Walking on Water

Original Air Date 4/25/07
Episode # 78 

The Myth: Can Ninjas walk on water?

The Experts:
None

Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: If I had any dignity, this would be humiliating!
Adam: Come Silent Walrus, let us storm the castle!

The Action/Results:
To test this myth Adam first builds a pair of Mizugumo shoes (ninja mud shoes), which are meant to distribute weight evenly over the surface area. Adam dons his ninja outfit and mizugumo shoes and steps into Bamboo Reef's pool, he feels the first step is “promising” but immediately sinks on the second step. For test two, he builds a pair of pontoon like shoes out of ski boots and Styrofoam. As Jamie watches from the pool's edge, Adam hops into the pool in his ninja shoes 2.0, the tips break the surface of the water sending Adam into a face plant. Adam surfaces and comments, “If I had any dignity, that would have been humiliating!”

For the third and final test, Jamie comes up with a concoction of water and cornstarch that forms a non-Newtonian fluid. Non-Newtonian fluids change their viscosities upon impact, momentarily making them a solid so you can move across them. Adam is able to run, jump, hop on the mixture, before he stands still and allows himself to sink proving it really is a liquid. Ninjas walking on water is BUSTED!


The Myth: Can a Ninja stop a sword with his bare hands?

The Experts: Dale Seago: Senior Instructor Bujinkan S.F. Dojo

Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory: You’re all full of Newtons!
Kari: You are full of Newtons.
Grant: YEAH…fig Newtons maybe!

The Action/ Results
Grant resurrects the sword-swinging machine built originally for the sword cutting sword myth. It is set on its side so the sword swings downwards. While Grant and Tory set up the arms to catch the sword, Kari works on ballistic gel hands to attach to them. Now that the machine is rebuilt they need to calibrate it to actual human strength and speed. Kari, Grant, and Tory each squeeze a force plate between their hands and find that Grant has the strongest grasp to catch the sword at 1000 Newtons. To find the human speed of a sword swipe Grant, Tory, and Adam take a swing at a ballistics gel head, Grant once again wins at 47mph.

With the speed and force set to Grant's best times, the machine is ready for the tests. After repeated attempts, several injuries to the ballistics hands & head, and fidgeting with the timing so the hands catch the sword, it’s determined a human couldn’t catch a sword in this manner. Just to make sure the team visits Dale Seago at the dojo for some demonstrations. Dale puts on a pair of shuko, ninja climbing claws, and allows Kari to come at him with a sword. Dale is able to block the sword with just one hand, by catching the blade between the claws of the shuko and deflecting the energy back towards Kari. Myth BUSTED!


The Myth: Can a Ninja catch an arrow in mid air?

The Experts: Dale Seago: Senior Instructor Bujinkan S.F. Dojo

Memorable/Quotable Moment:
Jamie: ROBO-HAND!

The Action/Results:
Jamie explains it this way, “I’m gonna string a regular bow and set up an arrow with a tennis ball on it, and shoot it at Adam or at least off to the side of Adam. We’ll put Adam in a protective suit in case I either get frisky or…miss.” At the slower speeds Adam is able to catch the arrow on the second shot by anticipating when Jamie will shoot it. Once Jamie moves up to a higher speed Adam is unable to catch it. The weight of the tennis ball was slowing down the arrow to 58 mph, much slower than real arrows, so they decide to ramp it up and build an arrow catching mechanical hand.
Adam builds an arrow-shooting rig, and Jamie builds hand-grabbing rig that is calibrated to Dale’s ninja reflex time of 35 milliseconds. Jamie’s robo-hand is built using motorcycle chain for the fingers and shoestrings for the tendons that are controlled by the pneumatic actuators. Timers attached to robo-hand are controlled by the arrow-shooting rig, for the best possible chance of catching the arrow. After a few trials and some fidgeting with the timers the guys decide it’s not possible to catch the arrow at human speeds. At 5 times faster than human speed, robo-hand is finally able to catch an arrow in mid flight. This myth is BUSTED!