Comments on: Episode 48: Franklin’s Kite

By: No One

No One — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:55:09 +0000

Is MythBusters overlooking the obvious about flatulence: it’s not the food that causes farts; it’s the inability of the human body and gut flora to properly digest it that causes farts. And we know that this ability varies because both the body and the gut bacteria adapt to conditions. So if you don’t drink milk for a while and you’re lactose intolerant, then you will have massive gas the first day; not so much the 2nd day; and much less the 3rd; and so on. That’s because the gut bacteria become more adept at digesting the lactose.
It just doesn’t make sense to test any food without taking into account one’s recent history of eating that food.

By: dAvid

dAvid — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 21:26:51 +0000

I was a little disappointed in the way they conducted the experiments on this myth. I’d always heard this story as described in parentheses at the beginning of this discussion, which he flew the kite near a cloud in a thunderstorm. Surely, the charge would be different from a direct hit of lightning. As well, I noticed to wet the kite string that they just used a regular hose, which would most likely be tap water full of I purities allowing better conductivity. Rain water is equivalent to that of distilled water in and of the fact that they both lack impurities. The lack of impurities would lower the conductivity and make the charge delivered less powerful.

By: Bret

Bret — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 05:13:29 +0000

I got a bit curious about the other gases and their toxicity and looked up the details. The maximum output generally for H2S and CH3SH is about 30 ppm. Given the mythbusters statement maximum output is around 180 ml/h total gas, that gives 5.4 uL/h of each of these. I roughly guessed their test room at 125 cuft (~6x3x7) or 3.54m3. Thats 5.4uL/h into 3.54kL, which should be about 1.5 ppb/h. It would take 6000h+ (nearly 1 year) just to get to the osha limit of 10 ppm, or 19,000d (50 years) to get to the LC50 limit for either gas in those conditions. That also doesn’t consider how much would just diffuse away or that someone probably would leave the room well before then. :)

By: Steve Muturi

Steve Muturi — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 14:30:12 +0000

Please include a “Share” button on the site so I can share some of the Myths on Facebook! Great work!!!

By: Mr. E

Mr. E — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:05:43 +0000

I have been watching Mythbusters from Episode 1 and realize it is all in good fun – but it saddens me that you would continually perpetuate the most grossly altered and incorrect component of this myth – that Mr. Franklin’s experiment is part of his “discovering” electricity. Especially to have Grant speak this as though it were an actual result if the myth were true and not clear up the true aspect Franklin was trying to prove – that lightning is electrical in nature. Et tu, Grant? (I am an electronics engineer).

Franklin, himself NEVER claimed to have preformed said experiment, but only described it in scientific letters. All that is known about Franklin’s experiment comes from two resources: Joseph Priestley’s account, published fifteen years afterwards in 1767 and Franklin’s own description of the experiment in a scientific letter written to Peter Collinson in 1752. In that letter he only describes the expected outcome, but never states that he experienced it personally.

Shame on Mythbusters – have fun but be factual!

By: lavern

lavern — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:26:25 +0000

My 8 yr old son loves this show and I was watching this episode with him today. OK, you guys missed a very important point on the levels and content of a flatulent episode. My son is on an all soy diet due to food allergies, i.e. soy milk, soy bergers and so on. His daily flatulents on average have been counted at 20+ times a day. It also can be strong enough to make an adult dizzy.

By: Shroomduke

Shroomduke — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:58:20 +0000

on the flatulants story, it would be interesting to see how much gas it is possible for a human to produce.
How about experimenting with Cabbage & Brussel Sprouts etc… I’ll bet we could get an enormous amount of gas per ass per hour if we realy tried!

By: Shroomduke

Shroomduke — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 17:55:09 +0000

a 1973 Radio Shack book on Electronics, has the story of Franklins Kite
“one particularly famous inventor who expermented with STATIC electricty machines was Benjamin Franklin. bla bla bla Knowing that a wet string was capable of conducting electricity, he assembled a kite and launched it during a thunderstorm. bla bla bla, silk ribbon, metal key…,
He had demonstrated that “Cloud Electricity” and “Static Electricity” were the one of the same.
Other experimenters who later tried Franklins famous experiment were less fortunate – a few recieved bad shocks, and one Russian scientist was electrocuted.

I imagine Franklin spent years researching and experimenting before he decided to tie a string & key to a kite. Franklin was an incredably brilliant man by all accounts, I am sure he understood the lethal potential of lightening and having NO Death-Wish took all reasonable precations.

By: Paul Malley

Paul Malley — Tue, 20 May 2008 11:01:59 +0000

Re Suffocation in small room

I think there was a TV program about it.

The story was that a group of residents had noticed a rather unpleasant smell
emanating from a room/apartment whatever.

Constable Plod was called in to investigate and on knocking the door down
the place was seen to be empty of human occupation. The occupier who had been missing for a while was nowhere in evidence.
However the walls and ceilings were covered
by an oily sooty mess.

This had happened on a number of previous occasions. The connecting facts being, that the occupier had lived alone,it was winter time,all the places where cold air could enter the room were sealed, there was evidence of a fire being lit.

The conclusion was that the person had fallen unconscious in front of the fire
and his clothes had acted like a wick.!

By: Paul Malley

Paul Malley — Tue, 20 May 2008 10:38:29 +0000

Re Flatus

I shared “digs” ( rooming house with two
meals provided)with a group of law students.
These dudes, the enquiring legal mind no
doubt,had recently discovered that a Flatus
could be ingited.

I as a mere Engineer could have told them
that when flame velocity > gas velocity
you get burn back, a very painfull condition.