|
Written by river95
|
|
Wednesday, 02 April 2008 |
James Bond Myths 2
Episode #98
Original Air Date: February 6, 2008
James Bond Myths 2
The Myth: Exploding Pen
In Goldfinger, Q makes a pen for James that explodes with the force of a grenade. Is such a thing really possible?
The Experts:
Frank Doyle (retired FBI Secret Agent) and Sergeant J.D. Nelson (Bomb Technician from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department) are in charge of all the explosions!
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jamie: When in doubt…
Adam: …use more explosives!
The Action/Results:
First of all, they have to know how much of the explosive they can put in the pen. By doing some careful measuring with diamond dust, Jamie determines this number to be 3 cubic centimeters. They make a dummy out of foam, put the pen in its shirt pocket, and predict what will happen. Both Adam and Jamie think that it will blow a “grapefruit-sized chunk” out of the dummy. They set off the explosive, and it looks like the dummy has been blown away, but closer examination reveals that they were right in their prediction, and that a hole about the size of a grapefruit was blown out of the dummy’s chest. So, they go for a bigger pen!
The bigger pen is set up, with six times more explosive than the first pen. They trigger the explosion and, as before, they think that they have a match to what we see in the movie. However, a closer look reveals that there is a bigger chunk blown out of the dummy, but not the vaporization that they were looking for.
Finally, they haul out the biggest pen they can find. They pack it full of explosives. They set it off, and the dummy is blown to smithereens! So, can a regular-size pen contain enough explosives to blow up a dummy? Nope, this myth is BUSTED.
The Myth: Killer Hat
Goldfinger’s henchman, Odd Job, decapitates a marble statue with his hat. Can this really happen?
The Experts: Kari, Tory, and Grant
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory, talking about the foam statue he made: (Italian Accent) So I finish-a my statue, and I like-a to call her “Hey There, Lonely Girl” but I canna look at her too long, ‘cause she make-a me cry.
The Action/Results:
First, the team finds out that Adam has a friend who makes replica Odd Job hats, including an aluminum ring to fit on the bottom, so they order a few. Then, Kari and Tory head off to get some statues. They find out that the statues that are made at the local factory come with rebar reinforcements, and so they have to get theirs made especially without rebar. They order two statues – one made out of plaster, and the other of concrete. Then they head back to the shop.
Grant remakes the sword-swinging ninja robot into a hat-throwing robot, while Kari makes steel rings for the bottom of the hat. One of the steel rings is sharp, and the other is dull. They need to find out how fast a person could throw one of these hats, so that they can calibrate the robot, so Tory carves a statue out of foam to use as a target. They decide that Tory has the best and most accurate throw, at 46 feet per second. The robot turns out to throw the hat at 54.7 feet per second, which Grant justifies by saying that Odd Job is a professional henchman and so might be able to throw a bit better than Tory.
Finally, the statues arrive, and they can start throwing hats. They have also ordered a statue off the Internet, and she is supposed to be solid marble. After Kari makes sure that the statue is appropriately dressed for TV, they start the experiment. They start with the marble statue and the blunt hat. When the hat knocks the statue’s head off (after three tries), it is cause for celebration! Then they realize that the statue is hollow, and so does not exactly meet the stipulations of the myth. So, they move on to the concrete statue, which they know is solid. They hurl the blunt-edged hat at it, but it doesn’t work. They throw the sharp-edged hat at it – no dice. So, they decide that the myth is BUSTED, as marble is even harder than concrete. Finally, just for fun, Kari throws the hat at the plaster statue, and decapitates it instantly! But plaster is much softer than either marble or concrete, so this myth is still BUSTED.
The Myth: Jaws of Steel
In Moonraker, an evil henchman named Jaws chews through a steel cable with his metal teeth. Could a person actually do this?
The Experts: Adam and Jamie
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
When they put Jamie’s jaws to the test, and they start chomping all the vegetables, Jamie is absolutely beaming, and he actually has stuff on his white shirt!
The Action/Results:
First of all, Adam makes a set of steel jaws that are as close to what is seen in the movie as possible. He mounts them to a skull, and they put 170 pounds of weight on them, which is the force of a normal human bite. The steel cable doesn’t even get dented. They put more weight on the rig (250 pounds), using the theory that Jaws was a giant, and might be stronger than the average human. Still, nothing happens. Jamie points out that the teeth of Adam’s rig are not sharp, and neither are the jaws in the movie. But he thinks that sharpened teeth might work better, so he goes off to make his own set of jaws. Meanwhile, Adam pulls out a sledgehammer and proves that, even at ten times the amount of force used before, the jaws could not break the cable, and indeed, the only thing that breaks is the jaws themselves.
Jamie constructs a super-strong set of jaws, with sharpened teeth. These jaws have handles to operate them. They test them out by chomping up some carrots, celery, corn, and even a can of soda! So, they put them to the ultimate test, but chomping them onto the cable with 170 pounds of weight. However, even these super-sharp jaws don’t do anything to the cable. They then put the jaws and the cable in Jamie’s hydraulic press, which goes up to 20,000 pounds of pressure, but they still are not able to break the cable. They declare the myth BUSTED, but then Adam asks Jamie to consider a way that he could cut the cable. Jamie comes up with CLAW – a spring-loaded frame that allows him to carry a seventy-pound cutter with one hand. Jamie becomes CLAW (an evil henchman) and proceeds to cut the cable that is holding Buster Bond and his lady friend in the cable car. The cable snaps, the car falls to the ground, and the myth is spectacularly BUSTED!
|
|
|
Episode Descriptions 
