|
Underwater Car Escape/7 paper fold |
|
|
|
|
Written by river95
|
|
Sunday, 28 January 2007 |
Episode#72
Underwater Car Escape/7 Paper Fold
Original Air Date; January 24, 2007
Underwater Car Escape
The Myth: If your car sinks underwater, you will not be able to open the door until the car is completely full of water.
The Experts: Sean Wheeles (safety diver)
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: Really, I’ve always wanted to be the dude in the car; you’ve gotta let me be the dude in the car!
Jamie: You can be the dude in the car.
Adam: YES!!
The Action/Results:
First, Adam builds a small-scale model to explain what will be happening inside the car. The pressure of the water outside the car is greater than the pressure of air inside the car, and so the door can’t be opened until the pressure is equal on both sides. That will happen when the car is full of water.
Jamie gets the car ready for action by removing the engine – with an ax! As he says, “I had to remove the engine from the car, to clean the car up…so I did! Then the guys have to compensate for all the weight that they removed, so they put seven hundred pounds of barbell weights in the front of the car, so that it weighs the same as it did before the engine was removed.
At the Campolindo High School diving pool, the myth is set up. The car is attached to a crane, which lowers it down into the water, and then lets it sink on its own. Jamie is in the back seat of the car, wearing a rebreather, so that he doesn’t add any more bubbles to the car. There is a spare tank in the front for Adam if he needs it. And there are two divers in the water to help Adam if necessary.
The first test is just to see if the myth is true or not – can you get out after the car is submerged, but before the pressure equalizes. Adam struggles to open the door, but to no avail. Jamie is right there with the regulator, and Adam eventually grabs it. Once the pressure equalizes, Adam opens the door and swims out and up. The myth itself is confirmed.
The next part of the test is to see if you could open the door at all, as the car is sinking. Adam proves that you can open the door easily if the water is just around your ankles. If the water is to your waist it is much harder, and Adam has to struggle to open it, but he finally does. When Adam waits until the water is to the top of the windows, however, it is too late, and he has to grab the regulator again and wait until the pressure equalizes before he can escape.
Another question people ask about this myth is “What about breaking the window?” So, Adam sets up a shop test to see about that angle. The problem here is the pressure of the water against the window, which is calculated to be 350 pounds of force if you are only two feet underwater. Adam sets 350 pounds of weight on a manually operated window, and tries to open it. The crank breaks.
Some people have said that the problem with automatic windows is that they will not work underwater. Adam submerges the battery and the car door in a small tank, and finds that, even after 45 minutes underwater, the window does work. But, when he puts the 350 pound load on the window, it doesn’t work. So, it is not the being underwater part that is the problem, but the amount of force that the window is subjected to that causes the difficulty.
So, if the window can’t be moved, can it be broken? Adam first tries the things that you would normally have in the car with you – a set of keys and a cell phone. Neither one works to break the window. Then he pulls on a pair of steel-toed boots. He can’t kick the window out. So, they move on to commercial gadgets that are sold for this purpose. Both of those (the orange safety hammer and the center punch) work just fine.
Back at the pool, the guys can’t actually break the window, because that would leave glass in the pool, which would be unsafe for the high school students. So, they rig the window with high voltage and a lubricant, to let it open quickly. It works, and Adam is able to escape without using the regulator at all.
For the last test, Jamie has a suggestion. Just hold your breath, sit quietly in the car, and wait until the pressure equalizes, and then swim out. Adam notes, “It’s the maximum conservation of energy technique – it’s very Jamie.” So, he tries it. The water comes into the car, but Adam stays calm. He waits until the last second to hold his breath, but he stays calm and waits patiently until the car is completely full. Then, he easily opens the door and swims to the surface. It works! Myth CONFIRMED!!
7 Paper Fold
The Myth: You cannot fold a piece of paper in half more than seven times.
The Experts: None
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Grant: This looked a lot easier on paper!
Tory: It’s actually like an airbag!
The Action/Results:
First, the build team tries this myth with a piece of the blueprint paper. Kari manages seven folds, but not an eighth one. So, they try it with regular office paper.
Tory is up first, and he does manage to fold it in half seven times. He runs off to get a clamp for number eight, and he says it is folded, but Grant and Kari disagree. Then it is Kari’s turn. She thinks that if you iron the paper with steam, it might make it easier to fold. She also gets seven folds, but no more. Then it is Grant’s turn. He decides to use tracing paper (“still PAPER” as he reminds Tory) and he folds it lengthwise first, and then widthwise. Tory doesn’t think that this is in the spirit of the myth, but Grant does manage to get eight folds.
The team then decides that they should scale this test up, just to see if making the paper bigger helps. So, they get a piece of paper that is twelve and a half feet long, and fifteen feet wide. They manage to fold this one in half seven times, but nothing more than that, even while using a sledgehammer! So, they ramp it up again!
Kari and Tory tell folks about Britney Gallivan, who tested this using toilet paper. She managed twelve folds, but she did fold it lengthwise as well, so Tory’s concerns about the spirit of the myth are still valid, and they go on with the large-scale experiment.
This time they use the NASA hanger at Moffat Field. The paper is 170 feet long by 220 feet wide. It is made of seventeen rolls of paper taped together. They fold and fold and fold, and finally get eight folds! Grant points out that you could cut through the paper at this point and hit every single layer, which meets the criteria of folding it in half. Then, because they can, they keep on folding. They finally stop at eleven folds, and BUST this myth once and for all.
|
|
|
Episode Descriptions 