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Every Busted, Plausible, and Confirmed Myth from MYTHBUSTERS Summer Season!

It was a geeky treat when the MythBusters decided to release six new episodes of their hit science show this July, and we were so amped about it that we kept a journal of all the results (and explosions)!

Number of explosions: 12

Myths tested: 29

Myths confirmed: 7

Myths plausible: 6

Myths busted: 16

MB Summer Ep. 1 PIC

Episode 216: Fire in the Hole! (First episode to feature Dubstep?)

You can shoot a grenade in the air and blow it up or disable it: PLAUSIBLE

Where can you stash a bomb, dive, and survive?

Filing cabinet: BUSTED

Twin bed: PLAUSIBLE

Fish tank filled with water: PLAUSIBLE

Back of a garbage truck: PLAUSIBLE (If you jump off to the side)

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Episode 217: Household Disasters

A dropped small piano can make it through a house roof and floor: BUSTED

A baby grand piano can make it through a house and floor: BUSTED

Vacuuming up black powder can cause an explosion: BUSTED

You can put out a house fire with an exploding water heater: BUSTED

Sunscreen is flammable while being sprayed: CONFIRMED

Sunscreen is flammable:

Three minutes after skin application: BUSTED

One minute after skin application: BUSTED

Five seconds after skin application: PLAUSIBLE

MB Summer Ep. 3 PIC

Episode 218: Commercial Myths

You can successfully bob for an apple during a 100-foot bungee jump unaided: BUSTED

You can have a tennis rally on the wings of a plane in flight (32 feet apart at 35 miles per hour): CONFIRMED

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Episode 219: Road Rage

Knocking another car off a cliff is always a long and difficult fender-bending duel: BUSTED (It’s super easy!)

Tipping a car up on to two wheels and driving sideways is easy: BUSTED (Jaime got whiplash.)

A Corvette can be used as a ramp to flip another car into a barrel roll and both can drive away afterwards (as in the movie Wanted): BUSTED

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Episode 220: Laws of Attraction

People get dumber in the presence of the opposite sex (based on famous Stroop Effect): BUSTED (Everyone did better!)

A waitress with a bigger bust will receive bigger tips from men: CONFIRMED (A 30% increase from the men and 40% from the women!)

Commercial “pheromone sprays” have an enticing effect on the opposite sex: BUSTED

Women prefer pictures of men that have higher reported salaries: CONFIRMED

Men prefer blondes (in a wig-based speed-dating experiment): BUSTED

MB Summer Ep. 6 PIC

Episode 221: Traffic Tricks

Even a small change in heavy traffic flow (light braking) can cause a huge jam: CONFIRMED

It’s faster to stay in one lane during heavy traffic than make multiple lane changes: BUSTED (But weaving isn’t that much faster and it’s much more stressful/dangerous.)

Roundabouts are far more efficient than 4-way stops: CONFIRMED

Four journeys under 400 miles, it’s faster to drive than to fly: PLAUSIBLE

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Episode 222: Plane Boarding

When boarding an airplane, boarding back-to-front is the slowest method: CONFIRMED

A human tooth can be made into a bullet that is accurate, lethal, and undetectable after it shatters on impact: BUSTED

Thanks to the army of nerd cataloguers at MythBusters Results, you can find much more information about every MythBusters episode here.

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Also, we here at Nerdist would like to send big, sciencey love to Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara, who after 10 years of busting myths have decided to leave the show. Episode 222 was the build team’s last. While we are incredibly sad to see them leave what is perhaps the last great science show on cable, we are excited for and fully support whatever they’ve got coming up next. Thanks for all the explosions.

IMAGES: DCL

Kyle Hill is the Chief Science Officer of the Nerdist enterprise. Follow the continued geekery on Twitter @Sci_Phile.

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Comments

  1. Ross says:

    Reread that tweet from the show, and watch the season finale’s coda; those three didn’t “decide to leave the show”, they were let go.