Did anyone see the show Myth Busters on the Discovery Channel? The basic format is two guys taking famous urban legends and running off-the-wall experiments to see if they could have really happened.
The first episode had them try to build a rocket powered Chevy, as well as tackle the legend that Mikey from the Life Cereal commercials died from drinking Coke and eating Pop-Rocks at the same time. Episode two covered the woman who got stuck to the airplane toilet, the guy who accidentally threw himself out the sky scraper window, and the woman who was “shot” by the exploding biscuit canister.
They mostly concentrated on trying to recreate the situations, but periodically cut to doctors, engineers or researchers discussing evidence that the actual events did or didn’t happen.
It was very interesting, and it was a lot of fun watching them setting up the wacky experiments. I don’t know if there are more than the two episodes. The Discovery Channel web site doesn’t list any others…
Man! I was totally going to catch that, I saw it on, but I went back to reading instead. So, it seems pretty cool, guess I’ll check the listing. But, geez, how many experiments are there to be conducted? I can’t really think of any (I’m positive there’s a bunch more, just not enough). Anyone else?
There’s plenty; all the producers hafta do is look at Snopes.com.
Anyway, I never heard of this show AND we have the Discovery channel! ARGH! Why do urban legends shows always pass me by? I’ll try to catch it sometime.
A friend of mine once, on a dare, snorted Pop Rocks. He survived without any long term damage.
Believe it or not, this isn’t the stupidest thing he’s ever done…
I thought the one about the guy stress testing the window was true? I’ll have to check snopes.
I’ve also eaten pop rocks and drank coke. We used to do it on a weekly basis for our burping contest at work.
Even the Rocket Car bit wasn’t accurate. The original UL was the guy was driving on street tires on a desert highway and ran into a bit of trouble when his car could not negotiate a turn or brake from 300+ MPH and imparted much kinetic energy into a pile of rocks.
They didn’t make any suspension or brake mods to that car. BFD - they can go in a straight line on salt flats for a mile or so.
It is. After they finished with their demonstration, they gave a brief description about how the event had actually happened in an office tower in Toronto.
Right, but what they were trying to find out was if a car with a JATO rocket strapped to it could get anywhere near 300+ mph, and of course it couldn’t. It was fast enough to pull away from a 130 mph helicopter, though.
For some reason, the military wasn’t willing to lend them a JATO :), so they used three megasized model rocket engines that added up to roughly the same thrust.
Those guys seemed confident, by getting a licensed Fireworks/rocket guy on board - that they had more than enough thrust to at least move the vehicle with frictionless (and unbreakable) wheels at whatever PH101 math conjured up.
It’s still something of a ‘holy grail’ for a street-able car to pass 200 MPH. There’s certainly no set of tires out there that can negotiate even simple ‘S’ turns at >200+ MPH - and since the wheels are providing no torque in a rocket car - nothing was proven (or disproven).
While the show was fun, the experiments were ridiculous. They are way to determined to show that the myths are indeed false. For instance in the lawyer falling through the window segment, the only reason they finally decided it might be possible is after they decided to break the window just for the hell of it. That story was true. And in the segment about the fat lady stuck to the airline toilet, the fake ass wasn’t even close to the consistency of a real fat ass (I know, I know). The rubber used to make the ass was only “lifelike” for someone with a normal amount of body fat. A real fat person could easily have made the seal.
Yeah, I thought it was a big Snopes ripoff. And the dumb experiments were just time filler, I think. They had that “wild n crazy” and “gross” factor. I mean, getting a pig’s stomach and filling it with poprocks and coke? And making a fake fatwoman ass?
They were a lot better than I expected and I hope they make more. I found it interesting to watch them come up with how to build their experiments and what to take into consideration and how to recreate situations in a lab setting. Plus they’re just being fun about it. I love the way the guy volunteered his own car for the biscuit experiment and then said “we should do this in Vegas so we could say we went to Vegas and blew a lot of dough!” ROFL! So corny I had to laugh.
Yeah, but didn’t you see the part where they decided the fake ass wasn’t realistic enough, so the guy volunteered his own ass and they took the seat off the toilet so there was a definate seal? The issue wasn’t whether or not you could make a seal, the issue was if the suction was great enough so that the woman was unable to get off the seat. They determined that although the suction was pretty “significant,” even the guy weighing only 150 or so was able to break the seal.
Pay attention!!!
I am a lawyer in Toronto, and I know all about it - I know people who personally witnessed it.
It was a “party trick” that a certain partner in a law firm used to do, to impress articling students (i.e. “student lawyers”, for non-Canadians). Every year he would bounce off of a window, on a very high floor, to the amusement of the incoming student group. Fun for everyone! Except that the last time he did it, the window popped out and down he fell. Splat.
Umm when you say “even,” are you meaning to say it would be easier for a 300 pound woman to get up from that seat? Besides, the original question was whether or not a seal would be made to create the suction. A real fat ass would have been able to make that seal.
I reccomend going to www.bored.com and going to the link called “the legend of the rocket car” I dunno if this version is true or not but its’ the most plausible one I have heard.
the high-on-acid babysitter & the “turkey” in the oven
the small animal in the microwave
the insects in the hairdo
and the Vanishing Hitchiker (suggested experiment- go to a town where a girl died 20 years ago that Prom Night & drive the streets looking for female hitchikers OR look for long-haired Jesus/angel-resembling male hitchikers who look like the sort to tell you “Jesus is coming soon” before vanishing)
