The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like.
According to the episode, upon arrival at Mojave Spaceport, the insurance company responsible for the aircraft backed out at the last minute, citing possible foreign object damage to the plane.
Additionally, during the Storm Chasing Myths special (2010 season, episode 13), jet engines were used to simulate high wind speeds.
The MythBusters take on a myth from antiquity, where it is claimed that Archimedes constructed a solar-powered weapon by reflecting sunlight onto Roman ships.
The result of the test sparked so much controversy, especially in engineering circles, that an entire episode ("Archimedes Death Ray") was dedicated to a 2006 retest.
The heat treatment consisted of microwaving them for five minutes—until the caustic soda and crushed jawbreaker mix combusted into what Adam described as a "burning cupcake" that left a batch of hot ash.
Adam then suggested taking their remaining crushed jawbreaker/caustic soda mix in the toaster oven to simulate radiant heat (being left out in the sun)—and it resulted in the mixture smoking and then bursting into flames, leaving rock-hard residue.
As a finale, Jamie created a more literal exploding jawbreaker by removing the core, filling it with gunpowder, adding a fuse, and then detonating it.
Adam and Jamie explore the possibility of raising a ship with ping-pong balls, originally conceived in the 1949 Donald Duck story The Sunken Yacht by Carl Barks.
The Build Team takes on a gag used in many comedic works, where a baby or small child is lifted into the air and flies away unintentionally when given helium balloons.
The debate arises because both methods of cooling influence a car's fuel efficiency—air conditioning requires a lot of power to run, but at the same time, open windows create drag.
The MythBusters take on a story, taken from the 1945 book Rockets and Jets by Herbert Zim, which describes a Ming dynasty astrologer named Wan Hu, and determine whether he really was the first astronaut in space as a result.
By far the most popular of the submitted myths are those regarding perpetual motion—it was claimed in an interview by Adam that there was enough material to create three seasons of busting potential-free energy machines.
One test (different from the included radio device), cut for time and shown on "MythBusters Outtakes", involves coils of baling wire being used to siphon off electricity from nearby PG&E power lines in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
To test this, Kari and Scottie bought a regular house fan and an industrial fan (with a higher top speed and metal blades as opposed to wood), and then they and Tori encased pig spines and latex arteries filled with fake blood inside busts of Adam and added human craniums.
For a finale, in an attempt to replicate the result, the Build Team created a razor-sharp, stainless steel fan powered by a lawn mower engine for the "lover's leap" scenario.
Even that did not achieve decapitation, but it did cause lethal and horrifying injuries—deep cuts, sliced arteries, and cracked vertebrae—that compelled Adam to put it in the "MythBusters Hall of Fame."