|
Shooting Fish in a Barrel/Hot Chili Cures/Elephants are afraid of mice Episode #91
Original Air Date: November 21, 2007
Shooting Fish in a Barrel/Hot Chili Cures/Elephants Afraid of Mice
The Myth: Shooting fish in a barrel really is easy.
The Experts:
Bart Shepherd from Steinhart Aquarium says that shock waves could damage fish.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jamie: (after putting the fish back together again) He’s alive!
Adam: (after being driven out into the middle of the desert) Where are we?
Jamie: We’re right here!
The Action/Results:
First, Adam and Jamie go get some fish from the Sun Fat Seafood Company. They get various different sizes, and choose a snapper to animate first. Jamie puts some electronics inside of it to make it swim again, Adam names it the “frankenfish” and then Jamie climbs the ladder to shoot at it. He misses the fish, but pops the bung out of the bunghole. It is hard to see what is going on in the barrel, so Adam paints the inside of the barrel white, and puts some windows in it so the camera can see what is happening.
The next set of tests is done outside, so as not to flood Jamie’s shop again. Jamie’s second shot hits the fish below the eye, and the third shot (taken by Adam) kills it. Then they see what happens with a bunch of smaller fish. Thirty plastic fish are hung in the barrel on what Adam calls “the dead fish Christmas tree”, and Jamie shoots at them. He hits 3 out of 30 fish, and the myth seems to be headed towards confirmed status. Then Jamie observes that the shock wave from a gun blast might be enough to kill the fish anyway, even if they weren’t actually hit by a bullet.
To test this, they talk to Bart Shepherd, and he confirms that a shock wave could damage fish. They crunch some numbers and determine that 8.15 pounds per square inch of force would be lethal to a fish. Unfortunately, the machine that they have to test force in this way is not fast enough to measure the amount of psi in a blast from a gun, so they use the shockwatch stickers again, and determine that there is enough force in a shockwave to kill the fish.
Just to make sure that this myth is tested thoroughly, Jamie drives Adam out to the middle of the desert. There is a M 134 mini gun mounted to the roof of a vehicle there, and Jamie shoots at a large sea bass suspended in a barrel with this weapon. The fish is utterly destroyed, and this myth is CONFIRMED.
The Myth: There are other cures for the burn of hot chiles that work better than milk.
The Expert: Dave Dewitt, the “Pope of Peppers”, tells Grant about capsaicin, and informs him that you could die from eating a really hot pepper.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Grant: Toothpaste stays in the bathroom, not on the dinner table!
The Action/Results:
Grant goes to interview Dave Dewitt, and brings back a bunch of peppers to use in this experiment. Kari purees the jalapeno first, and uses it to test milk as the control for this experiment. Grant is suitably inflamed by the jalapeno, but it doesn’t bother Tory at all. Nevertheless, they label milk as a 5 for cooling power. For the next test, which is water, Kari purees some habaneros for Tory. Now both of the guys are sweating! Tory gives water a 3.5 for cooling his mouth, and Grant gives it a 3. Beer is next, and Grant rates it 3, while Tory opts for 4. Next, the guys try tequila. Originally the liquor intensifies the burning, but after the alcohol takes effect, Tory gives it a 4, and Grant gives it a 3.
Then the guys try some cures that are a little different. The theory is that the sugar in gel toothpaste will alleviate the burning, but that does not hold true for Tory and Grant. They both give toothpaste 0 as a rating. Next is petroleum jelly, which Grant ranks as 1 and Tory ranks as 2. And last, but not least, wasabi is tried. Grant is in agony as he spits the wasabi out. He changes his ranking from -10 to -100. However, Tory actually likes the stuff, and gives it a 3. In the end, the guys decide that nothing beats whole fat milk for the pain of a burning mouth, and they decide that this myth is BUSTED.
The Myth: Elephants are afraid of mice.
The Experts: Jamie and Adam
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam: How’re we gonna get this mouse to those elephants?
Jamie (pantomiming the answer): Slingshot!
The Action/Results:
Jamie and Adam decide to test this myth with wild elephants, so when they are in South Africa, they go to a place with semi-habituated elephants that they can get close to. They hollow out a ball of elephant dung, put a mouse inside the ball, and then wind a fishing line around the outside of the dung ball. As the elephant goes past, they pull the fishing line and the ball of dung rolls away, revealing the mouse. Both Jamie and Adam express doubt that the elephant is even going to see the mouse, much less react to it. However, when they try it out, the elephant shies away from the rodent! Jamie expresses everyone’s surprise when he says, “ We were all like, ‘Yeah, right – this little guy is gonna scare those big guys,’ and – IT DID!” They try the test without the mouse under the dung ball, and the elephants don’t even give it a passing glance. However, when they repeat the experiment, the elephant does move away from the mouse! The guys rule this one PLAUSIBLE.
|
Episode Descriptions 
