|
Birds in a Truck/Bifurcated Boat Episode #77 Original Air Date: April 18, 2007
Birds in a Truck
The Myth: Adam explains it like this: If you’re driving around with a truckload of birds and they take flight, is your truck lighter?
The Experts: Ilkka Koskelo Physicist San Francisco State Univ. explains the physics of flight to the guys.
Scientific Principle:
Newton’s third law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So, if a bird is flapping it’s wings and pushing down, there is an opposite force pushing the bird back up. That is called lift.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jess: That’s cool, you look like a little animal in a circus cage!
Jamie laughs, and then growls.
The Action/Results:
First, the guys try to catch a pigeon. The pigeons aren’t willing to be caught, though, so they get a few from Kate Marden instead. They try the simplest experiment first – just putting the pigeon in a cylinder, making the floor of the cylinder vibrate, and weighing the whole thing. However, the pigeon won’t cooperate and fly, so they go on to plan B. That involves a bigger chamber, and a “weed-whacker” device, but that doesn’t seem to work either. Jackson the pigeon won’t stay up in the air long enough to see a difference in weight. So, they use a helicopter that lifts, but doesn’t get messed up by the turbulence. That works, and the weight of the chamber does NOT change.
Now it is time for the large scale preparation. They use a trailer, cover up the edges so the birds have nowhere to land, and make spinning foam things on the floor so that they pigeons won’t want to land there, either. They get some load cells, and set up a very precise way of weighing this system. They go hunting for some more pigeons, and make a webshooter to get them, but don’t have any success, so they get more pigeons from Kate. Then they are ready to do the large scale experiment. When they finally do the experiment, they have a lot of variation, but no change in weight. Just to make sure, they repeat the experiment with the helicopter (piloted by Cris) and there is no change in weight. This myth is BUSTED!
Bifurcated Boat
The Myth: Can you split a boat on a channel marker while going 25 miles per hour?
The Experts: Sean Owens (Donzi Performance Boats) has heard of the myth, but thinks the boat would have to be going a lot faster.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
The graphic of Tory, Grant, Kari and Jess on the boat!
The Action/Results:
First, Grant and Kari go for a ride in one of these fast boats. Then they manage to get a boat for cheap, but they first have to do some scale tests. So, they make some silicone molds of a 1/10th scale boat. They crash the scale boat several times, and find out, thanks to Tory, that a turn right before they get to the channel marker will do the job. Then they go to full scale! They set up the trailer with a set of smart wheels, and put a pole where the wheels need to turn to run into the channel marker. They set up the channel marker firmly, so that it won’t go anywhere when the boat runs into it.
The first run, at 25 miles per hour, showed no bifurcation at all. They straighten out the trailer, and try again, this time at 50 miles per hour. It still doesn’t split. Then, just for the maximum amount of carnage, they drop the boat from the crane. In the end, this myth is BUSTED.
|
Episode Descriptions 
