The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments (the myth is busted, plausible, or confirmed).
The show's first season used "True" instead of "Confirmed"; for the sake of consistency, "Confirmed" will be used on this page.
Episode overview
Episode 1 – "Exploding Toilet" Original air date: September 23, 2003
Exploding Toilet This experiment formally introduced Buster the crash test dummy.
Myth statement Status Notes Pouring gasoline down a toilet and lighting it will cause the toilet to explode. Busted The gasoline simply burned without exploding. Even half a tin of gunpowder in the toilet bowl was not able to eject Buster from the seat, though his clothes did smolder.
Who Gets Wetter? Myth statement Status Notes A person will end up drier by running in the rain rather than walking. Busted Adam and Jamie decided to wear coveralls through per hour of artificial rain and compare walking and running weights to determine which absorbed more water (with bodysuits underneath to remove sweat absorption as a variable). The original test showed that running faster results in getting wetter, with wind only adding minimal amounts of water. The independent tests of Thomas Peterson and Trevor Wallace of the National Climatic Data Center disagreed, finding the runner 40% less wet. The result of this myth was overturned in "MythBusters Revisited".
Magic Bullet This myth tested the feasibility of magic bullets that can be used to assassinate without leaving evidence, used as a plot device or otherwise mentioned in many movies, such as Most Wanted and Three Days of the Condor. A request for information to the Central Intelligence Agency was declined. Due to the myth's inclusion in many Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories, Adam and Jamie chose to use a Carcano rifle similar to the assassination weapon for testing.
Myth statement Status Notes An ice bullet can kill someone without leaving a trace. Busted The ice bullet evaporated before it could leave the barrel. This myth was retested in "Myths Revisited", and it remained busted with slow-frozen ice. A meat bullet can kill someone without leaving a trace. Busted The hamburger bullet fragmented on contact with the skin, causing only superficial damage. A gelatin bullet can kill someone without leaving a trace. Busted The bullet did not cause fatal injury from the 6.5×52mm Carcano round, but it had a better result from a revolver at point-blank range. Desiring a more subtle assassination tool, Adam and Jamie examined the Bulgarian umbrella. An assassin can use a poison capsule fired from an umbrella to kill someone without leaving a trace. Confirmed This was found to have been the cause of death of a notable Bulgarian journalist in exile, Georgi Markov. The MythBusters built a pair of replicas with a gas cylinder and an air gun, and fired both to lethal effect without leaving gunpowder burns.
Episode 2 – "Cell Phone Destroys Gas Station" Original air date: October 3, 2003
Cell Phone Destruction This myth was inspired by e-mails leading to some gas stations discouraging cell phone use during refueling, and also because at the time of the episode, there were 150 gas station fires annually in America.
This is also known as the myth that birthed two memorable MythBusters one-liners—Jamie's "Jamie wants big boom" and Adam's "Am I missing an eyebrow?" Myth statement Status Notes Using one's cell phone while pumping gasoline can cause an explosion. Busted For the initial test at the Stoke Gas & Memorabilia Town in Santa Rosa, Jamie and Adam rigged a cell phone inside a Lexan blast chamber that would be filled with flammable fuel vapor. Also inside, to test a secondary theory—static electricity—they came up with a "panty-static generator" that rubbed a pair of panties on a fur-covered car seat (simulating a woman getting into and out of a car—something they decided on since they did a stakeout and found women are six times more likely to re-enter their cars while refueling) and transferred the static electricity to a Leyden jar.
However, the first test was a failure on both counts, so the MythBusters scaled back down to find the right mixture. It was during one of these tests that confirmed that static electricity combined with a potent fuel-air mixture could cause an explosion that Adam singed off his eyebrow—and, according to Jamie, a chunk of his hair.
With renewed vigor and knowledge of proper fuel-air mixtures, Adam and Jamie returned to the Stoke Gas Museum, but they found that neither the cell phone nor the panty-static generator caused explosions even with large amounts of the ideal fuel-air mixture inside the chamber, thus busting the myth. Adam and Jamie did finally get an explosion when they added a neon transformer to the chamber, which blew the chamber into two halves and left the car seat on fire (Adam and Jamie had wired the chamber with a fail point so that it would be a safe failure and not cause shrapnel in case of a large explosion).
Adam and Jamie found that the actual risk comes from an electrostatic discharge between a charged driver and the car, often a result of static electricity buildup from getting into and out of the vehicle, and re-busted the myth in "Myths Revisited".
Silicone Breasts Myth statement Status Notes Silicone breast implants may explode at high altitudes or low air pressure. Busted Using a hypobaric chamber, the implants expanded negligibly at , an altitude too high for a human to survive for long periods. Using a hyperbaric chamber yielded no impact. A study by Duke University concluded that atmospheric conditions would be lethal long before they could affect implants. A spinoff of this myth was tested in "Myths Revisited", while the DVD version includes the second version of the spinoff.
Exploding CDs? Myth statement Status Notes Compact discs can shatter if placed in a high-speed (i.e., 40× or faster) optical disc drive. Plausible It was proven that a high rotation (in excess of 23,000 RPM) could shatter the CDs, but the MythBusters could not achieve this using an unaltered drive. Physically damaged and unbalanced CDs made shattering more likely. The MythBusters concluded that while this event was possible, it was very unlikely to happen.
Episode 3 – "Barrel of Bricks" Original air date: October 10, 2003
Barrel of Bricks Myth statement Status Notes A bricklayer hoisting a wooden barrel full of bricks with a pulley from the top of a three-story building could be injured repeatedly. Plausible The MythBusters were able to injure Buster by hitting him with the descending barrel as it pulled him up, but the barrel would not break and spill its load until deliberately weakened by removing hoops and dropping it on a sharp edge. This allowed Buster's weight to overcome the broken barrel and fall, while a quick-release mechanism in Buster's hand holding the rope allowed the barrel to be dropped a second time for the third impact. However, there was no evidence of the myth happening; the source of the myth appears to be a joke book. This test marks the first time Buster was broken in the course of an experiment.
Peeing on the Third Rail Myth statement Status Notes Urinating on the electric third rail of a train track can cause electrocution. Busted Since ballistic gelatin has the same electrical resistance as a human body, the MythBusters rigged a dummy with a urination valve and electric release that would trigger with exposure to current. Even wetting the feet and removing shoes failed to trigger the release, due to the urine stream failing to stay laminar and solid enough to complete a circuit. A larger valve failed to create a solid stream, but setting the dummy unrealistically close to the rail finally succeeded. A spinoff of this myth was tested in "Myths Revisited". In this episode, the "genitalia" region of the dummy is censored, and no reference is made verbally, instead referring only to the urination process.
While the MythBusters were testing the myth at a train yard, the yard's operators gave Adam permission to test a "mini-myth" with one of their engines:
Myth statement Status Notes Placing a coin on a train track is sufficient to derail a train. Busted Adam placed four different types of coins on the track at the same time, but none of them had any noticeable effect on the engine. All that happened was that the coins were flattened and partially melted by the intense friction generated as the engine passed over them.
Eelskin Wallet Myth statement Status Notes Using an electric eel-skin wallet will cause a static charge that will cause failure in a magnetic stripe card. Busted Most eel-skin wallets are not made from electric eels but rather from a fish called a hagfish, which does not produce an electric charge. Data written to a set of test cards were not affected in any way from this leather exposure, nor were they affected by direct exposure to an eel in a tank. In addition, further tests were conducted to see how much magnetism it would take to "wipe" a card, and it was found to be about 1,000 gauss (0.1T), far above what the average person may encounter.
Episode 4 – "Penny Drop" Original air date: October 17, 2003
Penny Drop Myth statement Status Notes A penny dropped from a skyscraper lands with enough force to either kill a pedestrian on the sidewalk below or embed itself into the sidewalk. Busted Firing a penny at terminal velocity () into concrete and asphalt disks and a ballistics gel head with a human skull failed to result in any penetrations, likely because the speed is too low and a penny's mass is too small. Even when fired from a rifle, the penny was unable to penetrate concrete or a ballistic gel dummy's skull. In comparison, a real 6.5mm bullet split the dummy skull. Visiting the Empire State Building, the likely source of the myth, Adam and Jamie realized that updrafts and roofs of lower floors would prevent a thrown penny from reaching street level.
Radio Tooth Fillings Myth statement Status Notes It is possible to pick up radio signals through a dental filling. Busted The gold and amalgam tooth fillings did not act as an antenna or point-contact transistor when placed in a real human skull. Explanations for the supposed Morse code pickup included a Galvanic cell reaction between two tooth fillings and saliva.
This myth was first claimed by Lucille Ball in an interview on The Dick Cavett Show, with the fillings explanation offered by Buster Keaton.
Microwave Madness Despite mid-episode teasers, the MythBusters refused to microwave a live poodle, and they were thus unable to test the myth that a microwave can dry a wet dog.