From Wikipedia:
Wikipedia lists no other episodes beyond this one. So this may be the last new episode for 2009.
Wikipedia lists no other episodes beyond this one. So this may be the last new episode for 2009.
Mythbusters: "Myths Evolution 2"
- Thread starter Trekker4747
- Start date
^The odd-numbered ones in that list don't sound very interesting... they're just taking what's already been tested and doing it more so, rather than testing any new principles. The even-numbered ones have more potential.
And the third one is poorly phrased. If you're holding onto the car (presumably on the outside), then you can't be driving it. That should be "while the car is being driven through cardboard boxes."
Hmm, come to think of it, that might count as a new principle after all. They tested car-clinging with regard to starting, stopping, and turning, but not to hitting obstructions. So yeah, maybe that will have something new to offer, though it doesn't seem all that interesting.
And the third one is poorly phrased. If you're holding onto the car (presumably on the outside), then you can't be driving it. That should be "while the car is being driven through cardboard boxes."
Hmm, come to think of it, that might count as a new principle after all. They tested car-clinging with regard to starting, stopping, and turning, but not to hitting obstructions. So yeah, maybe that will have something new to offer, though it doesn't seem all that interesting.
This one sounds pretty good. One of my favorite ones was the waterheater through the roof, and just about every cop show has done the ol' 'drive through the pile of boxes' gag, so that should be interesting.
There are already ways to shoot around corners, I think I saw that on modern weapons, so I'm sure what they're getting at there.
There are already ways to shoot around corners, I think I saw that on modern weapons, so I'm sure what they're getting at there.
Interesting episode overall, at this time I've got no real comments on it, I may on a re-watch as I had other things going on the first time around.
One thing I can point out is that you can see difference between a "built to code" roof in their scratch-built mockup and their playhouse kit they used for the hurricane myth.
It really is quite impressive how much energy is released when the water-tank goes off.
The "Junior Mythbusters" stuff? Meh. The gun stuff was interesting, the lock stuff interesting (and I was thinking before they said it how they didn't really "confirm the myth" since they didn't seem to count the freezing time in breaking the lock.).
That damn rocket sled is still pretty darn impressive and it cutting the car in half? Awesome.
Better episode than the last couple, I'd vote this one a "good."
One thing I can point out is that you can see difference between a "built to code" roof in their scratch-built mockup and their playhouse kit they used for the hurricane myth.
It really is quite impressive how much energy is released when the water-tank goes off.
The "Junior Mythbusters" stuff? Meh. The gun stuff was interesting, the lock stuff interesting (and I was thinking before they said it how they didn't really "confirm the myth" since they didn't seem to count the freezing time in breaking the lock.).
That damn rocket sled is still pretty darn impressive and it cutting the car in half? Awesome.
Better episode than the last couple, I'd vote this one a "good."
Kind of boring, thought how fast that water heater busted threw the two story house, was neat.
I thought that was a pretty fun episode. Though very very slightly disappointing as here in Michigan a two story house would have a basement as well. Still the water heater rockets are fun.
I suppose the cornershot gun would be cool to anyone who hasn't become aware of its existence already. I wonder if Tory did the blind shooting instead of Grant how things would have fared, I thought that was a shaky "busted".
Tory really made short work of that padlock even without the liquid nitrogen!
Rocket sled was pretty wicked. It's funny in the replay I noticed they had an old AMC Eagle which was a pretty solid little car but since the engine block was really the stumbling block I guess that wouldn't really change the outcome at all.
I suppose the cornershot gun would be cool to anyone who hasn't become aware of its existence already. I wonder if Tory did the blind shooting instead of Grant how things would have fared, I thought that was a shaky "busted".
Tory really made short work of that padlock even without the liquid nitrogen!
Rocket sled was pretty wicked. It's funny in the replay I noticed they had an old AMC Eagle which was a pretty solid little car but since the engine block was really the stumbling block I guess that wouldn't really change the outcome at all.
The blind shooting gun was pretty neat. Though I didn't know one exsisted, I wasn't surprised to see that it did, I guess in the back of my mind I figured something like must exsist.
Water heater: Pretty much more of the same. Having more obstacles slowed it somewhat, but I don't think adding another story -- i.e. putting the heater in the basement -- would've changed things materially, since the floors are not as solid an obstacle as the roof.
Shooting around corners: Boring. Didn't see much point to it. I agree that Grant's test was a bit problematical, because I think the idea of that myth isn't that the shooter fires blindly, but that he glances at the target first to get his bearings, then ducks behind the door and fires around it. I'd like to see that tested. Otherwise, yawn.
Except... when was that segment taped? Kari seemed a lot less pregnant in it. It must've been left over from months ago.
Driving through cardboard boxes: I think it's a bit silly to call this myth confirmed, because in a real-life situation, the boxes wouldn't be empty. We know you can hang onto a car if it drives through empty boxes, since stuntmen do it all the time. But even though the boxes in the movies are empty, I think the pretense is that they aren't. So I don't think they really tested the situation being represented in the myth. But then, they couldn't have done so safely. Realistically, it would've trashed both the hanger-on and the car.
Liquid nitrogen and locks: Rather brief, but interesting. I appreciated Kari's explanation of why extreme cold makes metal brittle.
Rocket snowplow: All this just to replicate the result? Talk about overkill. Interesting to watch the high-speed playbacks, though. I wouldn't really say they cut the car in half so much as that they disintegrated the middle third of the car and left the outer portions relatively intact.
You know what? They should combine myths and see if a snowplow propelled by a water heater can cut a car in half. After the car has been doused in liquid nitrogen. And surrounded by cardboard boxes. And the water heater has to fire around a corner.
Shooting around corners: Boring. Didn't see much point to it. I agree that Grant's test was a bit problematical, because I think the idea of that myth isn't that the shooter fires blindly, but that he glances at the target first to get his bearings, then ducks behind the door and fires around it. I'd like to see that tested. Otherwise, yawn.
Except... when was that segment taped? Kari seemed a lot less pregnant in it. It must've been left over from months ago.
Driving through cardboard boxes: I think it's a bit silly to call this myth confirmed, because in a real-life situation, the boxes wouldn't be empty. We know you can hang onto a car if it drives through empty boxes, since stuntmen do it all the time. But even though the boxes in the movies are empty, I think the pretense is that they aren't. So I don't think they really tested the situation being represented in the myth. But then, they couldn't have done so safely. Realistically, it would've trashed both the hanger-on and the car.
Liquid nitrogen and locks: Rather brief, but interesting. I appreciated Kari's explanation of why extreme cold makes metal brittle.
Rocket snowplow: All this just to replicate the result? Talk about overkill. Interesting to watch the high-speed playbacks, though. I wouldn't really say they cut the car in half so much as that they disintegrated the middle third of the car and left the outer portions relatively intact.
You know what? They should combine myths and see if a snowplow propelled by a water heater can cut a car in half. After the car has been doused in liquid nitrogen. And surrounded by cardboard boxes. And the water heater has to fire around a corner.
You take me to task the other week over cars always exploding off a cliff since that's how the movies present it and now you have a problem with empty boxes (just like the movies always have). C'mon, man!
The point is, they're supposed to test the circumstances of the myth as it's presented, i.e. the fictional portrayal of what's supposed to be happening -- not the real-life technique that's used to simulate it. If a movie shows a car falling off a cliff and exploding at the bottom, that's the story that's being told to us: that a car has fallen off a cliff and exploded from the force of impact. What I'm saying is that when we see a car driving through a stack of boxes, the story being told to us is that the boxes are full, even if they're empty in the actual filming of the stunt. So the myth is about driving through a stack of full boxes, not a stack of empty ones. Driving through empty boxes is analogous to what they did at the end of the cliff myth, when they abandoned testing the depicted circumstances and just used the standard Hollywood fakery to replicate the results. That's what they were doing here: replicating the results, replicating the fakery, rather than testing the specific myth that the fakery was meant to represent.
I voted "good". The bisected car and revisit of the water heater myth were particularly enjoyable.
Apparently there is at least one more new episode after this one as there was a preview during one of the commercial breaks. Next week's episode is "dumpster diving" which is the myth that you can jump from a tall building into a dumpster below and emerge unscathed.
Apparently there is at least one more new episode after this one as there was a preview during one of the commercial breaks. Next week's episode is "dumpster diving" which is the myth that you can jump from a tall building into a dumpster below and emerge unscathed.
I'm not satisfied the house was built like a real house. In a real house you'd have insulation in the roof, as well as cables, wires, power conduits etc... running through the floors and roof, which is more stuff for the water heat to break through or get caught on. You'd also have sheetrock and some kind of ceiling on the inside of the roof. They also never gave us a distance to how high it traveled into the air going through the house, i wanted to compare it to the 560 feet without any obstructions. I wish they had found a real house to test this in.
I'm not satisfied with the busting the locks thing either, they should have taken a hammer to the padlock and see if it would have shattered, all they did was use the same crowbar thing on it, which was successful even when the lock wasn't frozen, they should have tried smashing it into pieces with a hammer both unfrozen and then frozen.
The gun stuff was meh, most of it was "well duh"
The sled was way cool and i was shocked how cleanly it split the car, nice one
I'm not satisfied with the busting the locks thing either, they should have taken a hammer to the padlock and see if it would have shattered, all they did was use the same crowbar thing on it, which was successful even when the lock wasn't frozen, they should have tried smashing it into pieces with a hammer both unfrozen and then frozen.
The gun stuff was meh, most of it was "well duh"
The sled was way cool and i was shocked how cleanly it split the car, nice one
I doubt some wires and insulation would've provided much resistance to the water-heater.
Uhh, they used a hammer and a crowbar. They put the sharp end of the crowbar against the lock and struck its other end with the hammer. Thus, the force of the hammer was concentrated on a smaller surface area, doing more damage than the hammer alone would've done. Or if you're referring to the padlock (and I now see that you are), the use of the crowbar allowed greater leverage, and again, a more precise application of force than just smashing with a hammer alone would've allowed. So what you're proposing would've been less effective, by basic physics.
The water-heater effortlessly plowed through three layers of plywood (the floor, the ceiling and the roof) I doubt some puffy fiberglass or blown around scraps of newspaper are going to offer any resistance. Wires and pipes? Meaningless.
Doesn't matter, they used a smashing hammer thing for the frozen head, they should have for the pad lock, in movies they never use a crowbar and hammer, they just smash the thing and it breaks into pieces, this is what needed to be shown.
It is up to them to prove that
There's nothing to prove. Insulation -almost by definition- is mostly air. It offers no resistance. If several layers of flooring isn't going to stop it why would a big wad of fiberglass?
Adding the insulation and any wiring/fixtures would've added nothing to the experiment.