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Water Stun Gun/Fiery Fables Original Air Date: September 17, 2008
Episode # 108
Water Stun Gun/ Fiery Fables
Water Stun Gun
The Myth:
Supposedly, various people all over the world are developing a water stun gun. Is such a thing even possible?
The Expert: Grant is actually the expert on this one, since he is an electrical engineer. At the Nevada Lightning Lab, Greg Leyh is the Principal Engineer and he helps them generate lighting bolts from the Tesla Coil.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Adam (as a British naturalist): This is the Hyneman at his most vulnerable – working with red food coloring – his white shirt could be desecrated at any moment!
The Action/Results:
Jamie and Adam first test a real stun gun to see what it is capable of. They fire at a dummy, and find out that there are two small electrodes, connected to wires, that carry the charge to the victim. This charge starts out at 50,000 volts (called the arcing phase) and then drops to 5,000 volts (the loading phase) when it comes in contact with the person.
Next, they get a bunch of squirt guns to see which one has the most unbroken stream of water (a laminar flow) so that it can carry a charge. Once they find one that works, Jamie modifies it into the AquaZap, in which the electrodes from the stun gun are in the tubes from the squirt gun, so that the electricity can flow into the water. They test the AquaZap by firing it first into buckets with metal plates at the bottom, but that doesn’t allow the stun gun to get to the loading phase. Then they try firing it into a ballistics gel dummy, but that doesn’t quite work either. Finally, they take a leg of lamb, insert tubes into it, which contain the electrodes, and fire it that way. It works, however, since water resists the flow of electricity through it as the distance increases, they can’t get farther than four feet away.
They determine that this myth is BUSTED, however, Jamie still wants to be able to fire lightning bolts at people with a squirt gun, so they go to the Nevada Lightning Lab, and Jamie goes up inside a Tesla Coil. He is insulated, and perfectly safe, but when he fires the squirt gun at the ballistics dummy on the outside of the cage, with the Tesla Coil generating electricity, the resulting lightning bolt satisfies both Adam and Jamie!
Fiery Fables
The Myths:
1) If a fire extinguisher is in a fire, will it blow up and still extinguish the fire? (Exploding Extinguisher)
2) Does walking on fire require a trance-like state, or is it a matter of physics? (Firewalking)
Exploding Extinguisher
The Expert: none
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory: Yes! Time to let out the inner pyro!
The Action/Results:
Since this myth is not very specific, the team decided to try the three most common types of fire extinguishers – chemical foam, water, and carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide extinguisher went into the fire first. It had a safety release valve on it, which did it’s job, and as the pressure started to rise, due to the rising temperature, the valve let the pressure out, and there was no explosion.
Next was the water extinguisher. As the pressure and the temperature rose, the team waited anxiously to see what would happen. At nine minutes in, a leak appeared, and the extinguisher went shooting off like a rocket!
Then they tried the chemical foam extinguisher. This one sat and did nothing for a while, so the team became bored and started to play charades. Just as Tory said, “Sounds like?” the extinguisher blew up! This one did extinguish the fire – mostly because the fire was blown all over the place – but it did stop burning.
Finally, they returned to the carbon dioxide extinguisher. This time, Grant took the safety valve off of it, and they waited to see what would happen. The fire extinguisher did finally explode, scattering the fire everywhere, and not leaving it burning. This one is PLAUSIBLE!
Firewalking
The Expert: Tolley Burkan, from the Firewalking Institute of Research and Education, talks with Grant and Kari and lets them watch the class that he is teaching about how to walk on fire safely.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Grant demonstrated that ash and charcoal are not very good conductors of heat by putting a live coal in his hand.
The Action/Results:
Kari and Grant started this one off by taking a field trip to see a class in firewalking, taught by Tolley Burkan. He told them that they should walk across the coals as if they are walking down the street, stepping lightly, and not running or stopping. They watched as the class built the fire, and then walked across the coals, and they took readings on the fire, ranging from 1400 degrees Fahrenheit while it was burning, to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit when the coals were spread out.
Back at the shop, Kari made some silicone feet models, while Grant made some copper slug calorimeters to measure exactly how badly someone’s foot might be burned when they did this. They attached the fake feet to the bottom of Kari’s shoes, and she walked across the fire with the calorimeters recording the temperature and the high-speed camera recording how long her feet stayed on the coals. It turned out that her feet were only in contact with the coals for 9/10ths of a second each time, and her full weight was only on each foot for 5/10ths of a second each time. Then, Grant reported that the calorimeters recorded no data that would predict any injury from this exposure. The physics involved seem to say that this should be a safe thing to do. Bolstered by this evidence, all three members of the build team removed their shoes and socks. Then, one at a time, they walked across the hot coals. None of them suffer any ill effects, although all of them report that it was hot. In fact, Tory strolled across, reported that it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, and turned and walked back across the hot coals again!
As a final test, the team wondered what would happen if someone tried this who did not know to walk lightly and to not stop or run. They told Adam about the experiment, and he jumped at the chance to try it. He went stomping off across the coals, then started to run, and managed to blister his feet in the process. However, he did show up when they were wrapping up the myth, and he assured them that he was not seriously hurt – calming the fears of those fans that worry about Adam’s health. In the end, this myth is BUSTED.
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Episode Descriptions 
