going to have to say BUSTED.
 
  • #33
cronxeh said:
I can't believe they've never been injured with so many flaws in experiments :eek:
Jamie and Adam are relatively ok with safety.
In the episode about the rocket vacuum cleaner, Tory's rig for supplying propane to an experiment was just insane. He put the propane tank on the other side of experiment, so if something went wrong he would be unable to turn off the propane (which was in a fairly large tank).
 
  • #34
http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Mirrors/Tzetzes.html" of the burning mirror story.
 
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  • #35
Just yesterday I was watching something on the history channel and they had the mirror story thing. It worked... (not hard to believe really, if you have so many mirrors, even half decent)EDIT: During the test to see if a person could be sucked out of a window in an airplane. They only payed attention to difference in pressures, but they didn't even care about how fast the plane was flying (air flying past it...quickly)...

EDIT2: The guy who tested the myth about the mirrors, I forgot who he was, but he even went to essentially the original spot and burned down a small fake ship...
 
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  • #36
Was the ship moving?
 
  • #37
Integral said:
http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Mirrors/Tzetzes.html" of the burning mirror story.
And http://www.solardeathray.com/" is one of those Solar Death Ray's. Which is awesomely cool by the way :biggrin: :biggrin: :biggrin:
I got to get me one of those. Read the one about the honey bear :smile:
 
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  • #38
Integral said:
http://www.math.nyu.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Mirrors/Tzetzes.html" of the burning mirror story.
Thanks for finding that, Integral.

It sounds like the beams from many small mirrors were aimed at the large mirror which was then aimed at a ship.
 
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