MythBusters Episode 12: Break Step Bridge, Toothbrush Surprise, Rowing Water Skier
Air Date: January 25, 2004
Soldiers marching in unison can cause harmonic oscillation in a bridge and cause it to collapse.
plausible*
There were some difficulties in testing this myth conclusively.
*The original result was "busted," but when revisited in episode 14 it was changed to "plausible."
A rowing eight can pull a water skier at sufficient speed for him/her to stay upright.
confirmed
Adam and Jamie recruited Stanford University’s rowing team to help test this myth. After several tries Jamie was able to stay upright for over 40 seconds, with only a few hours experience in waterskiing.
Fecal coliforms bacteria can grow in toothbrush bristles.
confirmed
Fecal coliforms were indeed found on all the test brushes, including the control ones. However, none were of a level high enough to be dangerous, and experts confirm that such coliforms were impossible to completely avoid.
Newer: Episode 13: Buried in Concrete, Daddy Long-legs, Jet Taxi
Older: Episode 11: Sinking Titanic, Goldfish Memory, Trombone Explosion
I think that Adam and Jamie should test it in a bigger scale, the muth of the soldiers in a bridge would be confirmed at the first try. But the got it at the second time and that’s not bad. Congratulations.
October 3, 2007 at 3:00 AMthe word “muth” that I accidentaly used in my comment is “myth”. My mistake.
October 3, 2007 at 3:02 AMi think that the bacteria on the tooth brushes 1 shouldn’t be confirmed, i think they need to run more trials and i am sure the myth would be busted!!!!!!!!!!
November 21, 2007 at 1:29 AMHi, my sister and I are doeing a science project on toothbrush surprize. for the school science fair we are doing the same thing but we are actually dipping two toothbrushes in the toilet. and we can not wait to do this experiment.
p.s.
January 13, 2008 at 10:08 PMI love the show!!!!!
I only saw part of the episode, but I noticed that the ends of the bridge were not secure, meaning that the desired “Real world,”resonance could not be produced. A few years ago, a hotel atrium bridge was found to have collapsed from guests tapping their feet to a bands music.
January 31, 2008 at 12:24 PMThe toothbrush experiment should be re-evaluated because the method for applying toothpaste to each toothbrush would spread contamination. That is one reason why the toothbrushes not in the bathroom tested positive for fecal matter. Each toothbrush should have it’s own tube of toothpaste and the toothpaste tube should not come into contact with the brush.
February 1, 2008 at 9:53 AMWith the oscillating bridge. I know that the bridge was tested for oscillating up and down. But bridges can be oscillated sideways. When we walk we push outwards as well as down in each step. The right foot moves right and the left foot moves left. This could have added to the movement of the bridge.
March 28, 2008 at 11:52 PMJust out of interest, who rowed?
May 21, 2008 at 5:13 PMRe the Rowing 8 and the Water Skier: What kind of skis used, how big/heavy the skier and was he/she pulled up out of the water by the crew? If it was regular water skis, normal size human coming out of the water, this is Bolshoi!
August 27, 2008 at 1:01 PMThis is josh stephens i like the show you palyed last night the date was the 3urd when you did the last a sploshen that was vare big and cool bye.
December 4, 2008 at 10:16 AMIt would be interesting to have the toothbrushes and toilet flush aerosol repeated with the toilet lid down.
December 21, 2009 at 6:20 PMHi – I was really disappointed with the initial “busted” result of bridge resonance. While I appreciated the engineering that created the bridge and the boots, the result indicated a lack of knowledge of resonance. This raised my eyebrows; surely these guys should know the basics ? As someone above pointed out, the bridge ends were not secured. This means that any energy introduced into the bridge cannot rebound from the ends. This means resonance is impossible in the structure anyway; the energy is lost. I stopped watching Mythbusters for a while in despair; I was so disappointed in them !
January 10, 2010 at 7:30 AMDo your homework first, guys, but you should already know some basic physics !
This morning Dr. Rosefeld on Fox News repeated this idea that a flushing toilet will contaminate nearby items such as toothbrushes and towels. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this but it doesn’t seem right to me. Does anybody have a definative answer? Seems a concern worthy of a rigorous test.
February 7, 2010 at 6:07 PMI just saw the Dr.’s show and remember this Mythbuster episode. I was surprised to see the response before me. In fact, I think the Dr. could be a good source for a retest. Keep up the great work!
February 10, 2010 at 4:17 PMThe toothbrush tests show a correlation, not a direstion.
March 7, 2010 at 10:40 PMSo, the brush can get e coli from your mouth (yes!), don’t assume which direction the cause runs.