MythBusters Episode 55: "Steam Cannon"
Air Date: July 19, 2006
A cereal box can have more nutritional value than the sugary cereal within.
busted
All tests showed that cereal have superior values of calories, fats, sugars, and proteins compared to cardboard. Furthermore, chemicals within the cardboard may be toxic.
Archimedes was able to build a powerful steam cannon, using technology available at the time.
busted
A flash-boil-powered cannon, built even with modern materials and techniques, was barely able to push a projectile out of the barrel. A more modern pre-boiled, valve-triggered system, like those used in aircraft catapults, was able to project a cannonball a considerable distance, and with far less pressure than the Mythbusters had originally projected required.
Newer: Episode 56: "Killer Whirlpool"
Older: Episode 54: "Crimes and Myth-Demeanors 1: Great Hollywood Heists"
i beleive i saw a working replica of the steam cannon on the history channel. don’t know the details unfortunately, i’d bet there is more info on wikipedia about it.
July 16, 2007 at 4:26 PMWell, wikipedia struck out.
October 26, 2007 at 10:33 PMrfyghtfhfthtf
January 16, 2008 at 12:59 PMRe: the ‘busted’ steam cannon - seems the pair don’t remember from one cannon to the next that they have to maintain a gas-tight seal between the barrel and the ball. If the ball could roll out - there wasn’t a sufficient seal (hardly gas-tight).
May 7, 2008 at 8:57 PMArchimedes and DeVinci would’ve used cork or some other flexible material to seal behind the ball.
Mythbusters IS entertaining but hardly accurate.