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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

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"

8 Comments

  1. Mojojojo:

    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 AM
  2. Mojojojo:

    the word “muth” that I accidentaly used in my comment is “myth”. My mistake.

    October 3, 2007 at 3:02 AM
  3. mwahaha:

    i 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 AM
  4. spud:

    Hi, 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.
    I love the show!!!!!

    January 13, 2008 at 10:08 PM
  5. Mark S:

    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 PM
  6. Saundra:

    The 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 AM
  7. Bek:

    With 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 PM
  8. Tom:

    Just out of interest, who rowed?

    May 21, 2008 at 5:13 PM
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