'MythBusters' on Discovery HD - Page 4

Here's one of the segments in this episode in a nut shell. Although, slightly less... "scientific".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uT6g...eature=related

****ing Hilarious episode.

They really need some completely original myths to bust. Still, another show devoted to duct tape wasn't too bad. No matter what, the show is at least worth watching if for no other reason than Kari--who was looking great on this ep!

I want to see someone try and climb a wall using wads if duct tape if this show has proved anything it is that duct tape can be used for just about anything well except used to make a barrier to stop a car.

That might have worked if they made it longer, so that the stretch would have slowed the car gradually.

I thought that, when the car crumpled upon impact, that a sharp piece of the damaged car might have cut through the tape. I couldn't tell from the angle they showed, though.

I'd like to see them try it again, but create a series of duct tape based nets/webs to slow and then capture the car.

The car that missed the duct tape and crashed... that was pretty cool.

Stopping a car - yet another pointless myth that could be solved with F=ma. At least with the bridge they did the calculation of the force required to break a single piece * the number of pieces.

They had obviously done the calculation, hence the people being in the car for the first test (when it obviosuly wouldn't work) and not being in the car for the later tests. It just would be nice not not insult our intelligence.

Basic physics will answer almost all of the myths or questions broached on this show...if you want a show where they sit around and discuss equations all day to disprove or prove these myths then you should probably look elsewhere...or readjust your expectations of what people actually want to see on TV (because that isn't it).

If duct tape agreed that F always =ma, they wouldn't need to have done the show. Complex materials like duct tape are never that simple. The stuff stretches, its adhesive has limitations, and the force to tear it is much lower than it is to break it.

All these were unpredictable variables that made for an entertaining show.

I realize that discussing equations isn't good TV, but at least acknowledge the science. They calculated that the bridge concept would work - but it was still entertaining to see them make a bridge from duct tape.

They obviously calculated that the duct tape wouldn't work for stopping a car, or they wouldn't have had two people riding in the car and risked suffering a 60 mph car crash (see last week's episonde on how devestating that would have been to the two drivers - helemts or not). I don't have a problem with them testing stuff that can be done with an equation - I have a problem with them pretending the equation doesn't exist (particularly when they do both in the same episode).

Since you understand this so well, why don't you prove on paper that the duct tape couldn't have stopped the car?

Show all your work, please.

Take 20 or so pallets of duct tape and line them up in some order and the car should stop after hitting that. They chose to stop where they did. As they stated they could have made a wall of duct tape 10 feet thick. They chose arbitrarily to stop where they did in wall thickness and length.

Exactly. And not to mention F=ma is only correct in a perfect environment, and we don't live in a perfect world.

C'mon, that's basic physics.

Another great episode and also... Kari's husband is one lucky ****ing sob.

Okay - I finished high school, so I can do this. For ballpark calculations, let's give the car 1 meter of stopping distance, assuming the tape barrier flexes that much. So, decellerating form 60 mps to 0 over 1 meter would take 0.075 seconds.

vf=v0 + at, solve for a. accelleration = 358 m/s^2.

F=ma = 3000 lb (358 m/s^2) = 110,000 lbf.

We're diverging form the point of discussing the show, but really? F=ma is very true in our "real" world, not just a perfect environment. Where the real world effects enter in i sthat you would account for all forces, such as air resistance and tire friction instead of assuming the ar is travelling in a vacuum. But 'basic physics' still applies.

Correct. Now how many strips of duct tape will it take to stop it?

Consider:

• Duct tape tears and cars are not flat.
  
• One strip of duct tape is not necessarily as strong as another strip.
  
• Duct tape stretches; it is not a static counter-force. We don't know how dynamic it is.
  
• Duct tape can have defects and its use requires overlaps which are inherently defects.
  
• The car will spread this force across an unknown amount of the surface area of the tape, not at a single point.
  
• The car will not spread this force evenly as it decelerates into the duct tape; at moments parts of the tape will be under greater stress than other parts. That's why knifes cut better than bricks.

Issues like this is why they test structural products in the real world (much like what they do on Mythbusters) and include tremendous amounts of redundancy instead of relying entirely on equations. Products and structures are rarely made perfectly so there are too many unknown variables.

That's why the Hartford Civic Center collapsed in 1978. On paper the roof should have had no trouble supporting the weight of that snow, but the construction of the roof using actual materials and real world construction techniques wasn't as perfect as they needed to be to represent what was designed on paper.

I loved this week's episode. The Flu myths was more along the lines of season 2 or 3. Rather than the "lets blow something up" or "grab something off the fansite" topics they have had the last few seasons.

Kari with her "meat is disgusting" thing is getting really old. Although that neck prop looked creepy.

The problem was that they were throwing professionally cut glass. The edges of cut glass are square and polished which makes them safer to handle. A broken piece of glass would have been much sharper.

Not really new or informative just a good funny episode. Love Mythbusters.

Kari Byron has a new show called "Head Rush". What a fail. All they do is show Mythbuster episodes that has already aired...

Never heard of it. Found this:


http://www.tvsquad.com/2010/08/23/ka...iew-head-rush/

Aimed at kids? doubtful unless being on at 1pm pst is a definition of "for kids" even then, kids are going to go to the trouble of tuning into discovery over any other cartoon?

Then again, I'm not a kid and have no clue what they do these days (thank god).

I'm betting they want to get it played in schools. It's not a bad idea frankly.

Last weeks episode was hilarious. Cold feet. lol

This weeks will be awesome. They will be debating what's worse, driving drunk or driving sleepy. I have my money on Sleepy. SERIOUSLY.

Does anyone else think that Mythbusters had its budget slashed this season? They don't seem to be building anything this season. All the myths this season look like they are real cheap to investigate.

Maybe it's the kind of myths they've had to do. I'd think they would be running out of ideas faster than money.

Check out the forums at their web site. They have ideas for another five seasons at least.