Viewer Special 1

Episode # 84

OAD: 8-15-07

Myth: Eye-Popping Sneeze

If you sneeze with your eyes open, will your eyeballs pop out of your head?

The Expert:

Ophthalmologist Jacque Duncan discusses this myth with Adam.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

The high-speed sneeze footage

The Action/Results:

A sneeze is the fastest physical reaction of the human body, accelerating droplets to over 120 MPH (193 KPH).  But is that enough force to pop eyes out?  To find out, Adam puts together a new gridded backboard for high-speed photography and sets it up in the shop.  Jamie is up first for the test.  Adam tries to make Jamie sneeze by tickling his nose with a peacock feather, but all this does is tick Jamie off.  The guys switch to the cartoon classic of pepper.

Before starting the pepper tests, there's a quick Science Content segment.  Pepper causes sneezing because it contains an alkaloid called piperine which irritates nerve endings in the human nose.

Back at the test, Jamie manages to induce a sneeze by sniffing pepper.  Unfortunately, he isn't able to keep his eyes from reflex-closing when he sneezes.  Adam also fails to keep his eyes open, but decides to try again, this time holding his eyes open.  This does the trick – Adam holds his eyes open for two sneezes, and there is no sign that they were going to pop out.

To wrap matters up, Adam visits Jacque Duncan at UCSF.  She points out that there's just too much holding the human eye in place for this to ever happen.  This Viewer Myth is Busted.

Myth: Stopping A Car In Reverse

Can you stop a runaway car by shifting it into “Reverse”?

The Experts:

Grant and Tory.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Grant: We've gotten two donated cars, 'cause we're pretty sure they're not gonna survive.  (Promptly followed by Tory backing one car into the other.)

The Action/Results:

Grant and Tory head to Alameda with two test vehicles, one automatic transmission and one manual transmission, and mark off a test track.  This is another simple test – get each car up to 50 MPH (80 ½ KPH), then slam on the brakes at a designated point and see how much distance it takes to stop.  Grant takes the automatic for an initial control run, and Tory measures his skid-to-stop distance at 65 feet (just under 20 meters).  They swap jobs for the manual, and Tory stops it in 80 feet (24 meters).  For this myth to have any validity, stopping by shifting will have to equal those numbers.

Grant takes the automatic back up to 50, reaches the stop point, and shifts into reverse.  The “check engine” and “battery” lights come on, and the car eventually coasts to a stop in 2270 feet (almost 692 meters).  It seems automatic transmission cars have a safety device that keeps reverse gear from engaging if the car is moving forward, so all Grant did was stall it.  Tory tries the manual next.  When he reaches the stop point, it's a good thing that the Alameda runway is wide – Tory veers off course as he uses both hands to try forcing the gearshift into reverse.  He eventually stops in 1922 feet (almost 586 meters).  You guessed it, there's a similar safety feature in manual transmission cars.  Despite Tory's best efforts, the car has to be stopped before reverse gear can be engaged.

Finally, they both pile into the automatic for one last test.  This time, they try shifting into park while traveling at 50 ... and once again the car simply coasts.  They don't give a distance measurement for this attempt, but it doesn't really matter.  This Viewer Myth is Busted.

Myth: Car Explosion

No myth here, just a viewer request: 12-year old fan Chris Cannella e-mailed the guys and asked if they could blow up his parents' car.  Jamie and Adam decide to use this to show the difference between a Hollywood-style explosion and a real explosion.

The Experts:

Frank Doyle and the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department provide the bang.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Jamie: One way that you can tell MythBusters has been in the area is to look for shrapnel in the trees.

The Action/Results:

Adam and Jamie head back to the rock quarry used for “Cement Truck” and “20,000 Foot Fall”.  First, they rig Chris' parents' car for a Hollywood explosion.  Adam sees an opportunity to play “stunt man running away from the explosion” and goes for it.  The interior of the car has already been stripped, but the guys remove the windows so Adam won't get hit by any flying fragments.  Two gallons (7 ½ liters) of gasoline are poured/placed inside the car, with just enough explosives to get the gas to vaporize and burn well.  A mat is placed at a safe distance from the car, with a camera set up to make it look like Adam is much closer to the car than he is.  As the bomb squad counts down, Adam starts running.  Jamie pushes a fake detonator (the classic “box with t-shaped handle”) when the real charge is ignited, and Adam jumps and lands on his mat.  While the timing wasn't perfect, they managed a good copy of the effect we've all seen in action movies and TV shows.

The Hollywood explosion made an impressive fireball, but left the car basically intact.  Now, it's time for the real explosion.  Frank Doyle loads three bags of explosives into the car; one under the hood, one in the middle of the car, and one in back.  Everybody moves to a safe distance and gets behind the blast screens, and the charge is detonated.  This time, there's nothing but scraps left of the car.  There's no official verdict given for this.

Myth: Killer Butts

Can you kill someone by firing three cigarette butts out of a muzzleloading rifle into his heart?

The Expert:

MSgt Alan Normandy provides advice and a firing range.

Memorable/Quotable Moments:

Jamie: The dummy is dead.  No ifs, ands, or, well, buts.

The Action/Results:

Supposedly, two guys were fooling around with a muzzleloader when one tried loading three cigarette butts into it.  He then fired it at his friend from close range, and his friend died from the resulting heart injury.

While Jamie looks for the correct type of rifle, Adam works on their target.  He breaks out one of the MB torso molds, and suspends a pig heart inside it at the appropriate location.  He then fills it with a new, clear ballistics gel so they can easily see what happens to the heart.  Once the gel is set, testing moves to the South San Francisco Police Department firing range.

The myth says the lethal shot was made from seven feet (just over 2 meters) away, so that distance is marked on the firing range floor.  Jamie loads their replica .50 caliber muzzleloader with three cigarette butts, aims, and fires.  While there's a lot of filter fluff all over their torso, the gel isn't punctured.  Alan notices that there's also a lot of unburned powder on the torso, and thinks the butts weren't compressing the powder enough for maximum efficiency.  For the second shot, Jamie uses some extra wadding.  The butts are noticeably tighter in the barrel this time, but it's still not enough to get penetration.

So far, it's not looking good for the myth.  However, Alan points out that what they've been firing as “cigarette butts” were just filters torn off unsmoked cigarettes.  A smoked cigarette butt would have some tobacco and paper remaining, and probably some accumulated crud in the filter as well.  A quick weigh-in shows that a smoked butt can be three times as heavy as the plain filters.

They set up for a third shot.  This time, Jamie fires three smoked butts, and breaks the surface of the gel.  A live target would probably be bleeding, but it's not a lethal hit.  For a final try, they decide to move in to point blank range.  The original myth says the shooter had been drinking, so he could have gotten the distance wrong.  This does the trick – Jamie's point blank shot punctures the heart.  This Viewer Myth is Confirmed.

Myth: Car Remote Capers

According to an Internet video, it's possible to pop open a locked car door with a tennis ball.  Would this really work?

The Experts:

Grant, Tory, and Kari.

The Action/Results:

The original video shows a woman locking her car door with the remote, then taking a tennis ball with a small hole cut in it and placing that hole over the lock.  When she pushes sharply on the ball, the door lock pops open.

Tory starts out by cutting holes in two tennis balls.  The first one is cut to the same size as the hole in the video.  The claim is that air pressure is popping the lock open, so Tory puts a smaller hole in the second ball.  That should increase the air pressure when the ball is used.

The team uses a minivan with a remote lock for their tests.  Grant uses the remote to lock the door.  Tory and Kari try both tennis balls, pushing as hard and fast as they can for maximum air pressure, but neither unlocks the door.

Maybe there isn't enough air pressure?  They pull the van into the shop, and try the hose from the air compressor.  At 100 PSI, this will give them over ten times the air pressure they got from the tennis balls.  They also use petroleum jelly to seal the lock, to make sure all the pressure goes into it.  The door remains locked, and this Viewer Myth is Busted ... so how did the woman in the video do it?  The trio heads back outside to replicate the video.  While Grant films, Kari places the tennis ball over the door lock and pushes on it.  At the same time Tory pushes the remote button and unlocks the door.  Narrator Robert Lee sums this up: “You can't believe everything you see on the Internet.”