# A Hypothetical Idea **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 15, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684 "2005-12-15T02:46:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/1 "2005-12-15T02:46:54Z")
Let’s just say that hypothetically I and a few other friends were discussing the possibility of becoming a set of amateur mythbusters. So what myths or plain cool ideas would you suggest for a team of engineer students with too much time on their hands and a camera… all hypothetical of course. _cue innocent look_ Ideas so far: - Non combustible explosive fun (putting soda and mentos in a sealed bottle, etc…) - Possible fun with trebuchets All hypothetical of course… ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/2 "2005-12-15T02:48:09Z")
Wow. Not the most readable of posts I’ve made… My apologies. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/3 "2005-12-15T08:15:34Z")
How about basing it on the internet, tSDMB being one of them but also including most/all of those wacky sites you find with trebuchet instructions and how-to-build-a-soda-bottle-rocket stuff? Even including urban legends and other e-mail related stuff. Find out by actually going to a bottling plant whether or not eleventy bajillion aluminum pop-top tabs can buy little Timmy a new kidney. Release 100 helium balloons with notes, and do follow-up stories if and when they come back. Build the various trebuchets and fling stuff. For bonus points, fling internet-related stuff. For extra bonus points, fling stuff AT internet-related stuff. Send the same e-mail back and forth between your friends 10,000,000 times and wait for the tickets to Disneyland/check for $25 from Bill Gates/Guiness bar towel to arrive. Is transportation available? Maybe do the occasional travel show, where you visit some semi-famous internet site. Roadsigns or whatever, you know the ones. I dunno. Sounds fun tho. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/4 "2005-12-15T14:44:32Z")
Build a really big treadmill, put an airplane on it… 🆒 I have no creativity to add here, but I must caution you to first define the line between mythbusters and jackass. ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/5 "2005-12-15T15:28:35Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Build a really big treadmill, put an airplane on it… > > 🆒 > > I have no creativity to add here, but I must caution you to first define the line between mythbusters and jackass. Yeah brainstorming ideas have come dangerously close to jackass unfortunately. The biggest concern is making it interesting without making it illegal. We have this old canoe that previous tenants left behind so we were trying to come up with an idea for it. This quickly spiraled out of control into ideas involving explosives and dragging it down the road… In any cause, I squashed that quickly. Thanks for the ideas! Keep more coming. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/6 "2005-12-15T19:47:06Z")
First - Build a really, really big trebuchet. Second - Fling a piano. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/7 "2005-12-15T20:43:29Z")
> [@DeVena](#): > > Second - Fling a piano. I’d vote for a Volkswagon. ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/8 "2005-12-15T20:57:23Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > I’d vote for a Volkswagon. Fling a Volkswagon at a piano. Film a monkey with a typewriter, if you can’t find a monkey improvise with a cat or something. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/9 "2005-12-15T21:02:50Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#): > > Build a really big treadmill, put an airplane on it… > > 🆒 Buy a normal treadmill, put a stewardess on it… ---
**Author:** ![Improv\_Geek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b3f665/32.png) [@Improv\_Geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Improv_Geek)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/10 "2005-12-15T21:04:39Z")
I wonder if a Volkswagen dealership might sponsor us simply for the promotion of having one of his cars flung with a giant friggin trebuchet… ---
**Author:** ![Nature\_s\_Call](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nature_s_call/32/19006_2.png) [@Nature\_s\_Call](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nature_s_Call)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/11 "2005-12-15T21:11:04Z")
> [@Phnord Prephect](#): > > those wacky sites you find with trebuchet instructions Cite? Please oh please oh please cite! ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/12 "2005-12-15T21:43:49Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#): > > Cite? Please oh please oh please cite! Ahhh… [www.trebuchet.com](http://www.trebuchet.com) and [www.backyardartilery.com](http://www.backyardartilery.com) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![EmeraldGrue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dc4da7/32.png) [@EmeraldGrue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmeraldGrue)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/13 "2005-12-15T22:02:46Z")
Guys, come on. Pianos? Volkswagens? I have two words for you: _Smart Car_. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/14 "2005-12-15T22:25:27Z")
Until last week I’d have said something about my favorite old UL, the “woman impregnated by a bullet” story, but _Mythbusters_ actually tackled that one this week. I like ghost stories, like [The Face in the Window](http://facstaff.uwa.edu/ab/pickens.htm) in Carrollton, Alabama. Could a lightning flash really make a photographic negative as the legend states? Or will a camera/recorder left overnight really pick up music from [this bizarre Alabama planter’s mansion](http://facstaff.uwa.edu/ab/Gaineswood.htm)? ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-hypothetical-idea/335684/15 "2005-12-15T23:40:55Z")
How about testing the theory that assholes always get the chicks? How many licks it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop? Better yet, have this tested by a group of high school girls. Test the destructability of various types of luggage? Filled with fruit? Have a yard sale and put all the prices in binary, see how many people can actually interpret it? Or a film version of [Steve, Don’t Eat It!](http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/cat_steve_dont_eat_it.php)?