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Written by river95
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Saturday, 15 November 2008 |
Alcohol Myths/Hwacha
Episode # 109
Original Air Date: October 22, 2008
Alcohol Myths
Beer Goggles
The Myth: The more alcohol you drink, the more attractive you will find the people around you to be.
The Experts: Adam, Jamie, and Kari
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Kari looks at Jamie and says, “Can I style you? Hold on.” and proceeds to twirl the ends of his mustache with her fingers!
Jamie’s reply – “You know, I don’t usually let people do that.”
The Action/Results:
Adam, Kari, and Jamie rated 30 different people in terms of attractiveness. First they did this while sober, then while buzzed, then while drunk. The idea was that they would rate them higher while drunk than while sober.
Adam’s first rating was 96, Kari’s was 154, and Jamie’s was 116. They displayed the pictures on their new SMART board, and then had five seconds to click a rating. After they had all rated the 30 people, then they headed to the bar.
After drinking a few beers, Adam had a blood alcohol content (BAC) level of .06, Kari was at .08, and Jamie was at .06. They were then ready for the second test.
The second time around they used new faces that had been independently rated at the same level of attractiveness as the first set. Adam’s total score this time was 121, Kari scored an 89, and concluded that she might be a “mean drunk”, and Jamie scored 105. Then they returned to the bar for part three.
By the time that they were ready for the third test, Adam was at .11, Kari was at .13, and Jamie was at .10. The faces that they saw this time were a randomly selected set of faces from the first two tests. This time, Adam scored a 134, Kari scored a 153, and Jamie scored a 111.
When they had all sobered up, they met again to discuss their findings. Adam used the SMART board to show that his scores had consistently gone up, while Kari’s scores went down, then up, and Jamie’s had only gone up a little bit. However, the final decision was that this myth was PLAUSIBLE, since all three scores went up somewhat from buzzed to drunk.
Stone Cold Sober
The Myth: There are many ways to sober someone up quickly, including drinking black coffee, vigorous exercise, putting cold water on your face, and getting slapped.
The Experts: Adam and Jamie
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Jamie voluntarily going back for a second dunk in the icy water!
The Action/Results:
Again, they used the SMART board to make the results of this test more visible. Each of the guys did a hand-eye coordination test on the board after each way of sobering up. The test was to follow a gray line that formed a design on the board. They had to trace that line, as accurately and quickly as possible, with a pen, while wearing weights on their arm, and standing an arm’s length away from the board. Each of them acted as the other one’s control, so that when Jamie tried a remedy, Adam did not, and vice versa.
The first test was using black coffee to sober up. Both of the guys were at a blood alcohol content of .07, and then Jamie had to drink one cup of black coffee, wait five minutes, and then do the test. As Adam said, they were going to test him “cognitively and breathalyzerly”. After the test, Adam drank some black coffee, so that he could be at the same level as Jamie, and then they both had one “maintenance drink” so that they would be as intoxicated as they were before.
Next, Adam tested vigorous exercise. Both he and Jamie tested out beforehand at a .09. Then Adam jumped on a treadmill, which was going at 6.5 miles per hour, and he ran on it for 5 minutes. Even though Adam fell off the treadmill, stumbled back on, and fell off again, he did survive the experience.
For the third test, both guys started out at a BAC of .08. Then Jamie dunked his face in ice water. He came up for air, and then went back under again! His comment was, “I thought it was gonna be painful but…I kinda liked it!”
Finally, it was time for the slap test. Jamie hauled off and slapped Adam, and the power of his slap was displayed in high speed. Jamie asked, “Can I do that again – that was kinda fun!” and Adam immediately replied, “No, that made my head ring!”
Finally, it was time to tally all the results. Adam pointed out that the black coffee and the ice water did not result in lower BAC numbers, or better scores on the hand-eye coordination test, while the slap and the exercise did have either lower BAC numbers or better hand-eye scores. So, they decided that the coffee and the ice water were BUSTED and the exercise and the slap were PLAUSIBLE.
Hwacha!
The Myth: An ancient Korean weapon called the Hwacha was able to fire 200 arrows at a time. These arrows would fly for 500 yards, and then explode on impact.
The Experts:
Bill Gallentine from Zambelli’s Fireworks taught Tory and Grant how to pack black powder for the arrows.
Memorable/Quotable Moments:
Tory: (while unloading Grant’s army of Styrofoam soldiers) Good thing you’ve got a light infantry!
Grant: (groaning) Oh – how long have you been saving that one?
Rob Lee: (Narrator) Not long enough!
The Action/Results:
First, Tory and Grant got lessons in how to pack black powder. Then they tried out some test arrows to see if they can get them to fly 500 yards. After a few tries, they finally did get one to go that far. Then, back at the shop, they made an arrow that had two loads of black powder – one that would propel it, and one that would explode. That worked, so they went on to construct a replica of the Hwacha. They used Tory’s wheel from the gunpowder engine as one of the wheels for the Hwacha, and constructed the whole thing according to the pictures that they had. When it was finished, they made 200 arrows to fit inside it, and then wired up all the arrows to one central fuse. Then, finally they fired it! All of the arrows except one fired. They all flew over the heads of Grant’s army, but they did go at least 500 yards. In the end, this myth was CONFIRMED!
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Episode Descriptions 
