The postage stamp on a rotor seems like an odd myth, but I wonder if it was the result of an attenuated and long since distorted “actual” event. When my Dad was run through a business problem-solving seminar/workshop in the 60s, one of their case studies was discovering why some helicopters were crashing after having rotors come apart.
In the case they were given, the helicopter rotors had a (warning?) decal affixed to them. The end result of the problem was that the decals came in long rolls of tape and a worker was laying one out on the rotor, then scoring it with a knife to separate it and move on to the next rotor. It was not the decal, but the knife-scoring that was weakening the rotor at a point where the high torque and centripetal force caused the tip to separate in flight.
Mind you, I am not claiming that Bell or Sikorsky ever actually had planes going down with scored wingtips. This was simply an example for a workshop. However, if the workshop was given to a lot of people in many industries, I could see the story of the “decal” changing over time to a “postage stamp” and the salient feature of the knife scoring being lost. (I have never heard that a postage stamp would cause a problem–I wonder what a smashed beetle or bumblebee (or bird) would do?–but then I am not out looking for odd beliefs the way that Mythbusters are.)
This reminds me of a real world example of high temperature ceramic parts failing mysteriously during firing.
Before the mechanism was well understood, an elderly German speaking material scientist was called into help troubleshoot. After a half day of looking at parts and test reports, he picked up a part, marked it in pencil, and said, “Thees one vill fail, and it vill fail along thees line.” Sure enough, it cracked just as he describe. He wasn’t a magician, he had simply seen graphite pencils, of the type used by a QA inspector, cause exactly this problem before.
As a matter of fact, they are. I know, because I’ve done it many times. Various accelerometers are installed during a process called track and balance. Helicopters are inherently vibration prone, which when excessive lead to sheet metal cracks and other nasties. The diagnostic equipment is sensitive enough to get overall vibration levels very low - and will direct placement/removal in increments of 1 gram washers on each hub. Pretty cool, huh?
In their group of “gunslinger” myths, I had a quibble with the “shoot a hole in a coin” experiment. I’m not a gun expert, as some dopers are.
However, I do own a Winchester lever action rifle built to fire a “long Colt .45,” a “cowboy” round. These are made with a partial powder load, because most guys with cowboy style six-shooters are doing fast-draw and other wahoo games. Supposedly, that means they don’t need the full powder load.
Now, I don’t know if that’s exactly what the MBusters were firing, or how much more powder the old-time cartridge held. However, if a modern low-power cowboy load made a bowl out of a silver dollar, wouldn’t a full powder charge have made a hole?
Ever since Mythbusters started added segments run by their staff members, it seems like Adam and Jamie get the fun half of the show, while the staffers often get pretty lame/filler stuff.
Yeah, I disagreed with calling the gunslinger myth busted. They established that a man can shoot a coin out of the air. They established that you can cause significant damage to a coin, even holing it given enough powder and/or a weak enough coin.
I’d say the myth is plausible. All they proved is that a silver dollar won’t be punctured by a low powered pistol. No telling what gunslinging showoffs used in either weaponry or coinage, and I’m sure the materials were available in the 1800’s to dupliacate the Mythbuster’s efforts.
Mythbusters seems to have gotten better of late. No more bogus myths, and there is some real science. Obviously someone at discovery channel laid the smackdown on this show and brough in someone who could bring the show back.
Something changed in the last couple shows. It was complete crap for a year, and now somehow it’s great again. They must have changed executive producers. Someone smacked the idiots down and got them to mythbust reall stuff
