# Whoopsie! - Mythbusters + Cannonball
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 7, 2011, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339 "2011-12-07T03:51:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Ibanez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibanez)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2011, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/41 "2011-12-07T22:53:45Z")
I was wondering when something like this was going to happen.
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### Author:  [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2011, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/42 "2011-12-07T23:00:02Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> There were stories of soldiers trying to stop bounding cannon balls with their feet-but the suckers contain so much inertia, even at 15 MPH, that the soldiers would break their legs (or arms) when they tried to stop them.
Not that anyone has disbelieved this or that it’s a myth, but is there footage (HA!) of them or anyone testing this out with a cannonball and a dummy’s leg? I’d like to see that in action.
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### Author:  [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2011, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/43 "2011-12-07T23:33:44Z")
> [@Ludovic](#):
>
> Not that anyone has disbelieved this or that it’s a myth, but is there footage (HA!) of them or anyone testing this out with a cannonball and a dummy’s leg? I’d like to see that in action.
This sounds like a job for Mythbusters. Except make sure they don’t test it around your neighborhood.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [December 7, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/44 "2011-12-07T23:41:17Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> So was the myth busted?
No, but the house was.
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### Author:  [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/45 "2011-12-08T00:03:21Z")
Tory Belleci just tweeted:
> [@Tory Belleci](#):
>
> My deepest apologies to Dublin. Fortunately no one was injured from our accident. We’re doing everything we can to make things better.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/46 "2011-12-08T00:16:06Z")
> [@Mtgman](#):
>
> Anyone who has been irritated with the occasional “myth we can’t test because our insurers won’t let us” at least you know it’s not just a cop-out.
I can imagine being the guy at the insurance company who has to vet all of their proposed experiments. “You want to try _what_? No way are we going to allow that.”
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### Author:  [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/47 "2011-12-08T00:39:00Z")
I suspect that this is very bad news. No one was hurt but they could have been. I hope this doesn’t mean everything gets toned down due to risk aversion.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/48 "2011-12-08T00:50:19Z")
> [@Princhester](#):
>
> I hope this doesn’t mean everything gets toned down due to risk aversion.
I don’t think it will. They had insurance for a reason. I think their insurance costs will go up and they’ll have to spend some more time making sure big stunts don’t go wrong. In hindsight it _does_ sort of sound like they should have considered this possibility ahead of time: “OK, we’re shooting this cannonball at a bunch of water barrels in front of a wall, and combined, they should stop the cannonball. What happens if we miss the water? Could the cannonball go through the wall? Do we need another barrier?”
I think the show’s going to go on. I hope this doesn’t cause a bunch of problems for J.D.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/49 "2011-12-08T00:52:34Z")
> [@Princhester](#):
>
> I suspect that this is very bad news. No one was hurt but they could have been. I hope this doesn’t mean everything gets toned down due to risk aversion.
My guess is we’ll see more testing done out in the Mojave Desert and less at local quarries and bomb ranges. The show’s travel expenses will go up but their insurance rates should go down.
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### Author:  [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/50 "2011-12-08T01:34:36Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> I wonder if there will be any fallout from this? The police may decide that it’s not worth letting Mythbusters use the bomb range anymore. I can’t imagine them ever being allowed to fire cannons at the bomb range anymore.
I think it depends a lot on who loaded the cannon and what precisely went wrong.
I was under the impression that when they went to a bomb range or target range, their on-hand expert was the one who set the charges and loaded the weapons and so on. Then the team would go into the bunker and pushed the button. I could be wrong but if it was the bomb range employee who loaded and aimed the cannon - then I don’t see how it’s fault of the guy who pushed the button.
They were using one of Mythbuster’s home made cannon’s, according to the article. I wonder if the tube split throwing the trajectory off. Or maybe it was just mis-aimed.
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/51 "2011-12-08T01:37:09Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> I don’t think it will. They had insurance for a reason. I think their insurance costs will go up and they’ll have to spend some more time making sure big stunts don’t go wrong. In hindsight it _does_ sort of sound like they should have considered this possibility ahead of time: "OK, we’re shooting this cannonball at a bunch of water barrels in front of a wall, and combined, they should stop the cannonball. What happens if we miss the water?
Remember when they launched the car over the hill by accident? The first thing Tori said was “Does anyone know what’s on the other side of that berm?”
Seems like every once in a while they forget to do their due diligence.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/gampuZ2G1K8?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque
I see the braking system failed, but it still might have been nice of them to make sure it wasn’t, say, a preschool on the other side.
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### Author:  [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/52 "2011-12-08T01:44:47Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> My guess is we’ll see more testing done out in the Mojave Desert …
I wonder how far a cannonball wouldl travel in the Mojave Desert?
Any…does anyone have any REAL idea as to what myth they were busting?
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### Author:  [@Palo\_Verde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palo_Verde)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/53 "2011-12-08T02:12:07Z")
This article says they are going over to appologize in person. [Apologetic 'Mythbusters' talk about cannonball accident](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/12/apologetic-mythbusters-talk-about-cannonball-accident-.html)
> [@](#):
>
> The “Mythbusters” guys are coming to say sorry – in person.
>
> One day after a cannonball experiment went awry in a Bay Area suburb, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman of Discovery Channel’s popular science show said Wednesday they were headed to meet with families affected by the incident.
>
> “We feel really lucky and fortunate that, after a nearly perfect safety record over eight years, that this mishap didn’t lead to anybody being injured,” Savage said in a phone interview. “We’re gathering all the information we can … Our main concern is making sure this never happens again.”
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/54 "2011-12-08T02:20:25Z")
> [@Rysdad](#):
>
> Any…does anyone have any REAL idea as to what myth they were busting?
They usually don’t explain until they’re promoting the episode. What I didn’t see before is that they were _trying_ to get the cannonball to go through the water and the wall and keep rolling, so **John DiFool** ’s guess seems reasonable.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 8:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/55 "2011-12-08T08:42:16Z")
I didn’t see in the articles, nor has it been clearly asked or answered in this thread either that I can see –
Just what myth were they trying to bust here, anyway? All I see is vague guesses about maybe those water barrels were supposed to stop it?
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### Author:  [@Lucretia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucretia)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/56 "2011-12-08T08:59:42Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#):
>
> This article says they are going over to appologize in person. [Apologetic 'Mythbusters' talk about cannonball accident](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/12/apologetic-mythbusters-talk-about-cannonball-accident-.html)
I would just like to say that if it resulted in Jamie, Adam, et al, coming to my house, this would be so totally worth it. Also, I’d wanna hang out on the set for like, a month. And an hour or so somewhere private with Tori…
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/57 "2011-12-08T09:19:11Z")
> [@Senegoid](#):
>
> I didn’t see in the articles, nor has it been clearly asked or answered in this thread either that I can see –
>
> Just what myth were they trying to bust here, anyway? All I see is vague guesses about maybe those water barrels were supposed to stop it?
They usually don’t reveal the myths they’re working on until the screening date, so I imagine it’s not been shared. They’ve used water as a buffer for various other projectile myths, so I don’t think it’s necessarily relevant.
Kari posted some images on Twitter the other day, but they’ve since been taken down, of an antique style cannon alongside Tory’s own cannon he made a couple of years ago. No conclusion can be drawn from that, I don’t think.
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### Author:  [@phantom\_lamb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phantom_lamb)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/58 "2011-12-08T10:19:44Z")
> [@Rysdad](#):
>
> Any…does anyone have any REAL idea as to what myth they were busting?
According to [this link](http://www.starpulse.com/news/TMZ/2011/12/07/mythbusters_experiment_goes_wrong_can)
_“Sgt. JD Nelson from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department tells ABC, hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage were trying to figure out how effective a cannon is at firing non-cannonball objects … but first, they had to test the cannonball itself.”_
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/59 "2011-12-08T11:26:22Z")
Er. It was Kari, Grant, and Tory, so I’m not sure if that’s reliable info.
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### Author:  [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)
#### Post date: [December 8, 2011, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whoopsie-mythbusters-cannonball/605339/60 "2011-12-08T11:48:39Z")
> [@Palo\_Verde](#):
>
> This article says they are going over to appologize in person. [Apologetic 'Mythbusters' talk about cannonball accident](http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/showtracker/2011/12/apologetic-mythbusters-talk-about-cannonball-accident-.html)
And it seems they have:
**‘MythBusters’ hosts: Sorry about that cannonball**
[http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/07/BAN31M9Q81.DTL](http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/07/BAN31M9Q81.DTL)
FTA
> [@](#):
>
> “The myth was whether or not a stone cannonball could actually breach a castle’s walls,” Savage said.
>
> However, Hyneman said, the crew suffered “muzzle lift,” and the cannonball arced across Dublin. It bounced on the Shettys’ driveway on Cassata Place before racing through their home and flying across six-lane Tassajara Road.
>
> It then bounced off the roof of a second home before smashing into another resident’s Toyota Sienna minivan, coming to rest on the floorboards.
>
> …
>
> The show hosts signed autographs in the street but resisted humor. After Savage posed for a picture with two neighborhood girls, he said, “You’ll forgive us for not smiling. It’s not smiling time.”
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