MYTHBUSTERS SERIES 6 EPISODE GUIDEDemolition Derby
Is Keanu Reeve's iconic motoring movie Speed just fake film physics? Will a car dropped from 4,000 feet fall faster than a speeding car? Is the compact conundrum of a two-truck head-on collision a myth?
Thermite vs. Ice
See what happens when you combine thermite, a chemical that burns at almost 2,000 degrees, with ice. It's not what you would expect! Could a huge stereo system set off a rifle with its vibrations?
Prison Escape
Is it possible to cling to the roof of a speeding and swerving car like in the action movies? Can jailbirds use dental floss to cut through solid steel bars? Buster gets put to the test solving myths in a cannonball escape.
Curving Bullets
Can a sonic shock wave shatter glass? Is it possible for bullets to bend around obstacles with a side arm flick of the wrist?
Motorcycle Flip
In this movie-based fun myth from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the Doctors Jones are being chased by members of the Third Reich on motorcycles...but a flagpole in the front wheel of the nearest Nazi and a head-over-handlebars flip facilitates our hero’s escape. Adam and Jamie test to see if this is another case of Hollywood hocus-pocus, or if the physics on film actually resemble real life. Also, Kari, Grant and Tory put their lives on the line as they test whether it’s possible to break out of jail using ropes made of nothing but bed sheets, hair and toilet paper. It’s a death defying stunt that ends in a gut-wrenching 140 foot descent from the roof of the Alameda County Courthouse Jail, but it's all in the name of solving myths, after all.
Coffin Punch
On this death-defying episode of Mythbusters, the whole team gets together to solve myths about survival. Adam and Jamie return to one of the fans' favourite subjects - what is bullet-proof? First, they start taking shots at a standard issue sheriff's star to see if it can repel a round. Then they move on to testing belt buckles, MP3 players, pizza and even the human body itself! Meanwhile, Kari, Grant and Tory test a myth from the movie Kill Bill in which Uma Thurman's character is literally buried alive inside a coffin. For mere mortals there would be no chance of escape, but this trained martial artist uses a three inch power punch to crack the casket and climb out through the dirt. The team tests if this is even remotely possible in this episode from Myth Busters series 6.
End With a Bang
In this episode, the team joins forces and share myths to put sayings we all take for granted under the Mythbusters microscope. First up, Adam and Jamie try to polish the unpolishable - is it really true that you can’t polish dung? After a trip to the zoo to collect some "product," they get smelly in the name of science. Meanwhile, Kari, Grant and Tory test the truth behind the classic job interview statement "hit the ground running." Is hitting the ground at speed really faster than a standing start? Then, Adam and Jamie test another classic - is it really best to end with a bang? Their grand finale on Discovery Channel features two spectacular endings - one with a boom and one without. The viewers get to decide which is more effective.
Viewer Special Threequel
In 'Bamboo Torture' Adam and Jamie take on a gruesome myth from world war two. Can the fastest growing plant on the planet really be used as an instrument of torture? Supposedly new bamboo shoots would grow into and through unfortunate POW's causing them to spill the beans to their interrogators. To find out if it's true Adam and Jamie get green fingered to find out if it's possible to pierce a person with bamboo!
Meanwhile in Brandy Warmer the guys get to the bottom of a shaggy dog story. Will a shot or two of brandy, delivered by a St Bernard of course, really bring you back from the brink of hypothermia? Adam and Jamie go the big chill to find out.
Then in Alkali Metal Mayhem Kari, Grant and Tory tackle two for the price of one. You wanted to revisit and supersize the Sodium Jail Break story from the MacGyver episode. Plus you also asked us to test the veracity of an internet video claiming caesium and rubidium can blow up a bathtub in a hand grenade sized explosion. And the guys don't disappoint, always eager to solve myths. There's hand grenades and exploding commodes galore!
And finally, Kari, Grant and Tory put in a virtuoso display to find out for fans if a fire will cause an Exploding Piano. The theory goes - the tension on the piano strings is catastrophically released by fire. But will it be a meltdown letdown or a musical mushroom cloud?
Exploding Bumpers
In "Exploding Bumpers", Jamie and Adam examine an unforseen and potentially deadly side effect of a car fire. In this Myth Busters episode, we learn that car bumpers are supposed to protect a car and its passengers, but some designs reportedly explode at high temperatures, turning the bumper ballistic.
This modern fun myth contends that an exploding aluminium bumper could shoot off like a cannonball- up to fifty feet. The boys do their best to replicate the exact circumstances, but this is one myth that does not go to plan.
Right from the get-go, Adam and Jamie lurch from one small disaster to another. It's a one-in-a-million myth that tries their patience, tests their skills, and ends with a spectacle that graphically proves that you have every reason to be very, very afraid of your hatchback.
In "Medieval Mayhem", Kari, Tory and Grant put their butts in the saddle to test a legend that's been unquestioned since the middle-ages. It sounds simple, but proving that expert Hungarian archers got twice the penetration shooting a bow from a galloping horse is a myth well worth testing.
When Grant proves that simultaneous riding and shooting is so much harder than it looks, the team decides to up the ante and make the testing even more dangerous.
Typically, this gentle tale of man and beast begins like 'National Velvet', and ends like 'Mad Max' on the Alameda test track. Don't say you haven't been warned…
Banana Slip Double Dip
First up Adam and Jamie take on one of the oldest gags in slapstick comedy in Banana peel flip. According to the movies a discarded banana peel isn't just trash, it's an unavoidable fall magnet, lay one foot on this slippery little sucker and you'll fall flat on your keister.
But is the banana peel really a guaranteed guffaw or is it all a load of shtick? To find out the boys break out the bananas and run headlong into testing this slippery slapstick standard. But while you can lead the Hyneman to a banana peel, you can't make him fall. So the boys get a little creative, even adding industrial lubricant to the mix to put this myth to it's ultimate test.
Next, the guys take a bite out of Double Dipping. This is one the fans have been begging us to test ever since it appeared in the sitcom Seinfeld. In a classic scene George Constanza unwittingly finds himself breaking dip etiquette by dipping, biting then dipping again, which a fellow guest tells him is like 'putting his whole mouth into the bowl'.
So to find out if a twice-dunked chip is actually germ warfare the boys are snacking for science. By busting out their bacteriological friends the petrii dishes, cutting a swathe through microbes with swabs, and unleashing 250000 rads of radiation the boys wage gemmological battle, to crack the double dipping dilemma.
In Homemade Diamonds, Kari Grant and Tory test the myth of do-it-yourself diamonds. It might sound crazy but the Internet is awash with get rich schemes for making bling, all from the comfort of your own home. One claims you can use peanut butter and a microwave, another that molten iron and graphite will do the trick, and there's even a recipe from the Television show CSI that claims to produce diamonds.
So the team put them to the test, burning, melting, squeezing all manner of things in all manner of ways until finally for the mother of all climaxes they head to the dessert, and unleash the biggest boom in the history of Mythbusters.
Swimming in Syrup
In "Swimming in Syrup", Jamie and Adam don their swimsuits to see if it really is possible to swim just as fast in syrup as in water. It sounds unlikely, but the rationale behind the physics- and the times they post- will surprise you.
The boys dig their own lap-pools and swim through a variety of 'syrups'- from something twice as thick as water to a liquid that's 1500 times thicker. Adam takes to the testing like a duck to very thick water, but Jamie struggles.
The verdict remains in doubt till the very last lap, when a gold medallist from the Beijing Olympics gives this myth an unexpected tumble-turn.
In "MacGyver's Magic Bullets", Kari, Tory and Grant challenge their TV mentor to see is he really could have blown a steel door in a cargo ship by packing the lock with the powder from six bullets and setting off the blast with a revolver handle.
First up, they'll see if simply shooting the lock was a better option. Then they'll gradually "up the ante" to the point where their real results might match MacGyver's.
In "Davy Crockett's Magic Bullet", the build-team takes on a legend that's almost impossible to believe: Davy once claimed to have shot two targets with one shot by splitting a bullet on an axe blade. Sure- the bullets were softer and slower 200 years ago, but that's still one heck of a boast.
Crockett was well known for his tall tales. So, fitted-out with period rifles and 'coonskin' caps, the guys try to replicate this mythical shot. They're all good shots, but are they good enough?
Youtube Special
In 'Match Blast' Jamie and Adam see if your common, everyday household match has hidden explosive powers. At the request of a fan they strike up the myth of a 30,000 match head blast. Then the fan gives them a dare - burn a million, and they fire up in reply, in a fiery night time display.
Then Adam and Jamie decide to up the ante even higher themselves, by seeing if match heads alone have the explosive punch to fire a homemade cannon. Do they get the big bang they want? The results stun even our Mythbusting duo. And yes, even Jamie laughs.
In 'Lego Roll' Kari, Tory and Grant roll out a YouTube hit - a 7-foot ball of Lego that careers down the streets of San Francisco. The team scours all North America for tiny plastic bricks.
Then in one of Mythbuster's biggest builds a million Lego bricks are transformed into a rolling weapon of mass destruction. The target - a family car at the bottom of a very steep hill. The result - something the team won't forget in a hurry.
Finally in 'Spinning Tire of Fire', Adam and Jamie are only too happy to heed a fan's web request - putting their feet down and burning car rubber to see if they can actually set a tire on fire.
In a series of tests using a flexed up muscle car they up the heat and the revs, adding sparks and gas in a tire shredding, noisy smoke-filled test that the boys love best.
There's some big blowouts along the way as Jamie puts the pedal to the metal. When the smoke clears after the final tire test some surprising results are revealed about how rubber meets the road.
Car vs Rain
It's an episode of real genius, explosive action and dangerous driving. So business as usual then!
First Adam and Jamie take on the classic urban myth DRYving in the Rain. If you're out for a spin in your convertible and it starts raining can you stay dry by simply driving faster?
For answers the guys make their own wet weather and put the pedal to the metal with the top down.
Meanwhile in Popcorn Pandemonium Kari, Grant and Tory munch on two tall tales about everyone's favourite tasty treat.
Fans want to know if you can you cook corn with an explosion and our trio of big boom aficionados duly oblige with a double blast of blasts from the past. Using the propane tank explosion from the James Bond Special and the fan favourite 'sawdust cannon' they get the answers to the questions you posed.
Then it's off to the movies for the 80's nerd classic Real Genius. The scene in question involves a giant laser, a house full of popcorn and destruction of said house!
To find out if there's any science in this science fiction sounding scenario the team use lasers to cook corn, fill an entire house with popcorn and of course destroy a house!
See-saw Saga
On this high-flying episode of Mythbusters, the whole team tackles one massive and improbable myth from the fan site: could a skydiver whose parachute failed to open hit a playground see-saw and send a small girl flying seven stories high? And would she survive the ordeal?
The "See-saw Saga" sees Adam and Jamie scare the neighbors with a spectacular test-drop in the carpark behind M5. Tory, Grant and Kari are drafted to double-check the details- for the guys, that involves a reverse bungee jump from a very high bridge and another leap from 2 miles high to judge the speed of the hapless skydiver.
While Kari constructs the fall-guy, Jamie designs and builds what just might be the world's lightest, strongest and most effective teeter-totter. It's an engineering marvel that Jamie is justly proud of, but will it hurl the girl 70 feet high? And can it survive the crippling impact of an average man falling at terminal velocity?
They take the myth to San Francisco's Mare Island Naval Shipyard, which is a spectacle in itself. Every aspect of the elaborate procedure is carefully rigged and dialled-in for the arrival of Jamie's "super see-saw".
The result remains in doubt till the very last launch, but by the end of the show, you'll believe a girl can fly.
Alaska Special 2
On this blisteringly cold episode of Mythbusters, the team gets some northern exposure as they pack up their sleds, their brass monkeys and their ingenuity for Alaska Special 2.
In Ice Boat, Adam and Jamie kick things off by heading north to plunge head long into an engineering conundrum and arguably the most challenging build in MythBusters history: In World War 2, iron and steel were in limited supply. So the British Navy sent out a request to engineers - find us something new to build ships with. And Geoffrey Pyke answered that call by inventing Pykrete - a composite material made of sawdust and ice. Pyke genuinely suggested you could make boats out of this stuff. However, because the war soon ended, no boat was ever made….until now!
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