Episode: MythBusters Outtakes

Original Air Date: March 16, 2005

Myths:  No Myths - just outtakes from the show.

The Myth:  Do Adam and Jamie only do the stuff that ends up in the finished show?  Of course not! This episode proves that there is a lot of stuff that we usually do not get to see - unless they save it for episodes like this!

The Experts: The guys themselves are the experts for this one.

Memorable/Quotable Moments: See the end of the write-up!

The Action/Results:

From Ping Pong Salvage: There was a sea otter who wanted to play with the ping pong balls! Christine thought he was cute (and he was!) but the fact is that there are hefty fines that will be levied on anyone who harms these animals, even unintentionally. The support crew had to go after the ping pong balls, and eventually the otter left the balls alone and went back to doing whatever otters do.

From Plywood Builder: Jamie has a bit more trouble going down the zip line with the plywood than Adam did, and eventually he had to let go because the wind was blowing so hard. Christine tried to go down the line, but she just couldn't do it, even though Adam talked to her, Jamie used reverse psychology, and Peter just ordered her to do it!  Adam smashed several video tapes with a sledgehammer in her honor!

From Chinese Water Torture: Tory and Scottie went through the water torture too - Scottie with a blindfold, head restraint, and ice cold water, and Tory with the head restraint, shackles, and a stream of icy water. Even though Tory jokes about the rack having cured his chronic back problem, it is even more obvious that this myth is confirmed - Chinese Water Torture is really painful.

From Buried Alive: Adam takes his turn in that coffin! After about 47 minutes they let him out, because the carbon dioxide levels are starting to rise. They find the same thing when they put Alice (a producer) in the coffin.

From Cement Truck: Poor Tory is given the job of chipping cement out of the full truck with a jackhammer. After an hour, he can barely cover the bottom of a bucket with the pieces he chipped free.

From Needle in a Haystack: Adam had another idea before he came up with the Needlefinder 2000. He sifted the hay with orange netting stapled to a wooden frame. Then he used a hand-held metal detector to look for the needle, and he found it.  When he thought about how to find the bone needle, he called the research team and asked them to find a bloodhound! Unfortunately, that's as far as that clip went, so we don't know if that idea would have worked or not.

From Exploding Tattoos: Another theory about exploding tattoos is that it is the radio waves, not the magnetic waves that cause the trouble.  Kari, Tory, and Scottie went to radio station KPFA to test this idea next to their transmitter, but were told that it was too dangerous to climb up next to the transmitter with the ink.  So, they made their own transmitter and tested it.  It only warmed the ink up by half a degree.

From Free Energy:  The guys had heard a story about a farmer who had a coil of bailing wire under a power line, and he noticed that the wire had current running through it.  So, Adam and Jamie made a large coil of wire, wrapped it around a PVC pipe box, and hoisted it up under some power lines.  Power did run through it - about 8 millivolts.  This is plausible, but highly impractical.

From Alcatraz Escape: This was a short clip showing Adam and Jamie back at the Bay Model, watching what happened after the boats ended up at the Marin Headlands. The boats floated back toward Angel Island, prompting the guys to wonder if the escapees left their boats to drift on purpose, to throw the authorities off their trail.

From Carried Away: The build team wanted to know just how high those balloons could have taken little Maddie, so they put a balloon in a pressure chamber. It went to 23,000 feet before it popped. Then, remembering that it is cold up there, they put dry ice in the chamber and tried again.  This time they got to 25,000 feet!

From Cola Myths: There is a myth that cola can be used to clean your bathroom.  First, Adam cleaned the bathroom with regular cleaner, and it worked fine. Then he "prepared" the bathroom for Jamie, with liberal amounts of engine grease.  Jamie was not amused.  He tried pouring cola on is, scrubbed it around with his gloves for a minute, and then left, but not before telling Adam to get busy and get all of that stuff off his bathroom.  Adam did, but not without a lot of hard work!

From Eel skin Wallet: Jamie brought out some cool toys - some neodymium magnets that were strong enough to stick to each other through Adam's hand!  One swipe with those, and the credit cards were history!

From Exploding House: The guys also tested the idea that sawdust, flour, fake smoke, and straw can blow up if they are suspended in the air, and if there is a spark nearby.  The sawdust was the only one that worked, and not very well at that.

From Elevator of Death: While they rode up and down in an elevator, the guys asked Les Appel if pushing the button repeatedly will make the elevator come faster (no), if anyone has ever had their head chopped off by the doors of an elevator (no) and if you can achieve zero g by jumping in an elevator(no).

And finally, from the Peeing on the 3rd Rail episode, they tested the myth that a penny can derail a train.

Adam: So, Rob, do you think a penny can derail a train?

Rob Goodson (engineer): Absolutely not, unless it's lodged in the engineer's eye!