MythBusters Episode 23: Exploding House
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.
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 PMYou would have to be really worried about bugs in your house to put that much in.
October 12, 2008 at 3:24 AMin my experiment in playing music to plants, I used metal, country, classical, and Jazz. Jazz was the best of all. I was using small, fragile basil plants.
January 6, 2009 at 5:16 PMyeah i wanna know the exact same thing as “bryce” i wanna know the name of the death metal song
January 22, 2009 at 5:59 AMi watched that eposode but every one else that did the test they got totally different results, they got that classical music made plants grew twice the speed of regular plants or plants that listind to rap or rock. what did the mythbusters team do different than the other people?
February 16, 2009 at 11:21 AMThe Heavy metal song from that episode was -Pure Hatred by Chimaira
March 1, 2009 at 11:04 PMMaybe the plants grow more because vibrations help the adsorption/desorption of gases?
March 22, 2009 at 12:30 PMI’m doing the plant experiment now, and the plants that have music played to them are doing far better than the plants without regardless of whether it’s rock or classical
March 25, 2009 at 3:23 PMIn Year 10,way back in the 70s, my friend and I conducted a science experiment in which we played music to bean plants. The choices were classical, soft rock (hey – we were only 15) and the control which heard nothing. We found they grew better – taller with bigger leaf areas – to soft rock. Both sets of musical beans grew better than the controls.
My mother was very disappointed at our findings (she hated my music) – but we won a small prize and got to display our work at a convention.
We decided the answer is that plants respond to vibrations from the music – rock music has more vibrations, death metal has the most I would assume.
So if you want a nice garden, try playing your plants some Yes or Zeppelin (I’m still in the 70s).
May 24, 2009 at 4:53 AMWith the plants growing to music, there are several varieties, it seems, to what plants like. The Mythbusters had plants that liked heavy metal, but they’ve also seemed to respond well to jazz, country and rock.
September 15, 2009 at 9:24 AMThere may need to be a list of plants, and their musical preferences.
this is for a little myth buster episode-does weed or mary jane or cannabis what ever you want to call it but does weed ash make your hair grow if you applie it to your skin
October 29, 2009 at 1:32 PMi thought the big explosion was cool wish i could do it but im just a kid. oh yeah the Appliances in the bath myth freak me out a little!
December 29, 2009 at 6:35 PMWasn´t the crew worried about breathing in all those bug bombs when they were doing the experiment? The stuff is basically nerve gas, isn´t it?
January 12, 2010 at 2:35 PM