Home | Television | Reality
One of the best television shows on the Discovery Channel has to be Mythbusters. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, two people with over 30 combined years in the special effects industry do many of the major myths. Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara, and Kari Byron do the minor myths, and Jessi Combs does many of the fabrications. Together they tackle myths sent in from the viewers, actual accounts, and other resources head on to discover whether they could work, or are busted. While many myths have been proven plausible, and even confirmed, there are just as many completely busted. One myth was about a prisoner in the 18th century that placed the ball that was chained to his foot to launch himself over the prison wall and not only survive, but escape. This myth was totally busted, because after careful calculations,, while the ball itself launched well over a wall at 80 yard, when attached to their test dummy Buster, he flew an abysmal six feet. Many myths involving popcorn have also been busted by mythbusters, including trying to pop it using the detonation of a propane tank, and by igniting dairy creamer. In both cases, while the tank and dairy creamer did explode, the speed and energy of the explosion only dispersed the kernels, but didn't pop them. They even tried to pop corn using a laser like in the movie Real Genius, but busted that as well, the first reason being that a 5-megawatt laser doesn't exist. There have been many bullet related myths also busted. One is one from the movie Wanted, curving a bullet around an obstacle by swinging or flicking their arm. Grant, Tor, and Kari all attempted to fire at a target around an obstacle, but couldn't do it. Even the robot they made that could swing a gun a superhuman speeds couldn't shoot around an obstacle. One myth that was busted with the help of a young scientist was that electric vehicles are more sluggish than a gas powered vehicle. Adam, Jaime and the Young Scientist Challenge winner Brandon built an electric go-kart with lithium-based batteries, and tested it head to head against a gas-powered model. Even though the electric Kart was twice the weight of the gas engine, it still performed the same. When electric racecars were compared to regular gas vehicles, the results were very similar. One of the more unique myths busted certainly has to be trying to get a piece of straw to penetrate a palm tree propelled by hurricane force winds. While they were easily able to match the world record ground level wind speeds at 320mph, no matter how many ways they tried to get it to go through a palm tree, it only managed to penetrate a quarter of an inch. Even using a piece of reed, it still only penetrated two inches. It wasn't until they used a piece of piano wire that it not only went through the tree, but also a piece of plywood and finally embedded into a cement wall. There are many more results to be found online at the official Mythbusters website. To make your search easier, go to the season results section of the site. You can find out all kinds of interesting facts about the cast members, play games and do quizzes, and even submit suggestions for upcoming episodes. You can find useful tips on preparing for disasters, as well as many others.
Article Source: http://www.mandcnews.com
Sheila Dollarsby's kids absolutley love the show "Mythbusters" that airs on The Discovery Channel. They love it so much that she purchased the DVD collection for them from Discovery Channel Store. There are all kinds of other great shows and DVDs that can be purchased from the Discovery Channel Store. They make a great addition to any home DVD collection.
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
