Mythbusters 7x11 "Car vs. Rain" - Discuss and Grade
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Just checked - this one has aired in the UK already. In fact, it's sitting on my Sky+ box now.
I've given up trying to figure out what Discovery UK are doing with this series - we've had half the episodes (including this one) ahead of the US, but in the wrong order, and they stopped showing the current new season a couple of weeks ago... So we haven't had Alaska Special 2, the Wanted episode, etc...
Is there a new episode next week? My DVR doesn't think so.
Here are the myths according to Wikipedia (take it for what it's worth):
-If you're out for a spin in your convertible and it starts raining can you stay dry by simply driving faster?
-Can one cook popcorn with lasers or explosions?
-If you're out for a spin in your convertible and it starts raining can you stay dry by simply driving faster?
-Can one cook popcorn with lasers or explosions?
Isn't this pretty much the "walk/run" in the rain myth all over again on "supersized." Seems like an odd myth to test because no matter how fast you drive you're still going to get wet because the rain is constantly falling and, well, it has to land somewhere. The only way I could see "not getting wet" (or getting less wet) would be to drive "faster than the rain" which presumes the rainfall is a constant -like the speed of light or the speed of sound- which it isn't and it's a constant thing.
Further, if it WERE possible it'd likely be at a speed faster than what is reasonable -or safe- to drive on a public road -not to mention on a WET road. And, well, wouldn't it just plain make more sense to put the top up?
As for the popcorn thing, naturaly the answer is yes.
Popcorn pops becuase water and oils trapped inside the kernel liquify and expand as the kernel heats up they blow open the kernel and then instant solidify when no longer under pressure.
Popcorn can pop in any heat. The earliest "popcorn poppers" were nothing more than wire baskets that were shaken over a fire, earlier than that popcorn was popped by placing it in a clay bowl filled with sand (the sand being the heat-transfer medium) and putting it over a fire! Popular popocrn poppers int he seventies and eighties simply used hot air! For good, quality, popcorn popping it is most common today to use fats and oils as they're resistant to high heat and transfer the heat into the kernel effectively.
So a LASER isn't going to have much trouble as it's just going to do what oil does -heat up the stuff inside the kernel. Explosives may do it but it's likely they'll rupture the kernel before heating it up. That's where unpopped kernels comefrom. Either their integrity is harmed enough that steam can easily escape (thus no pressure inside the kernel to liquify the substances inside) or the kernel's integrity was ruptured enough to simply allow all of the water inside to evaporate.
The popcorn thing reminds me of the episode where they wondered if steak could be tenderized more by explosives than by conventional methods...
Isn't this pretty much the "walk/run" in the rain myth all over again on "supersized." Seems like an odd myth to test because no matter how fast you drive you're still going to get wet because the rain is constantly falling and, well, it has to land somewhere. The only way I could see "not getting wet" (or getting less wet) would be to drive "faster than the rain" which presumes the rainfall is a constant -like the speed of light or the speed of sound- which it isn't and it's a constant thing.
Further, if it WERE possible it'd likely be at a speed faster than what is reasonable -or safe- to drive on a public road -not to mention on a WET road. And, well, wouldn't it just plain make more sense to put the top up?
As for the popcorn thing, naturaly the answer is yes.
Popcorn pops becuase water and oils trapped inside the kernel liquify and expand as the kernel heats up they blow open the kernel and then instant solidify when no longer under pressure.
Popcorn can pop in any heat. The earliest "popcorn poppers" were nothing more than wire baskets that were shaken over a fire, earlier than that popcorn was popped by placing it in a clay bowl filled with sand (the sand being the heat-transfer medium) and putting it over a fire! Popular popocrn poppers int he seventies and eighties simply used hot air! For good, quality, popcorn popping it is most common today to use fats and oils as they're resistant to high heat and transfer the heat into the kernel effectively.
So a LASER isn't going to have much trouble as it's just going to do what oil does -heat up the stuff inside the kernel. Explosives may do it but it's likely they'll rupture the kernel before heating it up. That's where unpopped kernels comefrom. Either their integrity is harmed enough that steam can easily escape (thus no pressure inside the kernel to liquify the substances inside) or the kernel's integrity was ruptured enough to simply allow all of the water inside to evaporate.
Ive seen this episode, and all I have to say about that is:
Just watch it
I doubt it's anything to do with that. More likely, it's a question of aerodynamics: if you get up enough speed, will the airflow over your hood and windshield create an air stream/vortex that will sweep the raindrops back so they don't fall inside the car?
I'm not so sure about the laser. It would need to be the right kind of laser, and calibrated to the right intensity. You'd need something fairly potent to induce significant heat. And would a beam focused on one tiny point on the kernel really heat the kernel evenly, or would it just burn a hole in the casing and thereby prevent popping by the mechanism you describe?
Hmmmm. I could see that "working." But -like the red-light camera myth- only at speeds that aren't reasonable for the rain or a public road.
Oh, absolutely it'd have to be a powerful LASER. Dad's LASER pointer isn't going to do it and, as you said, it'd have to be calibrated properly to heat up the water inside the kernel and cause it to pop but quick enough to do it before the kernel simply burns.
Tori's use of the "Am I missing an eyebrow?" = 
I voted Below Average. The whole thing was just boring.
Car vs. Rain: Ah, I was right about the principle. It's the airflow over the windshield, theoretically serving as a "roof." But just watching the shop test, I see a flaw in the idea. There is water accumulating on the upper rim of the windshield and the sun visors and dripping down from there into the car. So even if, say, the back seat stays dry, anyone in the front is getting a lot of water dribbling onto their legs.
Why would they use a super-expensive loaner sportscar for their test? Couldn't they get an older convertible that it was safe to trash?
It's hilarious that they went to all this trouble to set up fake rain, then real rain came along anyway, but the real rain ruined their rain experiment! Of course, they needed a consistent rate of rainfall to make a valid comparison, so the real rain wasn't useful to them. Still funny, though.
I'm surprised the results worked as well as they did. I guess the shop tests weren't an exact reproduction of the situation -- well, of course. Anyway, it is indeed a monumentally stupid idea to drive that fast in the rain -- better to get wet than to get killed.
I'm assuming that even with an automatically deploying roof like this one, you still need to stop the car in order to raise or lower it? If it's partially deployed while the car is in motion, then it would basically function as a drag chute; at best it'd slow the car down (not to mention obscuring your rear view), and at worst it'd behave like the roof of the Corvette did during young James Tiberius Kirk's joyride in the recent Star Trek movie, i.e. get ripped off by the wind.
Popcorn/explosions: You know, I should've known that wouldn't work. Explosions are fast, and they tend to blow stuff apart, away from the source of heat. I should've known that the kernels wouldn't be subjected to heat long enough to burst.
Also, as the science guy explained, popcorns pop by an increase of pressure on the inside. If a popcorn kernel's in an explosion, it's going to be subjected to high pressure from the outside, just the opposite of what you want.
Anyway, you know this show is getting old when they have to resort to reruns of old explosion myths...
Popcorn/laser: Oh, so that's from a movie. I never saw that one. Anyway, I could point out numerous things in the film clip that couldn't work, for instance, the beam not staying on the popcorn long enough, the popcorn obviously just being a pile that was falling free rather than actually expanding, etc. But that can be chalked up to poetic license and production limitations.
So you can pop popcorn with a laser, if you wrap it in foil and use the laser to heat the foil. Which kind of seems like cheating, although the popcorn in the movie was foil-wrapped, so I guess it counts. But that was just one kernel. How hard would it be to get a much wider beam?
The induction-heated giant skillet was brilliant, and it's a shame all that popcorn had to be ruined by the pressure and overcrowding. At this point (40 minutes in), I can guess that the popcorn won't break any windows. After all, popped corn is mostly air inside, right? It couldn't be that hard to crush back down to something close to its original volume. Push popped corn against glass or wood and the corn is what will give way. (Also, a volume increase of 30 times is nowhere near enough to fill such a large house as the one in the movie.)
But no, apparently I was wrong. Under 15 tons of force, the popcorn doesn't get crushed completely but does rupture the roof. Of course, what I didn't consider is that the air inside the popcorn exerts pressure too. The house was relatively airtight, and the air and starch together could only be compressed so much.
Aww, now I want popcorn!
Why would they use a super-expensive loaner sportscar for their test? Couldn't they get an older convertible that it was safe to trash?
It's hilarious that they went to all this trouble to set up fake rain, then real rain came along anyway, but the real rain ruined their rain experiment! Of course, they needed a consistent rate of rainfall to make a valid comparison, so the real rain wasn't useful to them. Still funny, though.
I'm surprised the results worked as well as they did. I guess the shop tests weren't an exact reproduction of the situation -- well, of course. Anyway, it is indeed a monumentally stupid idea to drive that fast in the rain -- better to get wet than to get killed.
I'm assuming that even with an automatically deploying roof like this one, you still need to stop the car in order to raise or lower it? If it's partially deployed while the car is in motion, then it would basically function as a drag chute; at best it'd slow the car down (not to mention obscuring your rear view), and at worst it'd behave like the roof of the Corvette did during young James Tiberius Kirk's joyride in the recent Star Trek movie, i.e. get ripped off by the wind.
Popcorn/explosions: You know, I should've known that wouldn't work. Explosions are fast, and they tend to blow stuff apart, away from the source of heat. I should've known that the kernels wouldn't be subjected to heat long enough to burst.
Also, as the science guy explained, popcorns pop by an increase of pressure on the inside. If a popcorn kernel's in an explosion, it's going to be subjected to high pressure from the outside, just the opposite of what you want.
Anyway, you know this show is getting old when they have to resort to reruns of old explosion myths...
Popcorn/laser: Oh, so that's from a movie. I never saw that one. Anyway, I could point out numerous things in the film clip that couldn't work, for instance, the beam not staying on the popcorn long enough, the popcorn obviously just being a pile that was falling free rather than actually expanding, etc. But that can be chalked up to poetic license and production limitations.
So you can pop popcorn with a laser, if you wrap it in foil and use the laser to heat the foil. Which kind of seems like cheating, although the popcorn in the movie was foil-wrapped, so I guess it counts. But that was just one kernel. How hard would it be to get a much wider beam?
The induction-heated giant skillet was brilliant, and it's a shame all that popcorn had to be ruined by the pressure and overcrowding. At this point (40 minutes in), I can guess that the popcorn won't break any windows. After all, popped corn is mostly air inside, right? It couldn't be that hard to crush back down to something close to its original volume. Push popped corn against glass or wood and the corn is what will give way. (Also, a volume increase of 30 times is nowhere near enough to fill such a large house as the one in the movie.)
But no, apparently I was wrong. Under 15 tons of force, the popcorn doesn't get crushed completely but does rupture the roof. Of course, what I didn't consider is that the air inside the popcorn exerts pressure too. The house was relatively airtight, and the air and starch together could only be compressed so much.
Aww, now I want popcorn!
Watching Grant, Tori, etc. dump all that popcorn and lovely butter-flavored popcorn frying medium into the giant skillet.... 
Well, I had to pause the TV and make some popcorn.
Interesting episode and not surprised by any of the results.
Car vs. Rain: As I said once I considered aerodynamics that it was possible but at speeds not ideal during rainy conditions.
The popcorn stuff wasn't very surprising either, nor was I surprised that the popcorn didn't have enough force to destroy the "house."
I had a rental car once while mine was in the shop. It was a '06 Mustang Convertible If it was possible to operate the roof while the car was moving it was only at low speeds -probably 25 MPH- my memory is fuzzy on it, though. I'm leaning to it being more likely the roof could only be operated when the car was in park.
Oh, and yeah the "induction skillet" was, indeed, brilliant. I want one! (granted, one more sized for use in the home.)
Well, I had to pause the TV and make some popcorn.
Interesting episode and not surprised by any of the results.
Car vs. Rain: As I said once I considered aerodynamics that it was possible but at speeds not ideal during rainy conditions.
The popcorn stuff wasn't very surprising either, nor was I surprised that the popcorn didn't have enough force to destroy the "house."
I had a rental car once while mine was in the shop. It was a '06 Mustang Convertible
If it was possible to operate the roof while the car was moving it was only at low speeds -probably 25 MPH- my memory is fuzzy on it, though. I'm leaning to it being more likely the roof could only be operated when the car was in park.Oh, and yeah the "induction skillet" was, indeed, brilliant. I want one! (granted, one more sized for use in the home.
)
You know what myth they need to test?
You sure?
You're not going to like it....
The "Up" myth.
Is it possible to float and fly a house like we see in the movie "Up."
Now, obviously, levitating a house with helium-filled party balloons would be unreasonable -if not impossible or at the very least economicaly unviable- but maybe they can subsitute helium party balloons with a hot-air fueled balloon? The house would have to be of similiar size to the one seen in the movie and see if it'd be possible to helm it using the bed-sheet sails like in the movie.
If anyone can do this Jamie and Adam can!
You sure?
You're not going to like it....
The "Up" myth.
Is it possible to float and fly a house like we see in the movie "Up."
Now, obviously, levitating a house with helium-filled party balloons would be unreasonable -if not impossible or at the very least economicaly unviable- but maybe they can subsitute helium party balloons with a hot-air fueled balloon? The house would have to be of similiar size to the one seen in the movie and see if it'd be possible to helm it using the bed-sheet sails like in the movie.
If anyone can do this Jamie and Adam can!
You know what myth they need to test?
You sure?
You're not going to like it....
The "Up" myth.
Is it possible to float and fly a house like we see in the movie "Up."
Now, obviously, levitating a house with helium-filled party balloons would be unreasonable -if not impossible or at the very least economicaly unviable- but maybe they can subsitute helium party balloons with a hot-air fueled balloon? The house would have to be of similiar size to the one seen in the movie and see if it'd be possible to helm it using the bed-sheet sails like in the movie.
If anyone can do this Jamie and Adam can!
Haven't they done a couple of myths with balloons that would given an indication of this? one was very early on wth Jamie and Adam doing the guy with the garden chair and the balloons. the other was with the build team to see about how many balloons it would take to lift a child (lots of balloons in the Alameida hanger).
^True, the Mythbusters have already busted the part of the myth about the number of balloons it would take to carry a given weight. But it would be interesting to test the other part of the Up scenario -- if a normally constructed house were suspended from above as shown in the movie, would its structure remain intact? After all, a house is built to bear compression loads, not tension loads. They could test it by building one of their mini-houses to code, maybe a larger mini-house than usual, and suspending it from a giant construction crane, say.
For the record.
Car vs Rain - Plausible. By driving at fast speeds through artificial rain in a convertible sports car with the top down, it was shown that by doing so they prevented the inside of the car from becoming wet. At normal speeds, the interior was soaked, at 70mph it was considerably less wet and at 90mph it was almost completely dry. However, this was given a Plausible but Not Recommended rather than a confirmed because even their expert in driving under wet conditions was not able to safely control the car.
Popcorn Pandemonium #1 - Busted. By recreating the propane tank explosion from their earlier James Bond special they were not able to cause popcorn kernels to pop. The explosion pushed the popcorn away from the heat of the explosion.
Popcorn Pandemonium #2 - Busted. By recreating the dairy creamer and sawdust cannon from their earlier viral myths special they were again not able to cause popcorn kernels to pop. After consulting with an expert, they found that it is pressure, not heat that causes popcorn to pop.
Popcorn Pandemonium #3 - Busted. Based on a scene from the film Real Genius, they tried to pop popcorn using a 10 watt laser. This was the best they could do given that the 5 megawatt laser shown in the film does not exist. This laser was able to pop one kernel. They also attempted to recreate other parts of the scene. Popping popcorn was not able to break through a window. They were also not able to destroy a small house by filling it with popcorn.
I suspect that we are going to see Car vs Rain on a revisit show simply because the rain was, again, artificial. The artificial vs real rain issue caused the result of the Who Gets Wetter ? myth from the very first episode to be reversed from a busted to a confirmed when they used real rain instead of artificial rain.
Car vs Rain - Plausible. By driving at fast speeds through artificial rain in a convertible sports car with the top down, it was shown that by doing so they prevented the inside of the car from becoming wet. At normal speeds, the interior was soaked, at 70mph it was considerably less wet and at 90mph it was almost completely dry. However, this was given a Plausible but Not Recommended rather than a confirmed because even their expert in driving under wet conditions was not able to safely control the car.
Popcorn Pandemonium #1 - Busted. By recreating the propane tank explosion from their earlier James Bond special they were not able to cause popcorn kernels to pop. The explosion pushed the popcorn away from the heat of the explosion.
Popcorn Pandemonium #2 - Busted. By recreating the dairy creamer and sawdust cannon from their earlier viral myths special they were again not able to cause popcorn kernels to pop. After consulting with an expert, they found that it is pressure, not heat that causes popcorn to pop.
Popcorn Pandemonium #3 - Busted. Based on a scene from the film Real Genius, they tried to pop popcorn using a 10 watt laser. This was the best they could do given that the 5 megawatt laser shown in the film does not exist. This laser was able to pop one kernel. They also attempted to recreate other parts of the scene. Popping popcorn was not able to break through a window. They were also not able to destroy a small house by filling it with popcorn.
I suspect that we are going to see Car vs Rain on a revisit show simply because the rain was, again, artificial. The artificial vs real rain issue caused the result of the Who Gets Wetter ? myth from the very first episode to be reversed from a busted to a confirmed when they used real rain instead of artificial rain.
I still think their initial "Walk vs Run in the Rain" test is fine and that the inconsistancies of "real rain" skewed results in their revisit.
There's not a big enough difference between their artificial rain rigs and "real rain" both are falling droplets of water. The biggest difference there would be is that their rigs can provided sustained, consistant, rain. Weather cannot. (Also rain rigs have the advantage of being able to be built anywhere rather than having to wait for a day of rain in California.)
There's not a big enough difference between their artificial rain rigs and "real rain" both are falling droplets of water. The biggest difference there would be is that their rigs can provided sustained, consistant, rain. Weather cannot. (Also rain rigs have the advantage of being able to be built anywhere rather than having to wait for a day of rain in California.
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