MythBusters Episode 81: "Grenades and Guts"
Air Date: June 13, 2007
Self-hypnosis can … cure seasickness.
busted
Grant, who is susceptible to seasickness, volunteered to test self-hypnosis to see whether he could overcome his condition. As a control, he was put into a chair that helped induce seasickness while Tory and Kari kept track of how long it would take for him to vomit. Grant then used a self-hypnosis CD to try and cure his sickness. After his self-hypnosis session, Grant went back to the chair, but still succumbed to his sickness, although it took twice as long.
Self-hypnosis can … change your eye color.
busted
Kari first went to an eye center to obtain a control photo of her eye color. She then underwent a self-hypnosis session in an attempt to change her physical eye color. However, when she went back to the eye center to have her eyes analyzed, the results showed that there was no change in eye color.
Self-hypnosis can … eliminate a person’s fear of bees.
busted
Because Tory had no real issues that could be resolved through self-hypnosis, the Build Team instead brought Adam and tried to cure him of his irrational fear of bees. For the control test, they measured Adam’s heart rate and physical stress levels when he was shown a box full of bees and had to put his hand inside of it. After going through his self-hypnosis session, Adam retook the test. During the retest, Adam showed the same amounts of fear and physical stress as the control test, showing that he still possessed his fear.
If a person swallowed both Mentos and Diet Coke, his stomach would explode.
busted
This myth is based on an internet video where a man ingested both Diet Coke and Mentos and fell unconscious, reportedly from a ruptured stomach. When tested with a pig’s stomach, it was learned that the simple act of drinking the soda released much of the carbon dioxide within it, preventing the expected cascade of foam the Mentos and soda combination would give off. Even pumping the gas from the normal Mentos/cola fountain directly into the stomach didn’t make the stomach burst, but like the previous myth of soda and Pop Rocks, the stomach expanded to the point where the victim would be in a lot of pain and induced vomiting. Only by blowing compressed air directly into the stomach did it burst.
A hero could save his buddies by … covering a grenade with his own body.
confirmed
During the control test, the Mythbusters detonated a grenade with no obstacles with several plywood dummies around it at varying distances. The shrapnel inflicted lethal injuries on most of the dummies. For the actual test, the Mythbusters planted a ballistics gel dummy over the grenade before detonating it. While the ballistics gel dummy was completely destroyed, only one of the plywood dummies suffered any severe damage, and what damage was caused was not lethal. While the hero would undoubtedly die in the attempt, he would be able to save his comrades nearby.
A hero could save his buddies by … placing a grenade in a bucket full of water.
confirmed
The Mythbusters placed a grenade in a bucket full of water, in hopes that the bucket would slow down the shrapnel enough to inflict no harm on the plywood dummies. However, there were fears that the bucket would in fact contribute to the damage by being turned into shrapnel itself. After the test, only one of the dummies suffered lethal damage, but there was still significantly less shrapnel damage than the control test. Though not perfect, one advantage to this method is that the hero does not have to sacrifice himself.
A hero could save his buddies by … throwing the grenade inside a refrigerator.
busted
The Mythbusters obtained a refrigerator and placed it in the middle of a group of the dummies. They then placed a grenade inside it and detonated it. The refrigerator was essentially turned into a giant fragmentation grenade, and the flying debris destroyed the dummies immediately in front and behind of the refrigerator, though standing at the sides is safe. The Mythbusters agreed that putting a grenade in the refrigerator was not a good idea.
Newer: Episode 82: "Snow Special"
Older: Episode 80: "Big Rig Myths"
Hi,
I don’t think the word “literally” means what you think it means. You say this in the bottom of the summary:
“The refrigerator was literally turned into a giant fragmentation grenade, and the flying debris destroyed the dummies immediately in front and behind of the refrigerator”.
Putting a grenade inside a refrigerator does not literally turn it into a grenade. I think the word you want is “figuratively”.
June 23, 2007 at 2:36 AMYou’re right, that was misleading. The adverb has been changed to “essentially”.
June 23, 2007 at 2:38 PMself-hypnosis can be powerful, but not with people as naturally skeptical and science-minded as the mythbusters team. i’m not saying it can do ridiculous things like actualy change your eye color, but if you fully believe it, it can be as powerful as the placebo effect.
June 23, 2007 at 8:54 PMI agree with asdf, there’s an element missing here. Ask any practitioner of hypnosis and they will tell you that it works because people believe it works. They’ll also tell you that it only works for some people. That’s why when you see those live hypnosis shows, they have to “audition” people at the beginning of the show. And no, that part isn’t staged; I was picked once and it most certainly worked on me.
Basically, just because it didn’t work for one person doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work at all. The Mythbusters should be well aware of this logical fallacy.
June 24, 2007 at 1:49 AMasdf said: “it (hypnosis) can be as powerful as the placebo effect.”
This is exactly the textbook definition of “it does not work”. For something to work it has to do better than the placebo effect. Otherwise hypnosis is as effective a “I am the Messiah and I am here to cure you” said convincingly to a person that is willing to believe me (this if for your logical fallacy James Cooper :)).
June 24, 2007 at 2:13 PMThrowing oneself on a grenade will defnitely save one’s buddies. Sad to say, it was proven here by a hero in Israel’s 2nd Lebanon War.
June 25, 2007 at 11:58 AMThe placebo effect is NOT no effect, in fact it’s been known to cure cancer (in v.rare cases) Hypnosis just allows you to tap into that in a slightly more controlled manner and so acheive more reliable effects. And yes, most (if not all) religious healings are hypnotic in nature, the mind is a powerful thing.
June 26, 2007 at 4:14 AMIf you had time to throw the grenade in the fridge, and then pull it over so the door was on the ground - it may cause less damage to the surrounding people; since the grenade ‘destroyed the dummies immediately in front and behind of the refrigerator’??
June 28, 2007 at 12:36 AMI would have liked to comment more fully on this but I started ranting so I will cut it short..
Self hypnosis tapes, can be almost useless in most cases as they do not resolve the cause and only treat a symptom of it.
An example might be that a group stop smoking session takes place, a few people will stop smoking but the majority will continue. Assuming some people do stop, they will most likely focus their need of distraction to something else like food or alcohol. The cause for all this is still there.
Change of eye colour, is probably quite possible but it’s not something I have witnessed.
What people fail to take into consideration that in most causes medication, fail to cure. Alternatives have been known to work where medicine fails, so the question is what really works?
June 29, 2007 at 4:19 AMHey, guys, im a big fan of the show and i love the idea that a hero could save his buddies by placing said grenade into a bucket of water, brilliant, also, im was wondering how old u guys really r.
June 29, 2007 at 1:54 PMIt would be just fine with me if they did NOT check the eye color mix.
June 29, 2007 at 11:08 PMi would also like to post a comment about the myth of jumping on a grenade to save your buddies. it was stated above that this had already taken place during the Israel’s 2nd Lebanon War soldier. but even before that there are plenty accounts of WWII soldiers covering the explosives with their bodies. there was really a need for more research into history of the myth, or in this case a fact. unless you guys did it just to fill in the air time. thanks for a great show and keep up the good work.
Dea
July 7, 2007 at 8:07 PMWell refrigerator’s aren’t built to withstand a blast or high heat. But a gas oven should be able to withstand a gernade, minus the oven door because that would blow up. The other side of the test could be if it blows up outside of the fridge and see if it protects them to be inside of the fridge.
July 7, 2007 at 11:13 PMwhile entertaining, this show is completely full of it. As scientists, you should know that nothing can be DISPROVEN. It is a stretch to even say that anything can be proven… For example mythbusters supposedly busted the myth of how a cable snapping couldn’t possibly cut you in half or kill you. However, it has been all over the news in recent weeks as that a girl had both her legs at the upper ankle completely sliced off by a cable snapping. Just goes to show ya… you truly shouldn’t believe everything you hear, even if its from the “mythbusters”
July 14, 2007 at 2:35 PMThe thing about the grenade in the refrigerater is is that on the tv show they got the myth from the fridge was cold it was NOT during the tests they should try it again
July 17, 2007 at 3:04 PMabout the mentos and coke myth. 1st, you were using diet coke which may be missing a key to the explosion. also, i’ve heared the myth going some guy ate pop rocks and drunk coke behind it which caused his stomach to go BOOM! so tori grant and the other guy, please retest this myth. thanks. :-)
August 5, 2007 at 3:58 PMIf a person swallowed both Mentos and Diet Coke, his stomach would explode.
why did they put the soda into the stomic first. thats not what the guy from ther internet did, not the other wat around. the guy ate the Mentos first then drank the soda.
August 6, 2007 at 1:31 AMUmm, more than likely by the time you drink the Diet Coke after swallowing the mentos, the mentos would more than likely be dissolved in your stomach acid. So when the Diet coke reached your stomach it should also be diluted down (from the stomach acid) and most of the carbonation should have been, let’s say, “dissolved”.
August 13, 2007 at 3:45 AMThe Frig:
One thing, about the frig completely exploding; that I was wondering.
Who puts a frig in the middle of the kitchen and then walk around it to get anywhere?
Isn’t a frig usually in a corner, with a wall on two to three sides of it?
Thus, when it explodes, it would really only have one outlet? Also, it was a powered, full frig.. not that I would imagine that really matters much. ^_^ So I would find it interesting to see it as a real kitchen setting, with the fridge in a corner having two walls at least for support?
August 15, 2007 at 10:55 PMAs odd as it sounds there actually are explosive safe refrigerators out there that have a relief valve, as far as how well they contain shrapnel though I am not sure (we didn’t test ours in Iraq we wanted the cold water). Marine Corporal Jason Dunham recieved the Medal of Honor for falling ontop of a grenade to save his friends. He placed his helmet down first to contain the blast, however he still recieved shrapnel that was fatal. When it comes to the time you have to react to a grenade you do whatever you can the contain it get away from it or get it away from you quickest option first.
August 19, 2007 at 5:42 AMWell, if they put the fridge in the corner so the corner would absorb shrapnel, and the fridge causes more shrapnel then the grenade, then wouldn’t it be smarter to just throw the grenade in the corner?
August 20, 2007 at 6:53 AMWith regard to the grenade experiments, you should look towards the Barnes Wallis and the bouncing bombs.
His experiments indicated that the force of an explosion can be directed by the placing of fluid against the the explosives. In that case, against a hard surface of a damn.
In the case of placing a grenade in a bucket of water or placing a body over the top of a grenade the force would be directed down rather than the up and out. The reason the butcket works is the grenade sinks to the bottom and so sits with the fluid above it.
Neadless to say that some force is absorbed by the bucket and/or the body in the explosion and damaged accordingly.
August 21, 2007 at 6:21 AMRE: Hypnosis
For most non-organic afflictions, phobias and neuroses, hypnosis is quite effective. I believe that Grant’s last experience proves, rather than disproves this.
How long has Grant been aware that the spatial vertigo brought about by a pitching vessel makes him nauseous…..like most of his life??
Yet, after listening to a generic (i.e. not taylored to his particular semantic constructs and dominant representational “filters”, so to speak) hypnosis program for a relatively brief time, he effectively doubled his ability to maintain his lunch. This is what most people refer to as “results”.
If one couldn’t find their ass with both hands for their entire life, and a teachable skill came along which asisted that person to find it with one hand or the other most of the time, would you call that “failure”??
While single-trial change does indeed happen with hypnotic technique, it isn’t the rule. Or, as my mentor in hypnotic technique likes to say: “You get the life that you rehearse”.
Next time youse guys feel so inclined to revisit questions of hypnosis, please seek out the group called thehypnosisclub.com. They’re a Bay Area group of hypnotists who amongst the best the area has to offer.
August 22, 2007 at 11:32 PMthere is a new type of body armour called ‘dragon skin it was on the ‘future weapons ‘ programe ( i watch discovory alot it can absob a grenade although it is not in common service yet its design it by overlaping the armour to spread the impact
August 29, 2007 at 1:52 PMThe dummie made on this show was made out of ballistic…but it was not the normal powder but a new “chip” form. Does anyone know what that is or where to get it? thanks
September 12, 2007 at 2:50 PMhey in the mentos and pop thing to put the pop first but in the video the guy ate the mentos first you should retry the myth
September 12, 2007 at 7:34 PMWith regard to the grenade experiments, you should look towards the Barnes Wallis and the bouncing bombs.
His experiments indicated that the force of an explosion can be directed by the placing of fluid against the the explosives. In that case, against a hard surface of a damn.
In the case of placing a grenade in a bucket of water or placing a body over the top of a grenade the force would be directed down rather than the up and out. The reason the butcket works is the grenade sinks to the bottom and so sits with the fluid above it.
Neadless to say that some force is absorbed by the bucket and/or the body in the explosion and damaged accordingly
October 9, 2007 at 1:59 PMHypnosis: I can think of one case where hypnosis could change the color of one’s eyes…in a way.
I had a girlfriend who mentioned that my eyes changed colors depending on my mood.
I had to check this one out. Turns out, they don’t, but they APPEAR to.
You see, I have hazeled eyes; there’s sort of a tan interior band, a light blue middle band, and a dark blue outer band. Depending on my eyes’ dilation, my eyes can appear green (tan plus blue), light blue, dark blue (wide iris) or green again (my sclera is more yellow than most peoples’, so the blue of a wide, wide iris sort of looks greener due to the yellow).
Hypnosis can help people achieve “sleep-like” states (thus the root, hypnos, the god of sleep), which can change eye dilation.
This will give the VISUAL EFFECT of eye color change, without the actual PHYSICAL ALTERATION of the eye.
But only if you have bands of color in your cornea.
October 27, 2007 at 3:47 PMHey I’m pretty sure this is true but at high altitudes will a bag of chips pop?
November 14, 2007 at 3:22 PMIn the saga of the grenade in the bucket of water, the absorbing effect was very effective BUT let’s say we were talking about WW2 or a bit later? Metal buckets!!!! If a metal bucket got trashed in the same way as the plastic one, the bucket itself would have created some mean shrapnel??
November 20, 2007 at 2:51 AMHey! I don’t think you gave the self-hypnosis thing a good enough try!! You should re-visit this and listen to the cd’s for at least 4-8 weeks. Then see if the results are better!
December 3, 2007 at 4:06 AMThanks for covering the grenade myths, I had always thought that covering it with your body would save those around you (it seems plausible anyway). However, your “grenade test dummy” was made only from ballistics gel right? The first thing I thought might disprove the myth is the possibility that the victims bones might act as shrapnel (surely as nasty as fragments of metal?).
December 3, 2007 at 10:59 PMAny chance of a redux, with a skeleton inside the dummy?
Re Pulling grenade pin out with teeth.
I have never been in the army,but if you
don’t wish to put your rifle down the only way to get the grenade pin out is With your teeth.
I can well imagine that the only time a squaddie feels comfortable without a rifle in his hands is when he has them both round
December 4, 2007 at 5:50 AMthe scrawny neck of the politician who sent
him there.
HI
December 4, 2007 at 6:43 AMwow i always wanted to try mentos and diet coke!!
December 6, 2007 at 12:46 PMomg dude i am hungry
December 6, 2007 at 12:47 PMRemeber when you did the ninja and the speeding bullet what if you used a ninja to block the paintball insted of a bullet remember that the bullet was just a little faster then the paint ball so, if the ninja can block the paiant ball it might help some
December 27, 2007 at 11:50 AMReally nice post - thanx for sharing
January 1, 2008 at 2:25 AMDave–good call on the cable snapping theory. The incident with the girl getting her feet cut off by an amusement park ride happened right here in my home town. Perhaps this show should be revisited and retested. It would be interesting if the mythbuster crew could get their hands on the preliminary findings of that accident and explore the physics behind it. Incidently, that ride has been closed since the accident and is being dismantled.
January 3, 2008 at 7:54 AMi love ur show.
January 6, 2008 at 4:26 PMThe exploding stomach with DietCoke and Mentos- The body heat will just probrably melt the mentos.
January 10, 2008 at 9:54 AMI heard in FutureWeapons that the DragonSkin vest could really protect you even if you’re under a grenade.
January 10, 2008 at 9:56 AMWowa. That fridge. If my mother ever caught me doing that to her fridge.. I’d wish I got hit by the door or behind panel =D.
January 15, 2008 at 3:53 AMWorked at US ARMY weapons test center, Aberdeen Proving Ground for 25 years. Thus I saw many weapons tests including grenades. I was told that when a grenade explodes on the ground the shrapnel goes up and out forming a V shaped destructive cone zone. Just imagine a V wherein the shrapnel goes up and out forming a nondestructive zone in between the grenade and where the shrapnel comes down. If one were lying on the ground in that nondestructive zone, about 2 feet from the exploding grenade, They would hear a big blast but they might not get hit by any shrapnel. If you revisit a grenade test you might want to check this out.
BTW, there is no way to pull the pin on a grenade with ones teeth, John Wayne style. Your teeth will come out first.
February 3, 2008 at 9:34 PMhow big of a blast is 4 ounces of c4, the hand grenade has one ounce right?
March 9, 2008 at 4:51 PMHave you guys tried using a grenade, and slamming a bullet-resistant helmet on it? I mean the modern kevlar fiber ones. And know for sure that older pineapple greandes would probably wreck a helmet cause of the large fragments, but what about the smaller, lighter shrapnel from a baseball grenade?
March 12, 2008 at 11:39 PMAnd on a side not, in your spy-style infiltration video, where you used the night vision goggles to see the laser beams, did you use actualy Night Vision goggles, or intfrared goggles? They do different things
I love mythbusters!Its my favoret TV show wait is it even a show or is it the best thing on earth? Adam and Jamie I’m 9 and your so cool. can you email me back
April 21, 2008 at 4:11 PMA hero could save his buddies by … covering a grenade with his own body….
June 3, 2008 at 6:49 AMis not a real myth because many soldiers of ww2 have make this action ! is not holywood vision of an heroic act!
but have many other myth about hand granade!!!
About the fridge one… if you look carefully at the clip they provide… Monk (the guy who puts the granade in there) runs behind a support collum AND the door bounces off the dryer.
July 24, 2008 at 1:04 PMThis episode was rerun today at Discovery channel Netherlands. Although the grenade myth is mentioned as a movie myth, it sorrily has a real version taking place during the last stages of World War II in the Netherlands:
“Operation Market Garden, an attempt to free occupied Holland. Had the operation succeeded, the war might have ended months before it did. Airborne units of the 101st US Airborne Division landed in southern Holland on September 17, 1944, in what was then the largest airborne operation in history.
Private First Class Joe E. Mann, of the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, landed between the Dutch villages of Son and St. Oedenrode. Next day, fighting for possession of a German ammunition store, he was wounded twice. A day later, with both arms in slings, he was sheltering in a trench with six other wounded men, when a German hand grenade landed near him. Unable to use his arms because of the wound dressings, he shouted “Grenade!”, lay back to take the main force of the explosion with his body, and a few moments later was dead. Although a few of his comrades received shrapnel wounds, he had saved their lives. For his courageous deed, Joe Mann was posthumously awarded the highest American order, the Congressional Medal of Honor.”
In honour of Joe Mann there is also an open air theatre with his name, and memorial signs, in the midst of the woods between the villages of Son, St. Oedenrode and Best which are situated in the South of the Netherlands.
August 9, 2008 at 12:55 PMIf you research, many Medal of Honor recepients have been falling on a grenade to save their comrades. Each war has many and a soldier who did this for his comrades in Iraq was just award the MOH, posthumously.
August 20, 2008 at 8:08 PMOne the of the awards was for Milton Olive III, I would highly recommend everyone to research his story and the effect it had on his platoon and the people he saved when he made that ultimate decision and sacrifice.
August 20, 2008 at 8:12 PMhttp://www.mishalov.com/Olive.html
i do think u should revisit the exploding stomach mentos and diet coke as the video shows the mentos were swallowed first and there is clearly not enough time fo them to dissolve in the stomach
August 21, 2008 at 5:10 PMIf a person swallowed both Mentos and Diet Coke, his stomach would explode.
IM REALLY DISAPIONTED WITH THAT EPISODE! in that episode u put the cola first not the mentos!!! so id like 2 see it done PROPERLY! PLEZ AND THX
November 1, 2008 at 9:00 PMif a piece of straw can penetrate a 2″-4″ in tornado velocity winds then i think a cable snapping under 1000’s of lbs of pressure would cut like a knife under the right conditions(ask anybody injured in this manner if it can happen before you try to recreate it and say it is busted) i am sure there are a few oil rig workers missing fingers and hands( from whipping chains) who would tell you that you are full of it.
November 2, 2008 at 9:56 PM