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Wednesday Nov 29, 2006

Mythbusters


Science! heartily endorses Mythbusters, of which the New York Times says:

It may be the best science program on television, in no small part because it does not purport to be a science program at all. What ''Mythbusters'' is best known for, to paraphrase [co-host Jaime] Hyneman, is blowing stuff up. And banging stuff together. And setting stuff on fire. The two men do it for fun and ratings, of course. But in a subtle and goofily educational way, they commit mayhem for science's sake.
The core mission of the show is to test urban legends and folklorish tales of incredible feats to determine whether they could actually happen.  You know, with science.  For example, they devoted a recent episode to testing the mentos and diet coke phenomenon, changing variables, constructing power nozzles, and trying to set height records.  In another episode, they tried out a bunch of cat burglary movie cliches: assembling suction cup building-climbing apparatus, cutting through glass doors without setting off alarms, and trying to hack laser burglar alarms, just to name a few. 

It's rarely the most thorough investigation, but they have the budget, time, and engineering expertise that most of us lack.  So they can try stuff like building personal jet packs.  A lot of things naturally get blown up or broken--in the last episode I watched they tested (and confirmed) the effect of a compressed gas tank nozzle getting broken off.  In their controlled test they dropped a metal weight onto the valve, snapping it off, and launching the tank-turned-propelled-missile into a cinderblock wall, which it went cleanly through.

Anyway, it's on the Discovery Channel.  Best show on TV*.  Check it out sometime.

*Other than the Venture Brothers.  But that's about SUPERscience, not regular science.

Posted at 03:53PM Nov 29, 2006 by WILSON, JOSHUA in General  |  Comments[2]

Comments:

Do you realize you have over 1200 hits?

I saw that or something similar a while back. They blew the top off a soda bottle or something...made me think twice about eating Pop Rocks and washing them down with a Coke...

Posted by Rhonda on November 30, 2006 at 02:45 PM EST #

Yeah, they didn't address what happens if you drink a soda, then decided to eat some Mentos. Perhaps the harsh stomach environment makes everything happen differently, but it seems genuinely dangerous. On the show they went as far as getting a gulp of soda in their mouths, then eating the candy, then wackiness ensued. The experiment kind of degenerated into adolescent hijinks--shaking up soda bottles and throwing them into the ground, etc.

What's up with 1200 hits? I guess the spiders are busy today. I'm not sure I trust the wolfblogs hit counter.

Posted by Josh on November 30, 2006 at 02:51 PM EST #

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