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Episode: Exploding House Original Air Date: November 16, 2004 Myths: Exploding House/Bug Bomb, Needle in a Haystack, Talking to Plants
Myth #1: Bug BOOM!
The Myth - Too many bug bombs + some kind of spark = exploding house.
Expert(s) - Paul H. Gosselin, Department of Pesticide Regulation, Environmental Protection Agency says that it occurs about 1 or 2 times a year in California.
Memorable Moments/Quotes -
Adam: "All right, so I think the faulty wiring of the faulty wiring is no longer faulty, so that it's correctly faulty."
Jamie: "It's a bug bomb...bomb!"
Closed captioning on River95ís TV - "Turn UP all ignition sources!"
Results - Jamie initially assembles a Plexiglas model of a house. Meanwhile, Adam heads to an appliance store to purchase a gas stove for use in an igniter block. The salesman seems quite amused when told what the Mythbusters plan to do with their latest acquisition. (lol) Back at the shop, Adam builds his igniter block, and tests it...causing overhead lights to go out when he plugs the block in and hits the switch on his "faulty wiring". Adam then is forced to "fix" his "faulty wiring."
Adam sets up his igniter block inside the Plexi model, and Jamie prepares the bug bomb for the initial test. Jamie places the bug bomb inside the house model, and Adam flicks all of the switches in sequence. The stove igniter sets off the bug bomb, displacing the house modelís roof. A second test, and the Plexiglas model literally falls to pieces. Now, the test moves to full scale.
The crew sets up an old house owned by NASA (yes, that NASA) with several bug bombs (dressed in hazmat suits with gas masks). Adam flicks the switch...nothing. It turns out heís forgotten to plug in the igniter block. Itís plugged in, and the switch is flicked once more. Thereís a small ignition, but an ignition nonetheless, so the team fills the house with even more bug bombs than before. Once the team is out of the house, the switch is flicked...and several windows are busted out, and a sliding door is knocked off its track. Decision: CONFIRMED!
Myth #2: Needle in a Haystack
Myth - How possible is it to find a needle in a haystack?
Experts - Mike Barrett, farmer, says heís never found a needle in a haystack.
Cathe Aray, owner, Needle in a Haystack sewing supply store, sells bone and metal needles to the Mythbusters.
Memorable Moments/Quotes -
Jamie: "That means the first stop is a hay store!" Adam: "The hay store....otherwise known as a farm?!"
Adam: "It's funny, because if you asked me to pick out what I would think of as your traditional movie-type hay, I would point to the straw, not this stuff."
Results - Adam and Jamie decide to make a competition out of this, thanks to producer Peter Rees. Scottie and Christie team up with Jamie, and Kari and Tory team up with Adam. Jamieís team construct a machine that will spin hay down a slotted pipe with neodymium magnets on one end. On the other, a small furnace is set up, to burn the hay and leave the needles behind. Adamís teamís design is a little more simple...a water tank and three paddle wheels. Itís Adamís theory that the needles will sink and the hay will float, which appears to be supported by early tests.
Two haystacks are set up with 10 bales each. The Mythbusters researcher, Collette, hides the needles in the haystacks, and the Mythbusters go to work. After several hours, Jamieís team finds the first needle, which spurs Adam to make a few "modifications" to his machine (namely, removing one wheel and adding neodymium magnets to the "in" side). Itís not long before Adamís team finds all of their metal needles in rapid succession, but Jamieís team soon catches up, making it a race to find the final needle. Adam finds the bone needle, securing victory for his team, but most importantly proving that a needle in a haystack can be found. Decision: BUSTED!
Myth #3: Talking to Plants
Myth - Talking to plants helps them grow.
Expert(s) - Dustin Strobel, Sloat Garden Center, says that talking to plants is an old wives tale.
Memorable Quotes/Moments -
Jamie: "Puttin' all of these greenhouses up on the roof - I think I'm gonna get checked out by the police for growin' pot or something up here, y'know!"
Kari: "You suck, freshman %#$%&^&%!"
Tory: "Do you have hard-core, to-the-bone death metal?" Bryan Abbot from Aquarius Records: " Do we ever!"
Kari: "I just think that the talking plants are committing suicide because they are listening to 'I love you, love you, love you' all freakin' day."
Results - The build team construct seven greenhouses: two music (death metal and classical), four voice (two Kari and two Scottie, mean and nice), and one control (silence). They place ten pots with pea seeds in the greenhouse and set up timers on a sprinkler system. After setting up the CD players with the voice and music, the build team leaves the plants to their own devices.
27 days later, they check on the plants. All seems well for the plants, and the build team seems to find a trend emerging. They leave them alone until nearly two months into the experiment, but thereís a problem: the battery on one of the sprinkler timers is dead, and the plants are apparently dying. The experiment is called, but the final results are interesting. Talking did help, but what is said makes no difference. Even more interestingly, the classical music helps more, but the best plants in both size and taste were the death metal plants! Decision: PLAUSIBLE. |
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