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Myth Evolution Original Air Date: September 5, 2007 Episode #85
In true Darwinian fashion, our favorite team of special effects wizards push themselves forward, adapting themselves to catch the myths that got away so they remain at their fittest and continue to survive.
Myth # 1: Ninja Bullet Slap
Evolved from: Catching a Sword
Quote: Tory (to Grant): “What is it with you and these robots?”
Memorable Moments: Tory dressed in his white Tyvek suit, swatting at paintballs while looking at some humanoid marshmallow.
The Myth: That a hyper-adept ninja can slap a 9mm bullet away using only his bare hand.
The Setup: In order to estimate the normal range of human reflexes, the Build Team first heads out to the M7 parking lot to see if Tory can manage to swat away a paintball, which moves at around 192 feet per second, about one-fifth of the speed of an actual bullet. Tory finally manages to swat away a round with the heel of his palm, but not until after getting hit several times with paintballs fired by the vengeful Kari. Bruised, yet satisfied with the results, Tory heads back into the shop to help Grant and Kari retool the Swordbot to transform it into the Swatbot, a ninja-like robot with an air-driven swatting arm. Despite their efforts, the team runs into some problems while testing out at the firing range because they can’t get the gun they are using to fire in the same place. They go back and forth again from the shop to the firing range, and this time the gun fires straight, but the Swatbot proves to move too slowly. Grant ramps up the air pressure so the robot will move at twice human speed and adds a delay so the robotic ninja doesn’t “jump the gun.” However, the robot still moves too quickly, and the bullet rips through the top of the hand like a knife through the skin of a carrot. Grant resets, and this time the robot moves at the right speed, but the bullet grazes the robot’s palm and still enters the target.
The Result: Swatting at the bullet failed to divert the projectile from its course, so this myth is BUSTED.
Myth # 2: Underwater Car
Evolved from: This myth evolved from another myth with the same name.
Quote: Adam: “Jamie puts on his second skin his people have worn for centuries to fight off the desert heat.”
Memorable moments: In contrast with the previous time a similar myth was tested, Adam is clearly enjoying himself when the car begins to fill with water and sink to the bottom of the pool.
The Myth: If you’ve been chased by bad guys into a body of water, you can survive underwater long enough to evade them by breathing the air from your tires.
The Setup: Adam and Jamie return to the Campolindo High School pool with their entourage to submerge an old car. Adam is in the driver’s seat, and Jamie is in the back to make sure that nothing bad happens to Adam. He is joined by other safety divers that are outside the car and are in place to assist Adam after he attempts to breathe from the valve. Once underwater, Adam tries to breathe from the valve but in unsuccessful, and so he turns toward the safety diver’s spare regulator and returns to the surface. Adam details how he couldn’t get any air without also breathing in water, but he wants to try again anyway. This time, he stabs the tire with a knife, and tries twice to get air from the tire, but it is to no avail. With their heads above water, Adam and Jamie discuss how difficult it is to try and breathe from a tire.
The Result: Because Adam couldn’t inhale from the tire without also breathing water, this myth is BUSTED.
Myth # 3: Airbags
Evolved from: Lock Pick of Death
Quotes: Kari (to Tory, while pulling casts of his arms): “Wouldn’t it be funny if you broke your arm while getting a cast off?”
Tory: “No. Well, that would be ironic…”
Memorable Moments: Buster punching himself in the face!
The Myth: That the “ten and two” position actually puts your thumbs in an ideal position to be blown off if the airbag should deploy.
The Setup: Buster is given ballistics gelatin hands with urethane bones and flexible arms and placed in front of an airbag that Grant has rigged to be set off remotely. For the first test they use hands that wrap around the steering wheel in the normal manner, and when the airbag is set off it blows Buster’s hands off the wheel, but he sustains no injuries. They then test to see if sticking your thumbs out hitchhiker-style would make a difference, but the results are the same. Finally, Buster’s thumbs are placed directly over the airbag, and when it is deployed his thumbs are still attached to his hands.
The Result: This myth is BUSTED. Not only do you have to have your thumbs hooked directly over the airbag, the airbag doesn’t deploy with enough force to do anything more than break your thumbs, and, if you are driving with your hands in the “ten and two” position, it will not necessarily even do that.
Myth # 4: Beat the Speed Camera
Evolved from: This “cheeky revisit” evolved from another myth with the same name.
Quotes: (Adam, after seeing The Beast speed past him): “That was like getting punched in the chest!”
Memorable Moments: Watching the huge cloud of white smoke billow behind The Beast as its jet engine got up to speed, and watching Adam zipping up to…well, Adam on a Segway.
The Experts: Adam Tuton, speed camera expert
The Myth: That commercial products will allow you to avoid getting a ticket by obscuring your license plate so the speed camera can’t take a picture of it.
The Setup: Adam and Jamie head out to Redding Drag strip to meet up with Adam Tuton, who tells them that the height at which a camera is mounted doesn’t matter, and neither does the type of mount, as vehicle, pole, and tripod mounts all exist. They try the same products that they tried the first time, and none of them work, so they try a new method of beating the speed camera: a jet car named The Beast! The Beast throws out a huge cloud of white smoke behind itself and once its engine reaches full power, the car is catapulted to an amazing 300 miles per hour. The car zooms past the speed camera before any pictures can be taken, leaving a disappointed Mr. Tuton in the dust and smoke.
The result: This myth is BUSTED! There’s NO WAY you’re going to get a street legal car to beat a speed camera!
Myth # 5: Exploding RFID
Evolved from: Exploding Tattoo
Quotes: Kari, after getting an RFID tag injected in her arm: “I feel so sci-fi!”
Memorable Moments: Watching Grant and Tory inject a tag into a side of bacon while dressed as surgeons.
The Experts: Dr. David Priest
The Myth: That having an MRI will cause an RFID tag to be pulled out of your arm with such force that you lose a limb.
The Setup: Because they don’t want to risk injuring anyone, Tory and Grant first inject a side of bacon with an RFID tag and have that passed through the MRI machine at 3T MRI. While the MRI tag is detected, nothing adverse happens, so Kari volunteers to be a human subject. Despite trying to concentrate on whether or not the tag is being pulled by the machine, Kari is unable to feel anything.
The Result: This myth is BUSTED. An RFID tag will not “explode” out of your arm when you go in for an MRI.
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