But it did rain! I don't understand why they wasted that opportunity instead of doing some testing.
Mythbusters 7x11 "Car vs. Rain" - Discuss and Grade
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But it did rain! I don't understand why they wasted that opportunity instead of doing some testing.
But it did rain! I don't understand why they wasted that opportunity instead of doing some testing.
Because their test was about comparing the results of one run to the results of a subsequent run. The only way that comparison would be meaningful is if they could be sure that the amount of rain was the same on both runs. Otherwise they couldn't be sure whether the difference in results was due to the difference in driving technique or merely due to a different amount of rainfall. Natural rain isn't consistent. It gets unpredictably lighter and heavier.
Now, if they'd had two convertibles and conducted the trials simultaneously, with one stopping and putting the roof up and the other speeding through, then they could be reasonably confident that the amount of natural rainfall was the same for both tests. But since they only had one car and had to run the tests one after the other, they couldn't rely on nature.
I was hoping since they were doing popcorn myths that they would mention that internet video where people are popping popcorn kernels with their cell phones. I can't search for it right now because my work blocks youtube, but do you guys know what I'm talking about? Four people set their cell phones in a circle with the tops pointing towards the middle and put popcorn in the middle of it. Then they call each other's cell phones and the popcorn starts popping.
I haven't seen it but I strongly doubt that's real.
^^
I believe they busted that some time ago already, or I may be místaking that for some other show.
I believe they busted that some time ago already, or I may be místaking that for some other show.
I remember them busting one about somebody using the remote key for their car over a mobile phone connection but I don't remember them doing anything to do with popcorn before this week.
I strongly doubt it as well, but I'd like for them to prove that conclusively since there are many people that really believe it is possible.
I believe Food TV's "Food Detectives" busted the cell-phone popcorn popping. Which, as has been discussed and addressed many times already on Mythbusters alone, cellphones simply aren't that powerful.
If cellphones could pop popcorn then that means they can boil water. Guess what most of your head is made of?
If cellphones could pop popcorn then that means they can boil water. Guess what most of your head is made of?
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I just found this article about it here: http://tech.yahoo.com/blog/null/94863
Interesting. Though I can't say that watching the video made me want to run out and buy a bluetooth headset.
Interesting. Though I can't say that watching the video made me want to run out and buy a bluetooth headset.
Recently, a lot of people have complained in the grading threads that some of the myths they're doing are so obviously untrue that it's a waste of time doing them. Most of the people who watch this show probably paid attention for at least five minutes during their high school science classes.
Bingo. Mobile phones would be completely illegal if they could actually pop popcorn.
Until someone finds that Bluetooth operates on an equally dangerous part of the spectrum.
This hoax video in particular seemed to really have a lot of people convinced. I think it's because of the rumors we've been hearing for so long about the brain problems we'll all get from using cell phones too often. Anyone who actually thinks about it would know it's not true, but sadly most people are so uninformed when it comes to science that they just assume that what's shown to them is true because they don't know any better. The myths they've been doing lately may be obvious to me, but there are plenty of people out there who think the myths are true.
^I'm not sure Mythbusters should get in to the larger issue of mobile phone radiation. It's not something they can easily prove or disprove in an hour long show with their limited budget and testing methods. I don't think, also, that Adam and Jamie are sufficiently qualified here.
I am! Cell Phone "radiation" is non-ionizing. It's nothing more than glorified electricity. Your phone puts out no more radiation than your TV set. (Well no-more dangerous radiation.)
And when we're talking "radiation" here we're talking about it in the same terms that we would say light is radiation.
The radiation put out by cellphones -and pretty much every other electrical device- is too big to get into your DNA, knock an electron off an atom -creating a free radical- and thus causing that atom to steal a replacement electron from a neighboring atom, causing damge to both atoms in the process and also simply creating another free-radical.
All microwave ovens do is use the paticular wavelength of radiation that can excite water mollecules in food to generate heat and even then they "need help" with a fan to properly scatter the microwaves around your oven and they're ALSO powered by your household 120v current and not the handful of volts in your cellphone battery.
Oh, and, also, on the EM spectrum, microwaves are less powerful than light!
So, yeah, a cellphone never has and never will cause cancer. They simply can't!
And when we're talking "radiation" here we're talking about it in the same terms that we would say light is radiation.
The radiation put out by cellphones -and pretty much every other electrical device- is too big to get into your DNA, knock an electron off an atom -creating a free radical- and thus causing that atom to steal a replacement electron from a neighboring atom, causing damge to both atoms in the process and also simply creating another free-radical.
All microwave ovens do is use the paticular wavelength of radiation that can excite water mollecules in food to generate heat and even then they "need help" with a fan to properly scatter the microwaves around your oven and they're ALSO powered by your household 120v current and not the handful of volts in your cellphone battery.
Oh, and, also, on the EM spectrum, microwaves are less powerful than light!
So, yeah, a cellphone never has and never will cause cancer. They simply can't!
Well, electromagnetism, specifically radio waves. Microwaves are called that because they're shorter than shortwave radio. A cell phone is basically a computerized walkie-talkie.
The frequency of EM radiation is proportional to its energy levels. Ionizing radiation, like ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma rays, is dangerous because it's higher in frequency, higher in energy, than visible light. Radio, including microwaves, is lower in frequency, and therefore lower in energy, than the infrared heat radiation given off by our own bodies and everything around us. So it's on the opposite end of the danger spectrum from the kind of radiation that causes cancer or even sunburn.
Exactly. It's too big and too low in energy to penetrate. The difference between ionizing radiation and microwaves is like the difference between being hit by a speeding bullet and being hit by a weather balloon.
True. Also, microwave ovens use a higher-frequency part of the microwave spectrum than cell phones do. And they only work because the microwaves are trapped and concentrated within the chamber rather than being free to dissipate. (Which is why the Mythbusters had no luck trying to thaw a Christmas turkey with a powerful microwave radar dish on a Navy ship.)
It's also why Jamie's "super microwave" he tried making in the first season's mircorwave myths episode didn't work. He had taken thel magnetrons (the device that generates the microwaves) out of four microwaves and arranged them in a square container with the intent of creating an "super microwave" that could almost instantly heat water.
It didn't work.
Mostly because he didn't have the scattering fans (if I recall microwaves are pretty directional and linear) and also because -I suspect- microwaves don't "stack" like that. Having four 1000w microwave magnetrons pointed at something isn't the same as having a 4000w microwave.
It didn't work.
Mostly because he didn't have the scattering fans (if I recall microwaves are pretty directional and linear) and also because -I suspect- microwaves don't "stack" like that. Having four 1000w microwave magnetrons pointed at something isn't the same as having a 4000w microwave.
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