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Mythbusters: Duct Tape Hour 2

Christopher

Writer
Admiral
Yes, they've done another whole episode about duct tape. Review to follow, but I want to start the thread now.
 
Duct Tape Bridge:

What Jamie and Adam built seemed no more different that the type of three-rope-bridges with struts that you'd likely see crossing chasms and such in jungles or whatever. I think Jamie's own acrophobia and nervousness exaggerated the unsteadiness of the bridge but no more than a three-rope bridge would've. Impressive work from them on the construction of the bridge and execution of this myth. No major faults other than it took them a step too long to decide to do the vertical braces.

Duct Taped Car:

Impressive, hot, destruction work by Kari and also impressive the car held up. When the engine failed I suspect one of the duct tape hoses likely failed causing the engine to blow. Impressive it held up though I doubt it'd have the same structural ingerity the original car had and it would've passed California codes. Be interesting if they showed it getting tested for that.

Duct Tape Car-Tether.

Something else that was pretty impressive. Not much to say on this one other than don't do this to me, or someone you like. I suspect the tape won't be good for the car's finish.

Duct Tape K-Rail.

I'd aruge it held up as well as it was supposed to. K-Rails and highway barriers are supposed to "fail safe" and not stop you dead in your tracks. To stop the car they should've done the math on it too to see how much force the moving car would put out at x-miles an hour and thick the 60-some pound test tape would need to be to work.

Interesting series of tests on the myths and abilities of Duct/Duck tape and the stuff continues to amaze.
 
Duct tape bridge: Not so much a myth as an experiment, like a lot of these duct-tape segments. But it's an interesting experiment, albeit scary for an acrophobe like me.

It's kind of ironic that Adam built this complicated dispenser rig out of metal and wood and plastic, using various tools to assemble it, just to help him make something by hand entirely out of duct tape. Nice to see Jamie's "effusive praise" of it, though. He actually did seem impressed by Hyneman standards.

And speaking of Hyneman stoicism, Jamie kinda lost it when it was his turn to cross the bridge. I see I'm not the only acrophobe. Adam just seemed moderately nervous and managed the crossing pretty smoothly, but I've never heard Jamie sound so rattled. I do wonder how much of his more wobbly crossing was due to the stretching and how much was due to nerves. I think maybe his foot placement could've been the problem; Adam kept his feet aligned with the bridge and thus kept his center of mass over it, while Jamie was shuffling across with his feet sideways and that probably made it harder to keep his balance.

It was pretty impressive that they successfully made a rope bridge out of duct tape, though it's obviously a short-term material only.

And Jamie says at the end that he wants to "go airborne" with duct tape next. A duct-tape hang glider, perhaps?


Reassembled car: Ohh, man, has Kari ever been sexier? She really seemed to get, err, aroused by smashing up that car. She definitely would not be a cheap date. :D And the way she looked in that tight black shirt... and the way she crouched on the roof when the firemen came in... I bet they needed some cold showers back at the firehouse.

And it's impressive how well the duct tape held the car together. Though of course it was only the shell of the car, or whatever you call that; I'm sure they left the wheel base, seats, seatbelts, etc. intact.

Still, I'm not so sure the survival of the reassembled car is a testament to the strength of duct tape so much as a testament to the skills of Tory and Grant as builders. I mean, I use duct tape to mend the arms of my computer chair, and it hardly does any good at all. I must not be wielding it as well as they can.

You know, what they should really do for #3 is bring in Steve Smith (aka Red Green) as a guest host and try out some of his duct-tape builds, like the one where he duct-taped two cars together to make a limo.


Stopping a car: The basic "prank" myth was pretty simple, though it's impressive that it could be done with only 20 layers of tape. As for using it to stop a speeding car, I knew that would be much harder, because you've got a lot more kinetic energy to deal with.

Still, it was the logistical matters that caused them the most trouble. And it's amusing that just about everything else -- the tow cable, the iron and concrete anchors -- failed before the duct tape did. That first crash was pretty intense. It's a good thing they had the sense not to drive the car on that one.

Nice to see the return of the tow bar that compensates to keep the car heading straight. A nice, simple solution, so much so that I've often wondered why they bother with fancy remote-control steering setups most of the time. Here we had a nice mix of high and low tech, the simple gadget for keeping the car straight and radio control for working the brakes.
 
Reassembled car: Ohh, man, has Kari ever been sexier? She really seemed to get, err, aroused by smashing up that car. She definitely would not be a cheap date. :D And the way she looked in that tight black shirt... and the way she crouched on the roof when the firemen came in... I bet they needed some cold showers back at the firehouse.

No she's never been sexier. I need a cold shower myself after that. She also looked great in the gray dress later on at the airbase testing the car/k-rail. But good God she looked great smashing up that car.


:fans self:
 
I think they should have sent Adam back over the bridge again after Jamie, just to see if it was more wobbly because of his acrophobia or because of the stretching. maybe with a some weight in a backpack to adjust for the weight difference.
 
Reassembled car: Ohh, man, has Kari ever been sexier? She really seemed to get, err, aroused by smashing up that car. She definitely would not be a cheap date. :D And the way she looked in that tight black shirt... and the way she crouched on the roof when the firemen came in... I bet they needed some cold showers back at the firehouse.

No she's never been sexier. I need a cold shower myself after that. She also looked great in the gray dress later on at the airbase testing the car/k-rail. But good God she looked great smashing up that car.


:fans self:

AND she's amazingly trim so soon after becoming a mother. With the happy exception of baby-enhanced boobs. What a gal! :drool:
 
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