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Speed Camera/Medical Nitro Episode# 73
Original Air Date: March 7, 2007
Speed Camera/Medical Nitro
Myth: You Can’t Beat The Speed Camera
Adam and Jamie test several ways to keep a speed camera (such as are used at intersections in many American cities) from catching you breaking the speed limit.
The Experts:
Speed camera developer Adam Tuton is in charge of setting up their camera.
Falconer James Tigan, from the West Coast Falconry Academy, brings two of his birds over for the third sub myth.
Instructor Mark Wolocatiuk gets the Lamborghini up to top speed.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Rob Lee: If this car can go half as fast as it’s going in Adam’s imagination, it should be able to beat the sound barrier, let alone a speed camera.
Sub Myth 1: Speed
Supposedly, if you’re driving fast enough, the camera won’t be able to pick your car up.
The Action/Results:
The initial tests are done with an average 4-door car, the sort of car that would normally be seen on the road. To keep the insurance agent happy, safety features are upgraded, including 5-point racing harnesses. While Adam installs the harnesses, Jamie does some mysterious work on the rear bumper.
The car, radar gun, and speed camera all head to that familiar stretch of pavement at the old Alameda naval base. Both Jamie and Adam take a turn at outracing the speed camera. The top speed for this car is 100 MPH, and the camera has no problem snapping a picture of the license plate. Clearly, for this myth to stand a chance, they need a faster car.
The researchers then come up with a Lamborghini for Adam to drive. Testing moves to a racetrack, and Mark Wolocatiuk coaches Adam through getting the car up to 123 MPH. When that doesn’t outrun the camera, Mark takes the wheel and speeds past at 136 MPH. Even that isn’t fast enough; the camera still gets the license plate. Jamie points out that speed cameras work at the speed of light, and a car might be able to get up to 200 MPH, far too slow to outrun it.
The myth is ruled BUSTED, but Jamie wants to try one last trick. He climbs back into the first car, takes off down the track, and before getting to the camera triggers the air-powered spy movie license plate flipper he installed back at the beginning of the episode. The camera takes a picture of the substitute license plate, and Adam gets a good laugh about Jamie’s “cheating”. Jamie had fun with this build, but doesn’t argue Adam’s point that the license flipper is far more illegal than speeding.
Sub Myth 2: Plate Blockers
It is possible to obscure your license plate from a speed camera without obscuring it to regular vision.
The Action/Results:
They test 5 things that are supposed to keep a speed camera from getting a clear picture of your license plate. Two are DIY: clear plastic wrap and hairspray. The other three are commercial products: “blocking spray”, a plastic plate cover with microcrystals to reflect the flash, and another plate cover with a plastic lens to distort the license number.
Adam sets up a scale test in the shop, using his digital camera and flash. The only product that does anything is the plastic lens, but there is still enough of the license number clearly visible for a database search.
The test is then repeated out at Alameda. Once again, the lens blurs out part of the license number, but not enough to do any good. The other products don’t do anything. Myth BUSTED.
Sub Myth 3: Birds
Supposedly speed cameras are so sensitive they can pick up a bird in flight.
The Action/Results:
Two falcons from the West Coast Falconry Academy (and their handlers) join Jamie and Adam at Alameda for this test. The birds are sent on a straight-line flight across the path of the speed camera.
On the first flight, the radar gun clocks the bird at 40 MPH. The speed camera triggers and catches the falcon, but only reads 29 MPH. To see if the camera was detecting the swinging lure instead of the bird, James Tigan simply swings the lure at different speeds with no bird in flight. While the camera’s sensors detect the motion of the lure, it doesn’t trip the shutter ... so it was the bird triggering the camera in the first test, not the lure.
A second flight clears up the speed anomaly, catching the bird at 41 MPH. Myth CONFIRMED.
Myth: Exploding Nitroglycerine Patches
If a heart patient wearing a nitro patch is defibrillated, the patch will explode.
The Experts:
Frank Doyle and his friend James Crippen provide the pure nitroglycerine.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory: Wait a minute, who’s gonna let us use their defibrillator? I mean, we break everything we touch.
Tory: This doesn’t look dangerous enough. Should we get some buckets of water to stand in, or maybe set off the sprinkler system?
Kari: Oh, Tory, are we going to ever have an episode where you don’t hurt yourself?
The Action/Results:
Grant builds a defibrillator so they don’t destroy a real one. Meanwhile, a ballistics gel torso is molded and the test area gets heavy rubber mats for insulation. Once the torso is ready, heart paddles are inserted and a real defibrillator is borrowed to get a baseline reading. It produces a 4 millivolt shock for 2 microseconds. Grant’s defibrillator is able to match this, so testing can begin.
The entire rig moves out to the bunker for safety. Unfortunately it starts to rain, and the bunker roof isn’t watertight. Once everything is dried out, a nitro patch is placed on the torso and the paddles clamped in place. The defibrillator is triggered remotely, with no effect on the patch. Even at maximum power and with the paddles close enough to each other to spark, the patch doesn’t explode.
Kari suggests that this myth could be based on an earlier style of nitro patch, one that used aluminum foil backing. Those patches were phased out in the 1980’s, so Kari makes her own with the modern patches and foil. The foil is definitely conductive, but the foil-backed patches produce the same result as the regular patches, namely none.
The team then hauls everything out to the bomb range. Frank Doyle and James Crippen produce some pure nitroglycerine, and a patch-sized drop is put on the torso. The paddles are positioned to spark directly across the nitro and the rig is triggered. There is no explosion and no burning.
Since it’s not safe to transport pure nitroglycerine, something has to be done with the rest of it. The defibrillator is moved aside, a small hole is cut in the torso, and the rest of the nitro poured in. Some “assistance” is added to the hole courtesy of the bomb squad, and everyone moves back to a safe distance. This time, the dummy finally blows up.
Myth BUSTED – if pure nitro wouldn’t explode from a defibrillator shock, it’s impossible for the lower levels in a nitro patch to explode.
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Episode Descriptions 
