Starting the thread early, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to post in it tonight. My DSL connection is becoming very dodgy. So feel free to start without me.
MYTHBUSTERS 11/2:"Drain Disaster"
- Thread starter Christopher
- Start date
Hopefully I'll be able to post this...
Drain Disaster: This was pretty darn impressive, and perhaps a little scary. A methane explosion in the sewer really can throw manhole covers flying. If anything, the flaw in the usual fictional portrayal is that it shows the manhole covers going up one by one as the blast propagates, whereas in reality it's more simultaneous because the pressure builds up so fast throughout the chamber.
My favorite part was the small-scale tests, though. The way the flames moved through the test rig was beautiful and fascinating. What was particularly interesting was the way the front end of the blue methane fireball got to sort of wobbling back and forth as it neared the end of the tube. It looked like there were pressure waves oscillating back and forth and pushing it as they went past. Really fascinating stuff.
Indestructible bedliner: It was quite interesting how durable that substance turned out to be. It's not surprising that it didn't make a car crashproof. It's clearly designed to be somewhat flexible, and if the underlying material (like car doors) is able to change shape in response to an impact, the liner isn't going to prevent that. The liner itself may stay pretty intact, but it won't stop the stuff underneath from crumpling. But that wasn't an issue with the dog-bite test -- since the fabric needed to be somewhat flexible to be wearable -- or with the wall/bomb test, since we were dealing with a more rigid surface there. (And a more evenly distributed shock wave. I wonder, would the liner protect a cinderblock wall from a wrecking ball? And their suggestion of testing bullet resistance would be nice for a revisit.)
Although clearly the liner made the jacket a lot less flexible, and that was why the dog gave up so quickly. It couldn't even get a grip on the sleeve with its jaws.
How long has this bedliner stuff been around, anyway? I seem to recall having heard of it as a fairly recent development, like within the past decade or so.
Moving on to Penn and Teller Tell a Lie, I'm proud to report that I finally picked the lie correctly. Although they made it easy for me by telling a blatant science lie, that helium rather than hydrogen was the lightest and most abundant element. If it hadn't been for that dead giveaway, I might've been fooled. (For a moment I thought the weather-balloon/stratosphere thing was going to be the lie, because when they showed a clip of astronauts in a space station, the one on the right with sunglasses looked kinda like Elvis. But the rest of it held up.)
Drain Disaster: This was pretty darn impressive, and perhaps a little scary. A methane explosion in the sewer really can throw manhole covers flying. If anything, the flaw in the usual fictional portrayal is that it shows the manhole covers going up one by one as the blast propagates, whereas in reality it's more simultaneous because the pressure builds up so fast throughout the chamber.
My favorite part was the small-scale tests, though. The way the flames moved through the test rig was beautiful and fascinating. What was particularly interesting was the way the front end of the blue methane fireball got to sort of wobbling back and forth as it neared the end of the tube. It looked like there were pressure waves oscillating back and forth and pushing it as they went past. Really fascinating stuff.
Indestructible bedliner: It was quite interesting how durable that substance turned out to be. It's not surprising that it didn't make a car crashproof. It's clearly designed to be somewhat flexible, and if the underlying material (like car doors) is able to change shape in response to an impact, the liner isn't going to prevent that. The liner itself may stay pretty intact, but it won't stop the stuff underneath from crumpling. But that wasn't an issue with the dog-bite test -- since the fabric needed to be somewhat flexible to be wearable -- or with the wall/bomb test, since we were dealing with a more rigid surface there. (And a more evenly distributed shock wave. I wonder, would the liner protect a cinderblock wall from a wrecking ball? And their suggestion of testing bullet resistance would be nice for a revisit.)
Although clearly the liner made the jacket a lot less flexible, and that was why the dog gave up so quickly. It couldn't even get a grip on the sleeve with its jaws.
How long has this bedliner stuff been around, anyway? I seem to recall having heard of it as a fairly recent development, like within the past decade or so.
Moving on to Penn and Teller Tell a Lie, I'm proud to report that I finally picked the lie correctly. Although they made it easy for me by telling a blatant science lie, that helium rather than hydrogen was the lightest and most abundant element. If it hadn't been for that dead giveaway, I might've been fooled. (For a moment I thought the weather-balloon/stratosphere thing was going to be the lie, because when they showed a clip of astronauts in a space station, the one on the right with sunglasses looked kinda like Elvis. But the rest of it held up.)
Again, I sort of wish on picking which is the lie was more about seeing through the oddities of the story or whatever and not by just knowing basic chemistry you learned in fourth grade, or state capitals and stuff like that.
It's not really "telling a lie" if you're not even trying.
It's not really "telling a lie" if you're not even trying.
The bedliner stuff is awesome, can you buy that stuff in a hardware store?
David Brenner had a line about manhole covers decades ago - New Yorkers are so blazé that when a manhole cover explodes, they'll call heads or tails. 
I loved the look on the dog's face when he couldn't bite the sleeve - "Wha? okay, let's see, i'll try here - bad angle - okay, the leg. AH! GRRRR!"
I loved the look on the dog's face when he couldn't bite the sleeve - "Wha? okay, let's see, i'll try here - bad angle - okay, the leg. AH! GRRRR!"
I'm sure you can. I'd bet it either comes in a standard spray can and/or a mix you pour into a power-sprayer. I would suspect, however, that for the best results you need to go to a professional "installer" to do it. I don't think it's too expensive to do. I've yet to watch this episode, I will later this morning and post back with my results.
Sometimes the way they present the myths is annoying. Like would someone actually think bedliner really make a car crash-*proof*? Or when a myth is about blasting someone 100 feet in the air but it really only goes 75. I think they are a bit too literal about statements made casually. That said it was interesting that the car was more resilient to crash damage after bedliner was applied. I wonder if it would work even better if applied to both halves of the car.
I have been impressed this season that the myths have been interesting. I thought the well had dried up on them a while back but they've been in good form.
I have been impressed this season that the myths have been interesting. I thought the well had dried up on them a while back but they've been in good form.
but somtimes that comes back to bite them - such as Jamie's comment about when two cars collided head on at X mph that it doubled the speed.
The bedliner stopping the C4 blast was the most impressive to me. Amazing that such a simple spray coating could actually do something like that.
Makes me think the Knight Rider writers were onto something with that "Molecular Bonded Shell" that KITT supposedly had covering him. Maybe not for crashes, but at least for all the bombs and bullets that were constantly thrown at him.
Makes me think the Knight Rider writers were onto something with that "Molecular Bonded Shell" that KITT supposedly had covering him. Maybe not for crashes, but at least for all the bombs and bullets that were constantly thrown at him.
Well, they haven't tested yet whether it's bulletproof. Hopefully we'll get a sequel/revisit.
It looked like a pretty thick layer they applied, I wonder how much weight that added. The black truck they showed in the beginning looked very cool too though.
Just watched it, interesting episode and I'm pretty impressed with how well the bed liner did, I'm sure we'll see more revisits with it along the lines of how duct/k tape was scaled up in more and more episodes as its properties became more remarkable.
It's no surprise it was completely crash proof but it certainly seemed to make the car more crash resistant.
The results of the sewer myth weren't too surprising but it was impressive the scale and considerable expense they seemed to go through to test this particular one.
It's no surprise it was completely crash proof but it certainly seemed to make the car more crash resistant.
The results of the sewer myth weren't too surprising but it was impressive the scale and considerable expense they seemed to go through to test this particular one.
Very good episode. Both results were pretty surprising to me.
One of the things they failed to mention in the Bed Liner testing, when they tested it on the wooden structure, the top beam was cracked.
But still now I want more Bed liner to spray my house with to fend off the zombie invasion.
You know, the downside to shows like this is I can see criminals watching the show with great interest and now I can see many of them getting more bed line for an anti-dog suit.
Also might be good to help repair some car parts that are leaking.
But still now I want more Bed liner to spray my house with to fend off the zombie invasion.
You know, the downside to shows like this is I can see criminals watching the show with great interest and now I can see many of them getting more bed line for an anti-dog suit.
Also might be good to help repair some car parts that are leaking.
Except the liner clearly made the jackets a lot more rigid. You couldn't bend the sleeves, and if you look closely, there were liner-less seams at the shoulders to allow Tory to move his arms at all. If you had pants covered in the stuff, you could barely walk. Surely it'd be easier just to buy an actual anti-bite suit. They sell them online for dog trainers. Okay, they cost around a thousand bucks, but hey, if you're a criminal, you have ways of raising capital.
Well, it's a Catch-22, what if the only meaningful capital you can raise is guarded by dogs?
Then you're out of luck, unless you're willing to go into credit-card debt on the bite suit and then repay it with what you steal. Of course, that would leave a credit trail that would make you easier to catch -- which, from my perspective, is a good thing.
On the whole, most criminals in real life aren't all that smart. Otherwise they could, you know, get jobs and stuff. ("Some of the stupidest criminals in the world are working right here in America. I've always been very proud of that." -- Jed Bartlet, The West Wing)
I also hear they're a superstitious, cowardly lot.
Hell criminals haven't yet completely figured out the whole "don't leave finger prints and pick up your shell casings" thing.
