MythBusters (2011 season)
At this point, the team declared the myth busted and set about replicating the results, with Tory redesigning the merry-go-round's bearing system to reduce friction and Kari and Grant attaching more bullet-stopping plates.
Their first attempt, which exactly replicated the scene from the film, had no effect whatsoever, with the magazine completely burning away well before the gas concentration could reach explosive levels.
The mixture did eventually ignite, creating a small explosion that partly blew out a wall and gave way to an intense fire that destroyed most of the furniture.
Grant and Tory visited a NASA research center and placed the rig in a tunnel designed to replicate the high wind speeds and cold temperatures typical of airplane cruising altitudes.
To determine the ability of such a chunk to survive a fall to earth, Kari and a skydiver flew up to that altitude, threw a 35-pound ice block out of the plane, and jumped out after it as Grant and Tory tracked it from the ground.
The block did not suffer any significant melting or damage during the fall or impact, prompting the team to declare the myth confirmed but unlikely due to the number of safeguards that would need to fail simultaneously to achieve the result.
After studying film footage of a basilisk running on water, Adam and Jamie decided to build separate footwear rigs to duplicate its leg movements.
Adam and Jamie classified the myth as plausible, but for a different reason from the one expected – water currents holding the swimmer at the surface, rather than a density reduction causing him/her to sink.
Two accuracy tests – first with the full propellant charge (as a rocket motor), then with a reduced one – caused the torpedo to go airborne and miss the target completely.
After visiting a local winery to find out about what could make a wine bottle blow its cork, the Build Team decided to investigate wine/bottle type and temperature in the shop.
Based on this result, the team declared the myth busted, then set up a Gatling gun-like rig to rotate the bottles over a burner and launch their corks straight ahead.
Next, Adam mounted a gun and a full ammunition hopper on his hood and chased Jamie, who drove a target car with the rear windshield removed.
For a final test at terminal velocity, roughly 120 miles per hour, Tory threw two pig carcasses out of a helicopter at 600 ft (183 m), after which they were X-rayed to determine injuries.
Since no water landing produced the same level of impact force or injury as a fall from the same height onto pavement, the team declared the myth busted.
At Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay, they set up a hangar area as a full-scale tomb and brought in six glass mirrors and a 7,000-watt spotlight.
Once the sky cleared, they reflected sunlight into the tomb and found a peak of 2.5 lux until the sun's position shifted, throwing off the mirrors’ alignment.
The need to keep adjusting the mirrors, and the unlikely prospect of finding several of them ready to use after thousands of years underground, led them to declare the myth "plausible but ridiculous."
Each team member ran one of three timed courses in both armor types to evaluate speed, endurance, and agility; paper outperformed steel in all three.
With help from Institute personnel, they built a rig to launch an RPG directly toward a remote-controlled gun of the same caliber as that used in the film (a Smith & Wesson Model 460 revolver).
The need for a bad fuze, the forward direction of the explosion, and the fact that the intended target survived only through luck led the team to call the myth busted.
This version gave only 63% efficiency, but Jamie suggested putting a steel plate through the center of each ball to reduce energy transfer into the concrete.
They then built five 2,000 lb (907 kg) balls by cutting hollow naval buoys in half, sandwiching a steel plate in each, and filling the space with rebar and concrete.
Adam and Jamie declared the myth busted, noting the increased potential for energy losses at large scales, and later learned that the original video had indeed, been faked confirming their initial thoughts.
The team located a model helicopter and modified it to weigh 20 lb (9.1 kg), the same as a California condor (the largest flying bird in North America).
However, with buckets on their heads to simulate reduced visibility at night or in a snowstorm, Adam did poorly while Jamie stayed on track by carefully pacing around obstacles, drawing on his wilderness survival experience.
Finally, they attached themselves to opposite ends of a long ladder with hip belts, thinking that each could feel the other's veering and correct it, but failed the open-field walking test again.
Declaring the myth busted at this point, the team traveled to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology to use the on-site rocket sled apparatus.
Finally, Adam and Jamie set up a thermite charge to drip molten material at 4,500 °F (2,482 °C) onto the C-4, thinking that extreme heat might make it sensitive enough to detonate.
They next built a 40 ft (12 m) sewer in a trench using concrete culvert sections, installed three manholes, and placed rolls of chain-link fencing in it to simulate debris.
Adam and Jamie commented that the technique was actually more effective in real life than in the film; the characters could have simply stood up and walked out of the bathroom.
