MythBusters Episode 29: “Cooling a Six pack”
Air Date: March 23, 2005
A six pack of beer can be rapidly cooled by burying it in sand, pouring gasoline on top of it, and lighting the gasoline.
busted
The fire did not significantly alter the temperature of the beer; in fact, the fire actually raised the temperature slightly, not to mention burying the beer made the cans sandy.
(With this myth quickly busted, Adam and Jamie tested other cooling methods. A carbon dioxide fire extinguisher was able to cool a six pack to a satisfactory temperature in approximately 3 minutes. In terms of practicality, though, one’s best bet is to use icy salt water, which cooled the beer to an ideal temperature in 5 minutes. Barring that, normal ice water was next fastest at 15 minutes. The other methods tested (the freezer, ice only, and the refrigerator) did not cool the beer rapidly enough to warrant their use in a spur-of-the-moment event.)
The ancient people of Babylon created a crude battery for use in electroplating.
plausible
An overnight plating of zinc over copper seemed to work very well.
The ancient people of Babylon created a crude battery for use in acupuncture therapy?.
plausible
The electricity from the batteries was felt through the acupuncture needles, though the needles eventually grew hot, causing the Build Team to theorize this technique also being used as a form of torture.
The ancient people of Babylon created a crude battery for use in testing spiritual resolve.
plausible
While the ancient batteries were not used on the recreation Ark of the Covenant due to their weak charge (approximately a third of a volt each, or almost 4 volts for a set of ten), Adam theorized that, if any charge was felt with the batteries, the ancient people would believe it to be of divine origin due to their lack of knowledge about electricity.
Newer: Episode 30: “Son of a Gun”
The icy salt water method of cooling beverages can be sped up if you spin the beverage in the water.
June 25, 2007 at 3:50 PMThe myth I heard about cooling beer was that it was dipped into gasoline several times, allowing it to evaporate between each dip. The evaporation would allegedly suck the heat out of the beer can.
August 4, 2007 at 11:05 PMAdam’s original rig of cooling down the beer was good but it actually worked a bit too well. However I think he was wrong to abandon the dry ice idea. Instead of replacing it with normal ice, he could have shortened the length of the coil just enough so that the six pack would cool down to ideal drinking temperature but not freeze.
August 5, 2007 at 10:08 AMYou can make a small current by placing a copper wire and a tin wire in a lot of dissolved salt.
August 18, 2007 at 11:22 PMtry aluminum instead of liquid nitrogen and copper
September 12, 2007 at 10:36 AMI think a six pack of beer can be rapidly cooled by burying it in sand, pouring gasoline on top of it, and lighting the gasoline if the sand is wet. I do recall seeing this beening done with wet beach sand.
October 1, 2007 at 11:36 PMhow did the ancient people bower the batteries?
October 3, 2007 at 11:46 AMcooling a six pack is an awsome experiment.. my friend and i are doing for a science fair.. hope we win! LOL thanks for the great idea/ hopw you dont mind :D i love your show too! LOLOLOL
October 17, 2007 at 12:41 PMHow did ancient people cool their beer?
November 20, 2007 at 9:33 PMi was able to print the formula for cooling a six pack amonth ago on episoid 29 sec. season. i need it for a scicene experiment
December 28, 2007 at 10:29 PMAwesome Show lol!! Like Others Ya I’m Doing this for science fair,I’m not gonna use a fire Extinguisher (wrong Spelling} but cool show!!
January 9, 2008 at 3:56 PMJamie and Adam,
I was just watching a re-run of Ancient batteries, the part with the recreated Ark of the Covenant. I believe you were using batteries as a source of power. If you read the Bible’s description of how it was built you can clearly see that it was a very large and powerful CAPACITOR charged up by just the breeze blowing over the “sail” attached to the crown. There was a University in the states ( Can’t remember which one) that was trying to build one. They abandoned it because it got too dangerous. Just thought you might find this interesting.
Keith Harley
January 11, 2008 at 3:59 PMThanks for the great science fair project. I think I will do this at all my parties. We used soda instead of beer and boy was it refreshing. MmMmmmMM….
January 19, 2008 at 4:00 PMHey guys.
February 4, 2008 at 2:47 PMWatched your testing of the myth that beer can be cooled with gasoline at the beach. I don’t think your reinactment took into consideration all the factors. I believe the way the beer cooled was from the burning gasoline sucking up the cool water buried deep beneath the sand. Your mock up had no depth and no significant cool water in that depth from which to draw on. You could revisit it or I’ll just test it myself this summer and let you know.
Keep Busting!
Namarie an si
Lance
Hey Mythbusters!
February 6, 2008 at 1:10 PMI really liked the experiment in which You tried to cool a 6 pack the fastest! Now my friend and I are going to do the experiment for a science fair project.
I like to know more abought the The ancient people of Babylon created a crude battery.
February 24, 2008 at 8:24 PMwe are doing this for a scincecc fair project. and we need help. the project is due on thursday, we need help to get info. and i really need herlp i m stressin out…PLZ HELP!!!
March 3, 2008 at 10:11 PMMy son would like to do the Cooling a Six Pack for a Science Fair project. We would like to get more information on how to perform the project. Can you please provide us with the information on the materials and amounts used to perform the experiments with the coolers.
March 13, 2008 at 9:58 PMdoes it have to be a CO2 fire extinguisher though? because it could be more than 30 bucks if it has to be. can ABC fire extinguisher work instead?
April 19, 2008 at 9:37 PMHEY YOU GUYS!!!!!! try regular ice fresh out of the bag place room beer in ice heres the secret rotate the can with your figers ice cools can beer rotates bringing warm beer into contact with can about 60 seconds and you have a teeth cracking cold beer
August 10, 2008 at 9:17 PMmy father and i discussed the beer chilling ideas and he came up with one that being a chemical engineer he has done himself. dry ice in alcohol WILL chill the beer probably faster than any other tecnique, however you only have about 20 sec and the can will explode. the alcohol does not freeze, rather it gells at extremely low temp and allows the can to be fully submerged. be careful as always. and keep blowing stuff up!!!!!
January 18, 2009 at 9:33 AMI agree with Lance! Tried this on an actual beach and the coolness gets pulled up from down below the sand… kind of like when you burn a fire in your fireplace and the outer rooms in your house get colder.
April 8, 2009 at 8:52 PMTry it again fellas!
-James