Air Date: November 16, 2004
Overusing bug bombs can explode a house.
confirmed
A house actually exploded in San Diego, California because a family used too many bug bombs and an accidental spark ignited the chemicals in the air, as the MythBusters were able to prove in their test.
Talking helps plants grow.
plausible
Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with stereos playing endlessly looping recordings (as having the Mythbusters actually talk to the plants could contaminate the samples with their expelled carbon dioxide): Two of negative speech, two of positive speech (Kari and Scottie each made one positive and one negative soundtrack), a fifth with classical music and a sixth with intense death metal music. A seventh greenhouse, used as a control sample, had no stereo. The greenhouses with the recordings of speech grew better than the control, regardless of whether such talk was kind or angry. The plants in the greenhouse with the recording of classical music grew better, while the plants in the greenhouse with the recording of intense death metal grew best of all.
Modern technology can render the phrase "like finding a needle in a haystack" obsolete.
busted
Adam and Jamie compete against each other in a contest to bust an old adage. While Jamie teamed up with Christine and Scottie in a machine known as Dante’s Inferno which burned the hay to leave the needles behind, Adam, Kari, and Tory used the Needlefinder 2000, a machine that relied on water to separate needles from the hay (in the theory that needles would sink in water while hay floated). Each team had to locate four needles among ten bales of hay - three of steel of varying sizes and one of bone. While it is possible to find a needle in a haystack, even using specialized machines to do so takes a considerable amount of time, particularly since bone needles can’t be picked up by magnets. The task is difficult enough to still make the saying viable.
Newer: Episode 24: "Ming Dynasty Astronaut"
Older: Episode 22: "Boom-Lift Catapult, AC vs. Windows down"
[...] Anyway, they tried to go after the myth that if you talk to plants they will grow better. (you can find the summary here) Without going into all of the details of their experiment, they found that the plants that they [...]
January 9, 2008 at 8:17 AM[...] is until the good boys at myth busters put it to the test, which you can read about here. Come to find out the room with heavy metal rock music actually had more of a positive effect on [...]
January 9, 2008 at 10:24 PM[...] to your plants, or playing music near them, will help them grow. The results of the test from mythbustersresults.com is this: Seven small greenhouses were set up on the M5 Industries roof. Four were set up with [...]
July 4, 2008 at 7:33 PM
I performed a science experiment testing the effects of music on plant growth, using classical, country, and rock music, and I found that the classical was only marginally better (.2cm) and Rock was second best, with country having the highest height. More details avaliable if requested.
November 7, 2007 at 8:49 PMJust wondering if you knew either what song or what band that death metal they played for the plants was. I really liked that song.
January 5, 2008 at 12:07 AMwhile travelling in a car, my friend put a tape on that was of the sound of plants growing. It sounded extremely like the death metal music. Just a thought…
April 13, 2008 at 4:15 AMYes i watched that episode and i loved it. I also was wondering if you could tell me the name of the band that they played for the heavy metal song? thanks
July 3, 2008 at 1:03 PM