MythBusters Episode 106: “Phone Book Friction”
Air Date: September 10, 2008
It is impossible to separate two interlocked phone books due to the massive amount of friction between the 800 pages of each book.
busted
The MythBusters tried to pull the two phone books apart with human power, which was unsuccessful. A pair of cars also failed at pulling the phone books apart. Finally, the MythBusters resorted to using an M551 Sheridan light tank and an M113 armored personnel carrier, which were able to pull the phone books apart. While the myth was busted, the MythBusters pointed out that it took 8,000 pounds of force to pull the phone books apart, meaning that you could literally hang two full size cars from it.
The following myths are derived from the ending sequence of the film Deep Blue Sea, in which a huge shark is defeated with a harpoon gun, a car battery, and some black powder.
Gunpowder can be set off by a car battery by using seawater to conduct the spark.
busted
The spark created by the car battery was did not conduct through seawater and ignite the gunpowder.
A harpoon gun is accurate up to 100 feet.
confirmed
Tory was able to accurately hit a replica shark with a harpoon gun from this distance.
Ten flares contain enough black powder to match two and a half sticks of dynamite.
busted
Grant first began by trying to take apart several tube flares, which took far longer than it did in the movie. After measuring the powder, the Build Team calculated that it would take at least 450 flares to provide the gunpowder equivalent two and a half sticks of dynamite, instead of the ten flares shown in the movie.
Two and a half sticks of dynamite will cause a tremendous explosion.
busted
The Build Team first tested this myth using a canister with the same dimensions as in the movie, which could only hold 28 grams of powder, which did not even disturb the surface of the water, and caused minimal damage to the replica shark. Two and a half sticks of dynamite (681 grams of powder), was enough to destroy the shark and cause a large explosion, but not anywhere as large as seen in the movie. The Build Team also concluded that the weight of a canister containing two and a half sticks of dynamite would make the harpoon too heavy to hit a target 100 feet away. Eventually, to create an explosion matching the movie explosion’s magnitude, 400 pounds of powder was used.
A person can survive a large underwater explosion at a distance of 50 feet.
busted
The Build Team tested this myth using rigs containing rupture discs that would burst if they were hit with a lethal pressure of 500 psi. They placed several in varying distances from the explosion, and determined that even being 100 feet from an explosion of the size seen in the movie would be fatal.
Newer: Episode 107: “Water Stun Gun”
Older: Episode 105: “Viral Hour”
I like the idea of trying to pull two phone books apart with force but what would’ve made that show better is if you hung a car from a rope attached to it in midair.
October 1, 2008 at 10:36 AMyou have to revisit the car battery can cause gunpowder to explode becasue in the movie there was a insulated wire hooked to the harpoon
November 2, 2008 at 1:56 AMThe phone book pull is CONFIRMED. That is by using pulling items normal people can acquire like two cars. It’s easy to find two cars with all those people interested. But the Mythbusters EXCEEDED the basis of the myth by using two tanks to pull them apart. Nobody in my neighborhood owns any tanks. Next time try a couple of Tomahawk missiles to see if their boosters can pull the books apart. Come on guys, be realistic.
November 14, 2008 at 2:01 PMI did this as my science project for school but I only said that people can’t pull the books apart. I also tested other books like chapter and magazines. I will not tell you my results but if you want to you can try to make a sequal and see if other types of reading material can be torn apart. Have fun and thanks for the idea of my science project.
November 29, 2008 at 2:54 PMForget all those silly comments about “being realistic…” – since when is that any fun?! I thought surely the cars would do the trick for separating the phone books. The tanks were a real bonus as was your enthusiasm for pitting them against several thousand pieces of interlocked paper. ha! Now that’s a David vs. Goliath for ya. Alas, rest in peace poor Hugo. Awesome show guys!
December 3, 2008 at 10:08 PMit said “It is impossible to separate two interlocked phone books due to the massive amount of friction between the 800 pages of each book.” note the word “impossible”, mythbusters shows that ripping 2 interlocked phone book is very possible, if your have multiple tanks in your garages, nevertheless, the phone book were ripped apart. plus, they got tanks on the show, who doesn’t like that? like the good old mythbuster’s spirit, “If its worth doing, its worth overdoing.”
sometimes unnecessary, but it was sure fun watching them blowing stuff up with ridiculous amount of explosive.
good job, mythbusters, and keep up the good work.
December 4, 2008 at 3:27 PMSay now – where do we email ya the ideas for future shows and myths?? Am having a tough time of it finding the info on your site here~
December 5, 2008 at 2:04 PMP.S. Show us some more of the tank collection, however! Looks like that guy had some cool toys! Does anything else get out and run?! Lets see ‘em climb some big bad hills, or knock over tall trees in a single – WHAMM-O!
The part where Kari Grant and Tori bust the myth that you can survive the resulting blast from the shark explosion was a bit flawed because whilst you don’t get a 200 foot blast of water with 2.5 sticks of dynamite, it did kill the shark. I think that they should have checked the rupture disks after the smaller explosion and reset them if they wanted to after the bigger one. The new narrator is terribe by comparison to the old one too!! This said I have watched and loved mythbusters for years and yet have never taken the time to tell you that. Isn’t it funny how people are so quick to moan? Well probably not for you!!
December 9, 2008 at 7:32 PMtry sticky notes they work really well. for more of a challeng try putting 1 siticky not at a time between the papers.
December 10, 2008 at 5:07 PMputting 1 siticky NOTE at a time. sorry i spelled note wrong.
December 10, 2008 at 5:08 PMi am doing my sience fair project on the phone book myth that you did in episode 106. i really have been looking forward to do this for a long time for my science project. you really give me a lot of information from the show and i hope i succeseed(if thats how u spell it)can you give some tips on how to start it off? send me an email or something thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 9, 2009 at 9:15 AMby the way i have an idea for a sugestion for your show, would powdered suger melt in a wood burner? or would it stay the same just be hotter, oh and of coarse the wood burner would have burning would in it. teehee !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 9, 2009 at 9:29 AMI just watched this episode this weekend and thought it would be a great experiment for my fourth graders. We are very excited to see how it works out in our classroom.
January 26, 2009 at 4:29 PMHey its very easy to pull two phone books apart! Just pull very gentle!
January 29, 2009 at 3:36 PMTo Richard Landgraff:
They DID try 2 cars and that didn’t work. That’s why they resorted to tanks.
As stated at the top of this page:
“A pair of cars also failed at pulling the phone books apart.”
February 12, 2009 at 10:57 PMIve come up with a new myth for all of you to test. This is simple.
April 5, 2009 at 1:00 PM–The myth is that one major dose of static electricity can cause an axe can to explode and shadder.
I am using this for my science fair progect, the one with the phone books.I am planning on using my 2 ATVs.
April 8, 2009 at 8:28 AMOk Adam and Jamie ur AWSOME!!!!
April 8, 2009 at 8:30 AMI am doing this for my science fair project and I am only using 400 page each phone books and it works amazingly even without the jig attached.
May 20, 2009 at 7:22 AMYou tried to pull 2 phone books appart and 2 tanks were able to do it. What about creating a rig which would hold multiple phone books on each side and see how many phone books it takes to beat the tanks. Just rememeber to recycle them after wards :)
June 23, 2009 at 2:07 PMok first the wire needs to be insulted next the eletric source needs to be directly in the water not clamped onto the glass.
June 24, 2009 at 8:32 PM