MythBusters Episode 1: "Ice Bullet, Exploding Toilet, Who Gets Wetter?"
Air Date: September 23, 2003
An assassin can fire an ice bullet to kill someone without leaving a trace.
busted
The bullet was simply too brittle to be used.
(This myth was revisited in episode 14 and it was busted again.)
An assassin can use a meat bullet to kill someone without leaving a trace.
busted
The meat bullet fragmented on contact with the skin, causing only superficial damage.
An assassin can use a gelatin bullet to kill someone without leaving a trace.
busted
The bullet did not cause fatal injury.
An assassin can use a poison capsule fired from an umbrella to kill someone without leaving a trace.
partly confirmed*
It was found to have been the cause of death for a notable Bulgarian dignitary, Georgi Markov. The catch is that the umbrella must be fired from point-blank range for it to work.
*It was confirmed that the event is possible, but not that it’s untraceable.
Pouring gasoline down a toilet and lighting it will cause the toilet to explode.
busted
The gasoline simply burned without exploding. Not even a tin of gunpowder in the toilet bowl was able to eject Buster from the seat.
You stay drier running in the rain than walking.
confirmed*
When originally tested, the faster you run the wetter you get.
*The original result was "busted," but when revisited in episode 38 it was changed to "confirmed."
Newer: Episode 2: "Cell Phone Destruction, Silicone Breasts, CD-ROM Shattering"
Older: Pilot 3: "Larry’s Lawn Chair Balloon, Poppy Seed Drug Test, Goldfinger"
When trying to use frozen bullets, it’s probably better not to use gunpowder for the propellant. Maybe something like high pressure Co2 would work better since it would actually lower in temperature when it expands. Either that or you’ll need to use some sort of holder for the bullet while it’s being accelerated, to avoid heating.
June 28, 2007 at 11:32 AMi’d like to see an ice bolt for a crossbow, or spear for a speargun.
July 16, 2007 at 8:15 PMi think james is right, gunpowder heats up, gas cools.
I think that a barrier such as a shotgun wad in a down-sized version would greatly reduce heat, allow for proper combustion, and reduce shock from the initial propulsion. I’d try the ice bullet as a shotgun slug too. The problem is that the wad may retain the rifling. DO IT AGAIN, PLEASE! And try the crossbow idea. That sounds like it would really be cool.
July 27, 2007 at 4:52 PMThe 7 september of 1978, at london, Georgi Markov wait for his bus on the waterloo bridge, suddendly, he feel a violent pain at his leg, a man has injected him a dose of “ricine” (i don’t know how to call it in english ^^) with his umbrella but not like a rifle, his murderer used the umbrella like syring !
August 21, 2007 at 5:52 AMOther exemple,
Lev Rebet was killed with a pen , but it was in fact a little cyanide pistol, the death by inhalation of cyanide is like a normal cardiac stopping…
Episode 1 Exploding toilet. If you pour iodine down a toilet bowl and throw a match into it, it will explode. It happened on (What Happened Next?) on channel nine. This series was on in the late nineties to early 2002 I think.
Paul Smith
September 24, 2007 at 9:11 PMThe “ice bullet” theory has been around for ages. Was even a weapon in an old Charlie Chan movie. More recently it was a weapon on CSI but was really frozen hamburger. THAT hamburger bullet could be busted because by the time the suspect got to his intended victim, it would have thawed out.
September 24, 2007 at 11:14 PMi think you get more wetter walking than running because when your walking the water just pours and goes straight on you and when your running it can bounce off and you only get a little wet.
October 3, 2007 at 11:31 AMDoes a cherry bomb put in a toilet explode and cause trouble of any kind? Any water backup or pipe damage? Anything?
October 24, 2007 at 11:27 PMWho said the ice bullet had to be a bullet fired using gun powder, maybe an ice projectile is more fitting and more likely to work., a high powered FAC rated air rifle( 25 foot pounds+) would fire an ice projectile of 0.22 calibre shaped correctly at over 1000 fps which would penetrate the human body and would have the ability to kill, we need mythbusters to revisit using compressed air to recreate it, the heat generated is minimal and would’nt be able to melt the projectile before impact. please do it again
November 22, 2007 at 11:07 AMI just viewed a rerun of this episode, and having recently seen a discovery episode on “Pycrete” which is building material made by freezing wood chips in water, if using soemthing similar would not work in the place of pure water as an ice bullet. The insulating properties of the wood allows the ice to remain frozen long after normal ice has melted.
Thanks for an interesting show.
Regards
John
November 23, 2007 at 3:56 AMhi
December 3, 2007 at 4:53 AMI would definately like to see the “ice bullet” tests conducted again using an air rifle or some kind or gas-propellant. It likely would not be untracable, but if the projectile could be fired intact, may be lethal.
December 27, 2007 at 12:07 AMI would think gas powered bullets would have the same impact as a Paint ball. I’ve been hit with a marble in a paint ball gun and it left a nasty welt that bled a little, and an ice bullet may puncture but I think ultimatly it would shatter on impact.
December 30, 2007 at 7:34 PMA simple thought experiment says to run in the rain to stay driest. Just look at the extremes. If you go slow, say it takes you an hour to move 50 feet, obviously you’re going to be exposed to an hour’s worth of rain. Now move at light speed — you’re out of the rain much more quickly. Have you ever seen a wet photon?
December 31, 2007 at 9:43 PMhell Adam and Jamie, how are you today
January 6, 2008 at 7:48 PMI just caught the end of the ice bullet episode. Did they try shooting a bullet through a smoothbore shotgun or Muzzleloader? I think the rifling in the guns is causing the bullets to designate. The meat or ice bullets may still be destroyed from the heat or extreme pressure but the rifling is not helping. The groves in the barrel actually cut into the bullet and I don’t think the ice likes that very much. I would like to see this revisited using air guns as mentioned in another post as well as smooth bores or possibly a sabot round. Also they should try lighter charges due to the fact that the ice weighs less than a copper plated lead projectile of the same size. This will limit the range and lethality but the bullets might remain intact. Also, can you try a bone or salt bullet that might go undetected.
January 29, 2008 at 12:13 AMThanks
REDO THE ICE BULLET MYTH!!!
February 14, 2008 at 12:59 PMI love how people get so excited about posting their ideas that they forget how to spell!!
March 11, 2008 at 8:23 AMHere’s one for the boys.
The majority of Mythbuster watchers failed basic english.
hi,
March 14, 2008 at 12:31 AMI was working for a cng company (compressed natural gas).
The myth is surely busted because i never shut down my mobile (nobody else working there) when we used to approach the compressr zone itself. and there were abt 20 compressors.
when we used to visit the outlets we were told to keep our mobiles off but practically we get our feedback for the call itself so we could not keep it off.
I can testify to the power of an ice bullet, as I have been firing them from my potato cannon for some time now. Granted, my “bullets” are 1.5″ x 3″, but they do SERIOUS damage to many kinds of targets. I have punched a clean hole through 3/4 plywood and mangled a steel wagon. A small caliber bullet might not work, but an alternative gun could definately kill and leave only water and traces of propellant (ether)behind.
March 25, 2008 at 2:29 PMi tested a different version of the ice bullet, and successfully managed to take out my target with great results, a successful kill i might say. but i used a shotgun
April 12, 2008 at 7:58 PMThe gasoline simply burned without exploding. Not even a tin of gunpowder in the toilet bowl was able to eject Buster from the seat.
Logic is water mixes with gun powder and releases nitrous oxide which makes gunpowder= 0 and hence only gasoline remains which is quite innefecient if you use in small qauntities
June 26, 2008 at 9:34 AMRedo ice bullet, use a sabot round and try a smoothbore gun… no trace propellants would be left on the ice.
July 14, 2008 at 11:33 AMi think co2 would be better too but ice might not be strong enough
August 12, 2008 at 3:40 PMthe ice bullet does work i tried it use co2 not gun powder
October 6, 2008 at 10:48 PMwhat if you try to form the ice bullet using a high pressure chamber - or press the ice to “harden”?
November 29, 2008 at 8:33 AM