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).
Episode overview
Episode SP2 – "Buster Special" Original air date: February 2, 2005
In this episode, Adam and Jamie relived Buster's finest moments, from his introduction in Exploding Toilet to his ultimate demise (supposedly in Ming Dynasty Astronaut), and showed the construction of the new "Buster 2.0". These moments include:
Exploding Toilet Barrel of Bricks Hammer Bridge Drop Raccoon Rocket The Mad Trombonist Forest Fire Scuba Diver Elevator of Death Boom-Lift Catapult Plywood Builder Ming Dynasty Astronaut
Episode SP3 – "Ultimate MythBusters" Original air date: February 9, 2005
In this episode, Adam and Jamie competed in a series of arguably ludicrous tests and competitions to determine which of the two was the "Ultimate MythBuster". These competitions tested their ingenuity, constitution, and courage to see just how far they were willing to go to claim the title of "Ultimate MythBuster".
Challenge Winner Notes Challenge 1: Build a machine that can shoot a tortilla as far as possible. Jamie Adam and Jamie had to first construct machines. Adam had built an arm out of wood. His machine took the tortilla and threw it between two aluminum plates. Jamie designed and built a cannon, made from pipe and a compressed air tank. Adam used all three attempts allowed by the competition rules, and his best shot was . In Jamie's first (and only) shot, the tortilla was projected . Challenge 2: The fear test Draw The East Bay Vivarium presented a selection of creatures (corn snakes, tarantulas, African emperor scorpions, and Tanzanian giant millipedes) to test the MythBusters' courage. The scorpions had the most effect on the two, but in this challenge, no winner was determined. Challenge 3: Guess the weight of three items. Adam Adam and Jamie had to guess the weight of three items: a toy car, an angel statue, and a hatch from a plane. Both were to wager two guesses: the first by observing the item, and the second by holding it. Adam guessed more accurately on all three occasions. Challenge 4: Build a device to drop an egg (without breaking it) with the help of two oranges, two latex gloves, paper, of tape, of string, and "other assorted trash found lying around the workshop". Each person has two attempts. Jamie Adam created a cone made of paper. He put an orange on the bottom, and the egg was placed inside the inflated gloves. He broke his egg on the first attempt, but he was successful on the second. Jamie first ate his orange and put the egg inside the orange peel. The orange went in one glove, and he tied it to a string. At the other end of the string, he affixed the five feet of tape. With this approach, he could drop the suspended egg from only a few feet off the ground with the string/tape. It was successful. Because Jamie succeeded in only one attempt, he was declared the winner. Adam protested, but as this was a contest of ingenuity, Jamie remained the winner. Challenge 5: Who possessed the higher threshold of pain was determined in a paintball standoff. Jamie The MythBusters needed to shoot each other, then after one shot, they needed to take a step closer and shoot again. The first volley: Jamie hit Adam's navel; Adam hit Jamie in the thigh. The second volley: Jamie shot Adam, once again hitting his navel. Adam hit Jamie in his protective cup. The third volley: Jamie, for a perfect record, hit Adam again in the navel. Adam hit Jamie in the upper chest. Adam then forfeited. Final challenge 6: The MythBusters episode quiz JamieAdam and Jamie quizzed each other regarding the events during some of the previous episodes. Adam had four and a half questions correct. Jamie won with five correct answers. Scores ; Winner
Episode 25 – "Brown Note" Original air date: February 16, 2005
Blown Away Someone who is shot and thrown backward a significant distance is a staple Hollywood visual effect. This was revisited in "MythBusters Revisited". Myth statement Status Notes A person will be propelled violently backwards if hit by a bullet. Busted A bullet fired by a gun cannot hold enough momentum. According to Newton's third law, if the bullet were to knock the target 20 ft (6 m) back, an equal amount of force would be applied in the direction of the gun—effectively knocking the shooter back about the same distance.
Brown Note Myth statement Status Notes An infrasonic "brown note" can cause humans to lose control of their bowels. Busted Even after testing a wide range of subaudible and near-subaudible noises on him, not once did Adam lose control of his bowels. Some discomfort was reported, however, due to the effects of low-frequency sound on the lungs.
Chinese Water Torture Myth statement Status Notes Chinese water torture can cause one to become insane. Confirmed The required torture equipment (and movement restrictions) is highly effective even without adding the discomfort of the water drip. The water drip itself, without the equipment, is almost negligible.
Episode 26 – "Salsa Escape" Original air date: February 23, 2005
Salsa Escape Myth statement Status Notes Salsa was used by a prisoner to corrode the window bars of his cell and escape. Plausible Given several years, it would be possible, due to the corrosive elements of the salsa. The use of electrolysis via a direct current source (a radio power supply) in conjunction with the salsa greatly accelerated the effect, as it drew the electrons out of the bars and into the wires. Adam's alternating current setup had no success whatsoever, since the electrolysis worked to both add and subtract metal from the bars, and caused a good deal of the "cooked" salsa to cake onto the bars. A urine-soaked silk shirt is strong enough to bend the bars of a prison cell when wrapped around them and twisted, as depicted in the film Shanghai Noon. Busted Adam tested this myth after he gave up on his salsa/alternating current escape plan. The bars proved too strong for the wet silk, tearing the fabric apart instead of bending the bars.
Cement Mix-Up Initially, the team intended to test only the scenario of explosives being used to clean a relatively thin layer of concrete from the inside of a truck. Due to a mishap when the truck was being collected, however, it was filled almost to the top with concrete, rather than just with the thin layer that the team wanted. Adam therefore suggested splitting this myth into two sub-myths: the original one of cleaning a thin layer out of a truck (for which the team had to obtain a second truck), and another one involving a driver using explosives in what would presumably be a desperate attempt to remove a massive solidified slab of concrete from the truck.
Myth statement Status Notes A stick of dynamite can clean the leftover scraps of concrete from the inside of a cement truck. Plausible A powder charge equivalent to 1.5 sticks of dynamite worked well and loosened or dislodged a lot of the dried excess concrete without noticeably damaging the barrel. A stick of dynamite can remove a slab of concrete from the inside of a cement truck. Busted A solid slab of concrete is too hard to remove practically, and it is tougher than the barrel itself. The MythBusters enlisted the aid of FBI explosive experts (in particular Frank Doyle, making the first of many appearances on the show) to load the truck and barrel with of ANFO. The resulting explosion reduced the truck to numerous very small fragments and a few larger pieces; the observers had to stand a mile away from the explosion. Billed as the biggest-ever explosion on the show to date (a record later surpassed by the homemade diamonds investigations), Jamie admitted, "This has got nothing to do with the myth; it's just a big boom". In the special "Shop Till You Drop", a large chunk of the barrel containing most of the concrete slab was shown in a junkyard. In the MythBusters episode on "Location, Location, Location" (2011), it was mentioned that this explosion was done only after the episode was supposed to be aired, and the producers decided something was missing.
Episode 27 – "Exploding Port-a-Potty" Original air date: March 2, 2005
Exploding Port-a-Potty Myth statement Status Notes Lighting a cigarette in a port-a-potty filled with methane gas will cause an explosion. Busted Not enough gas is produced by the decomposing waste in the port-a-potty for it to possibly be flammable. A person would need to be in a tightly sealed port-a-potty filled with thick methane gas for it to be flammable. By the time the gas was thick enough in the air to become flammable, the person would have long-since passed out from asphyxiation. Larger amounts of decomposing waste can produce more gas, and sewer gas explosions are a known safety hazard.
See also Exploding Toilet.
Driveshaft Pole Vault Myth statement Status Notes A broken driveshaft dragging on the ground can cause a car to pole-vault end-over-end if it strikes a pothole. Busted A car cannot be made to go end-over-end by striking a pothole with the driveshaft. The back end of the car can be lifted, but the likelihood of an event like this happening is extremely improbable. More likely is that the driveshaft would be forced into the trunk.
Episode 28 – "Is Yawning Contagious?" Original air date: March 9, 2005
This was the final episode in which the Build Team worked from their M6 workshop.
Toy Car Race Myth statement Status Notes Over a quarter-mile-long downhill course, a toy car can beat a full-sized Dodge Viper powered only by gravity. Partly busted A typical toy car, when tested on a real car tire, managed to stay on until the tire reached about . After experimenting with various die-cast model cars, the two MythBusters each made their own toy car with which to experiment. Adam's toy car proved too unstable to stay on the full course. Jamie's toy car was able to beat the Dodge Viper (the real car) over 100 ft (30 m), but over the full length of the course, the Viper won by an extremely wide margin.
Is Yawning Contagious? Myth statement Status Notes A person can be subconsciously influenced into yawning if another nearby person yawns. Confirmed A first experiment conducted by the Build Team, constituting ten people going through three separate tests (a control one, one involving the reading of a tax law, and one involving Scottie yawning near the subjects), produced yawns from several people only during the tax law test and was deemed to have too small of a sample. In a second test pool of 50 people where only the influence of Kari's yawn was used, those who were influenced into yawning (by her) yawned 29% of the time. However, those who were not influenced yawned only 25% of the time. It seems that the MythBusters also found the average time to yawn for those who did yawn was 9 minutes for those who had been influenced and 9.6 minutes for those who had not. This was enough for the MythBusters to give the "confirmed" rating, although there was the 4% difference between the experimental and control groups, which was not large enough to constitute a statistically significant difference (at alpha = 0.05).
Toast – Butter Side Up or Down?