Episode Name:  Cellphone Destroys Gas Station

Original Air Date:  October 3, 2003

Myths:  Cellphone Destroys Gas Station, Silicone Breasts, CD-Rom Shattering

CELL PHONE+GAS STATION=EXPLOSION
 
Myth: Email myth that suggests using a cell phone while pumping gas will cause an explosion.
 
Experts:
Heather Joseph-Whitham tells the story of an unfortunate executive who blows himself up while calling into the office.

Bob Renkes of the Petroleum Equipment Institute relates how he is mistakenly quoted in the email myth, but tells how a static charge can ignite gas fumes.
 
Quotable Moments:
 
Adam: "These panties have no idea what they're in for - this is where, like, panties go when they've been very, very bad!"
 
Jamie: "Jamie wants big boom."
 
Action/Results: The boys assemble a blast chamber at Fred Stoke's Gas and Oil Memorabilia Town, and equip it with an old car seat (with fuzzy tiger print cover), a cell phone and a Leyden jar which Adam has created to hold a static charge and release a spark. To create the static charge Adam has rigged a "panty static generator" using a pair of ladies' panties and some plastic tubing. The boys fill the chamber with gas vapors and call the cell phone inside, which leads to no explosion. They attempt to ignite the gas fumes with the panty generator's static charge and still get no result. The boys retire to the lab to experiment with gas vaporous and air ratios, and different sources of ignition, during which time Adam loses quite a bit of hair from standing too close to the flame. They return to Fred Stoke's and try to blow the chamber with a higher concentration of gas in a finer spray. They end up scrapping the Leyden jar in favor of something that creates a longer spark, to which they get their "big boom". The boys conclude that cell phones generate some heat, but not enough to ignite gas vaporous. They do emphasize that a static spark will ignite gas fumes at the pumps with potentially devastating results.

EXPLODING IMPLANTS
 
Myth: Silicone breast implants will enlarge and eventually explode at high altitude.
 
Experts:
Folklorist Heather Joseph-Whitham tells the story of a woman who finds herself becoming uncomfortable during a depressurized local flight, and has her breast implants violently explode on her way to the bathroom mid flight.
 
Dr. Gregory Georgiade, plastic surgeon, has heard the myth but has never heard of a patient encountering such a problem.
 
Dr. Richard Vann of Duke University Medical Centre, a specialist in hyperbaric studies, has experimented with implants in hyperbaric chambers and has seen no patients with complications.
 
Quotable Moments:
Adam receiving the package containing the implants: "Jamie, I've got breasts."
 
Action/Results: Adam and Jamie go to a wreckers to find a suitable chamber to simulate altitude in. They find a good size vessel, and while Jamie works at making it airtight Adam creates a female torso out of ballistics gel to suspend the silicone implants in. Once the chamber is ready the boys place the torso inside along with a separate implant in a measuring glass full of water. The single implant will cause the water level to rise if it expands, which will be easy to monitor. They first pressurize the chamber to a level equal to 8,000 feet above sea level, with no change to the implants. They raise the simulated altitude to 30,000 feet and still see no change in either test subjects. Jamie simulates taking the implant on a deep sea dive (in which he nearly loses his hearing when a seal blows on the vacuum chamber) then flying it in a jet, still with no change. The boys declare this myth busted, and end their day with some frivolous food science.
 
 
EXPLODING CDS
 
Myth: The newest high speed CD ROM drives are spinning so fast the rpm exceeds the structural limits of the CD itself, causing the disk to explode or shatter.
 
Experts:
 Kyman Jeung, and employee at the Computer Warehouse where Adam buys a budget drive, tells of how a customer brought a computer back with something rattling in it. The rattle turned out to be the remnants of a CD ROM.
 
David Bunzel of the Optical Storage Technology Corporation says he is aware of the possibility of a CD shattering in a drive, but says he himself is not worried about getting hit with optical shrapnel.
 
Quotable Moments:
Adam on Jamie's choice of power tool: "Are you sure this is a balanced enough mechanism to handle six times it's current load?"
Jamie: "It says it's heavy duty."
 
Action/Results: Adam damages some CD ROMs in several different ways to allow for a varied test of structural integrity (cracked CD, exposure to sunlight, off center label, MICRO WAVED, etc.). Jamie modifies some hand tools to spin the CDs above 20,000 rpm. The boys determine the budget computer Adam bought doesn't spin the CD ROMs nearly fast enough to make them break, so they scrap it in favor of heavy duty power. Adam creates a ballistics dummy to take the shrapnel of the exploding discs, and Jamie modifies a second router to direct drive the CD ROMs. The discs warp and shatter at various speeds above 20,000 rpm, the ballistics dummy takes a beating. For added oomph, the boys double the power to the router and create mass optical storage destruction. The fun ends when the router fries out, and the boys are left to ponder the shiny fragments embedded in the ballistics dummy's torso.

 - episode description by Amanda