Buster’s Cut 1: Alcohol Myths
Air Date: June 30, 2010
This episode was a re-edited airing of Alcohol Myths. It featured some never before seen footage and behind the scenes information.
Newer: Buster’s Cut 2: Duct Tape Hour 2
Older: Special 14: Car Conundrum
Can we test this.
Web myth. Cows and horses get injured by lightning sometimes not by direct strike but because their feet are far apart. see last paragraph below.
Rig a cow with a meter. set off a spark. measure the nonlethal potential difference between the feet facing the spark (tree) and sideways. You could use a real nice high voltage spark for good visual effect and a sensitive ekg to register the voltage so as to not need a current that would harm the cow.
Hmmm. We have 70,000 or so cows here in Erath and Commanche county texas… Bet I could find a rancher to volunteer a cow for you to use. You would need a vet, or a vet with an EE degree, to vouch for the animal safety. Test the voltages and currents first with a cow dummy. moooo.
To be tested. Is this web myth?
“The secondary effect explains the sometimes-quoted
example about cows surrounding a tree which is struck
by lightning. The cows facing toward or away from the
tree are killed, yet the cows with their sides to the tree
are unharmed. Why? As the potential gradient relative
to the distance from the tree changes with the strike, the
distance and resulting potential difference between the
side legs of the cows are not great enough to harm the
cows. However, the distance and resulting potential difference
between the front and rear legs (with the path of
equalization passing through the heart) are enough to
stop the heart. So, don’t hang around with cows facing
trees during a thunderstorm.”
Oh yeah, sounds really “exciting”, great TV material there. Oh look! The annual accountants convention is on CSPAN!!
Listen, in all seriousness, never in a million years would Discovery ever allow such testing on a real live animal, no matter how many Vets say it’s safe. You don’t go around electrocuting cows on TV. The only way you’ll see them testing this (if it’s even remotely TV worthy) is to use Cow analogs. Making a human out of conductive gel is hard enough, but a cow?
My second point would be. What difference does it make not standing next to a tree with perpendicular facing cows versus side facing? The only difference is cow survivability, not YOUR survivability. So you think you’re going to miraculously survive with side facing cows and not survive because a dead cow fell on you with perpendicular facing cows? Excuse me, but you’d be dead too no matter which direction.
when did tory first appear on mythbusters?
Tory since the beginning I believe.
SuperSparky. Do you realise they used Pigs before, yet that was shown?? They did the alaska special, with the moose.
that was a fake moose though.
and the pigs were dead
congratulations on your program will never lose me I hope to have the response of the drunk who put their hand in warm water while he is asleep and pee.
you are bothe wrong they have used real animals on the show remember the elephants being afraid of mice the mice could have been trampled……….so ha ha