MythBusters Episode 126: Duct Tape Hour
Air Date: October 14, 2009
It is possible to lift a 5,000 pound car using nothing but duct tape.
confirmed
They Mythbusters used many rolls of duct tape to attach a car to a metal beam, which was then hung from a crane. The car was lifted successfully, and was left suspended until the tape failed. The Mythbusters pointed out that the tape tore before its adhesive properties failed.
It is possible to seal leaks in a boat using duct tape.
plausible
The Mythbusters patched a damaged boat with duct tape and then floated it in San Francisco Bay. The tape managed to keep the boat afloat, with only minor signs of damage after forty minutes of use. Adam then decided to test whether duct tape can seal an existing leak while the boat is still in the water. Adam noted that it was more difficult to get the duct tape to stick underwater, but successfully patched the leak. However, the “emergency” fix wasn’t nearly as effective and the duct tape quickly failed. The Mythbusters concluded that duct tape was a viable temporary repair method when applied in dry conditions.
It is possible to build a working sail boat out of nothing but duct tape.
confirmed
The Mythbusters built an entire sailboat using 690 square feet of duct tape for the hull and sail. They then took the boat, dubbed the Stuck on You, into San Francisco Bay. The duct tape boat showed no signs of failure, confirming the myth.
It is possible to build a working cannon out of nothing but duct tape.
confirmed
The Build Team created a small scale test cannon using inch thick tiles of duct tape. Tests confirmed that the duct tape was strong enough to withstand a cannon blast. Next, they built a larger duct tape cannon having a two inch thick barrel. They compared the performance of this cannon to a conventional steel cannon. While it didn’t perform as well as the steel cannon, the duct tape cannon stayed intact and managed to successfully fire a cannonball.
A potato cannon constructed using duct tape will fire as well as one constructed with glue.
confirmed
The Build Team took a regular potato cannon and cannon constructed with duct tape and fired them repeatedly to compare their performance. After measuring the average velocity of the potatoes as well as the distance traveled, the Build Team concluded that the duct tape and glue potato cannons were essentially identical.
About the amazing Duct Tape program:
Very impressed, but puzzled.
Several years ago a show called “Junkyard Wars” had several contests where duct tape was used in construction of water borne vehicles – in ALL cases the many layers of tape failed in minutes and fell away from what it was bonded to.
I just tried to find out what kind of tape you used and also looked up numerous tapes. Apparently 3-M alone has several grades of tape as well as some with very high adhesiveness qualities, as well as several thicknesses from 15 mil up to 80 mil.
SO, … what tape were you using and where would it stand in the wide selection of duct tape qualities. It would be a nice follow-up to demonstrate the differences between cheap, moderately priced, and expensive tape. Your information would change my opinion about duct tape – your demonstration of a duct tape boat was amazing – your demo on water craft repair was good too.
Thanks so much!
Dennis
October 14, 2009 at 10:10 PMAmazing! That was an interesting episode. :) Hmmm.. could duct tape also make a small chamber air-tight? Or is that impractical?
October 15, 2009 at 8:51 PMThe tape used was Nashua 357 duct tape made by Berry Plastics Corporation. It’s a 13 mil premium grade product available at True Value stores, and through industrial & HVAC supply stores (like Grainger, Johnstone Supply, etc. So definitely not your cheap economy-grade product but not a super-premium tape either. Traditional duct tapes (PE Coated Cloth with rubber-based adhesive)on the market today will range in thickness from the cheapest at around 5 mils to the heaviest at around 17 mils.
October 15, 2009 at 8:56 PMI thought that the duct tape show should have multiple episodes.
I’m enjoy your shows. When Mythbusters first started, more scientific exlanations were used.
Please remember when exploring ancient inventions, the inventions took much more time and were consistently of higher quality…similar to the work intensive paper boat and then your recent duct tape boat.
I remember your appearances on EX-FILES. Have you redone some of those ‘explanations’. Have you already showed the ‘destroyer bot’? Will you try to improve it by using solar energy?
Thanks for the memories…how about a montage of of a months’ worth in past years as ‘filler’ episodes listed by: “Now these are the myths we labeled and worked on the first year(etc.) for the first month (etc)…”.
Keep up the good work and don’t allow the director, producer make you caricatures of yourselves!
October 17, 2009 at 8:54 AMMaybe if you put something in the middle of the duct tape cannon, like plastic wrap or something, it would reduce the stickiness inside and fire the cannonball farther?
October 17, 2009 at 9:34 AMI’ve heard from some of my friends that travel alot by car that if you get close enough to a traveling tractor trailer, the turbulance coming off the back of the trailer will pull you thus saving you gas. Do you guys think this can be true or its a total Myth?
October 23, 2009 at 9:16 AMIt is a well known racing technique. The chase car uses the “drauft” of the lead car to save fuel and use a “slingshot” technique to increase its passing speed.
October 26, 2009 at 12:32 PMI beleive it is also called “slipstreaming”.
You can easily test this by getting into the slipstream of a large vehicle, you can see the decrease in the rpm’s versus speed. Hence, the engine is doing less work to maintain the equivalent speed.
i agree with ibob you could easily go the wrong direction
October 26, 2009 at 4:01 PMThey’ve already done a myth like that…proven to be confirmed, as well.
November 8, 2009 at 6:24 PMYou’re not only doing that in tailing, you remove the draft, yes, but that draft also is used by leading car for speed. When u remove it, u ALSO impair the leading car, not just helping yourself, hence the use of it, so frequent. Don’t try that on a large vehicle on the road, as it won’t see you in mirrors, and if they do see you do it, they’ll get peeved, to be polite. Owner operators pay for their fuel. Be kind.
December 23, 2009 at 10:37 PMI absolutely love the episode… I’ve been trying to make a kayak on a small budget for years and I never would have thought of using duct tape for the skin… Very creative and good looking :)
February 7, 2010 at 10:58 PMHow long did the duct tape sailboat float?
March 24, 2010 at 8:23 PMif you can make cannon out of duct tape.why not a bullet proof vest?
April 11, 2010 at 6:37 PMCan an inch thick tile of duct tape stop a Tomson SMG .45 caliber round? And if not what is the highest caliber it can stop?
May 12, 2010 at 2:07 PMi saw this last night (may 12, 2010) and the bridge made of duct tape, umm, thats just amazing, and jamie that would suck if u fell because your afraid of hieghts
May 14, 2010 at 12:04 AMit possible to seal a leak with duck tape make it thick
May 20, 2010 at 12:17 PMif u can pick up a car can duck tape pick up a semi truck
July 8, 2010 at 11:25 AMMy girlfriend wants to build a boat out of duct tape now. Do you think a boat like theirs would last several trips out on the water? I’m skeptical.
July 8, 2010 at 3:03 PM