Air Date: August 22, 2007
The color red can infuriate a bull and make them charge.
busted
To test this myth without putting themselves in danger, the Build Team constructed three fake matadors that would carry differently colored flags. First, they placed stationary flags of different colors near a bull. The bull charged the red, white, and blue flags with equal ferocity, even when all three flags were out at once. Using a remote controlled clothes line, the Build Team managed to prove that the bulls were angered by movement rather than color. They then placed the matador dummies in the ring, each one dressed in a different color. The bull charged the white dummy first, the blue dummy second, and the red dummy last. Finally, Tory went into the ring dressed in a red jumpsuit and had to stay still while two professional cowboys moved around the the ring to try and draw the bull’s attention. The bull chased the cowboys for a short time, but ignored Tory, which proved the theory that bulls concentrated on movement more than color. Also, there is no scientific proof that bulls are angered by the color red.
A bull can completely destroy shelves full of china.
busted
The Build Team placed shelves full of china inside a bull pen and released bulls inside it. Surprisingly, the bulls actively avoided the shelves, even when there were multiple bulls inside the pen at the same time. A single shelf was knocked over by accident by the first bull released in the pen, and a few dishes were knocked to the ground when as many as four bulls were running around, but overall the bulls proved surprisingly nimble.
An oven door can stop bullets.
busted
The oven door failed to stop .38 caliber rounds, .357 magnum rounds, and shotgun shells. The only exception was that the .22 caliber pistol rounds were unable to pierce the steel part of the oven door.
Bullets can explode with lethal force if they are stored inside a hot oven.
busted
The Mythbusters placed a .22 caliber, .44 caliber, and .50 caliber bullet inside an oven. All of the bullets exploded once the oven was hot enough, but none of them were able to penetrate the oven. Without a gun barrel to contain and direct the propellant gases, the bullets did not develop enough speed to pierce the glass or steel portions of the oven. The shell casings actually caused more damage than the bullets.
A gun can fire a bullet with lethal force if stored inside a hot oven.
confirmed
The Mythbusters placed a loaded .38 caliber revolver inside a hot oven pointing towards the oven door. Once the temperature was high enough, the gun automatically discharged and sent the bullet out of the oven, which could potentially kill anybody who happened to be standing in front of the oven.
Bullets thrown into an open fire can explode with lethal force.
busted
The Mythbusters dropped a box of bullets with varying calibers directly into an open fire. While many of the bullets immediately discharged,, it appeared that none of the bullets could be lethal. Like the oven test, most of the damage was being dealt by the shell casings, which could not travel fast enough to be lethal.
Aerosol cans placed in an open fire can explode with lethal force.
busted
While the aerosol cans exploded rather violently, the worst damage they could do was cause some minor burns.
A beer keg can explode with lethal force if placed in an open fire.
plausible
While the beer keg exploded violently, there was no shrapnel from the explosion. However, the Mythbusters pointed out that any shrapnel thrown from such a powerful blast could kill a person.
[...] efficient. As for the “bull in a china shop” comment, obviously Al doesn’t watch Myth Busters. That the world’s population had quadrupled in the past 100 years partly explained this. [...]
September 20, 2007 at 12:38 PM
I think you’re show is really good and educational. I have a myth that I’d like to bust. I went to Paris a few years ago and I heard that if you drop a coin from the top of the eiffel tower it could kill a person at the ground. Fact or fiction?
August 27, 2007 at 6:46 PMI think the guys did that already - http://mythbustersresults.com/episode4
Myth..BUSTED
August 28, 2007 at 1:34 AMRE Bull in a china shop:
My workmate Max suggested that the bulls might be much more agitated if they couldn’t see outside i.e. if they were actually in a building.
Maybe a tent over the bull pen or some such would simulate this.
August 28, 2007 at 2:00 AMI’ve been transplanted to “the south”, and if I follow the logic of “southern” gun owners, it would make more sense to put a loaded gun in the refrigerator NEXT TO THE BEER….
August 28, 2007 at 3:29 PMHi, I would like the results of the switiching on/off lights episode - usage of electricity. My family needs to seeit to believe it
August 29, 2007 at 12:33 PMit is not any color that bulls get attracted to but actually movement so none of the matador’s stupid outfit helps he just enjoys dressing up ! :)
August 29, 2007 at 1:55 PMDoes driving w/the air conditioner on cause you to burn more gasoline?
August 30, 2007 at 5:31 PMWhy are people asking about past episodes here? Look it up! Its on this site! Jeff, the results said that unless you were leaving the room for less than a second, or maybe had a couple hundred fluorescent fixtures it saves a lot more money to turn them off. Karen, windows down is better at around 30 miles an hour(city) while at 60(highway/freeway) air conditioning is better.
August 31, 2007 at 11:45 PMI am an ER physician. I once treated a patient who was burning brush and some garbage in his backyard. At about the time a car drove by he heard what sounded like a gunshot. He felt pain in his mid-chest and had blood on his shirt front. He thought it was a drive-by shooting. But, to make a long story short…The firing cap from an unused empty shotgun shell in the garbage had ignited, gone ballistic,penetrated his shirt & skin and lodged against his sternum. Not lethal, but not safe, either. What if he been hit in the eye (as my Mom would have said)?
September 6, 2007 at 12:23 AMThis myth still buggs me, like all battles until the captain says charge all of the boats would have been in a fixed position, nobody would sail into unexamined shores unless the battle is well under way. Also a catalyst simply has to be considered in the ignition of these boats, ground magnesium,gunpowder whatever was available at the time or a magnifying glass of forms strateglically placed in front of the boat to help in quick ignition from the reflection from the death ray placed there by some form of special troops or whatever the term at the time. I find it hard to believe that such a ray would be constructed for nothing. These people are not stupid, and I cannot swallow the possibility of a one dementional trap, because unless you are snaring a rabbit they suck.
September 7, 2007 at 7:37 AMIf bulls only go for movement and not color why did a bull at the MN state fair that got loose stop chasing the people around it that were running and instead go for a red non-moving fire hydrant?
September 12, 2007 at 10:33 PMI’ve never actually seen the show, but there is some very interesting content on this page.I think bulls see in monochrome & have never known colour to have the slightest effect on cattle. Regarding the bullets detonated by heat I can remember, all-be-it vaguely, a case in the UK some years ago, of a child being hit in the head & killed by a .22 bullet that had been in some logs put on a coal fire. My pet theory or rather question concerns the manner by which a stooping peregrine falcon recorded at speeds of over 180 mph, surpassing terminal velocity, strikes it’s prey? Ie whether it connects using the hind toe or the whole foot?
September 15, 2007 at 6:30 AMi love this episode…its so cool
September 18, 2007 at 2:17 PMCutting a sword blade with a sword blade. The reason this was buster is to cut a blade with a blade you hit the cutting edge against cutting edge and not against the flat side of a blade.
David
September 20, 2007 at 2:36 PMWakefield
England
If someone picks their nose while in traffic, gets hit from behind, careers into the car in front and the airbag goes off. Can their finger be forced into their brain? Is it not only disgusting but dangerous?
September 25, 2007 at 3:50 AMSome friends threw about 1/2 doz 30.06 shells into a raging fire, we all scrambled behind trees. They went off like a small firecracker, nothing more.
September 25, 2007 at 9:58 PMI heard that if you throw canned food into a bonfire they explode.
September 26, 2007 at 12:30 AMwhen you jumped the car and it landed nose down,it was because the weight was uneven.If you were to put the same amount of weight as the engine in the trunk or even more weight the car would land more level.you’ll see
September 29, 2007 at 11:58 AMIs the myth about american appliances true? Do they really not work in Germany?This has really puzzled me!
September 29, 2007 at 8:36 PMThis myth about american appliances not working in Germany.Can anyone help me with this one.It has been bugging me like crazy!
September 29, 2007 at 8:39 PMRegarding the exploding beer keg, a fatal accident resulting from a beer keg exploding (BLEVE) did occur in/about 1996-1997, in Lake Ronkonkoma County Park, LI NY. The fatality resulted from fragmentation, and caused quite severe trauma to the victim (a teenage male).
September 29, 2007 at 9:18 PMdoes anyone know what glasses Jamie Hyneman is wearing in the open fire segments of this episode?
October 7, 2007 at 9:15 AMsomeone named Ethan already asked because Jamie wears them in the snow special too. they are a nice looking pair of glacial-style glasses, with side shields.
thanks for any help.
I think they should have gotten the Chicago Bulls to play basketball in the china shop.
October 8, 2007 at 3:37 PMhttp://www.azcentral.com/community/chandler/articles/1008cr-burned1009.html
I think the guys explored this. I cannot remember the outcome.
October 8, 2007 at 10:17 PMO.K. I forgot what temp. those guns in the oven fired at… I wonder if a vehicle left in the hot sun would get hot enough to fire off a shotgun or a handgun. I know I cary a shotgun in my police cruiser… i wonder if its possible to misfire?
October 10, 2007 at 2:51 PMI herd that its impossible to spin both of your arms in opposite directions. Is it?
October 18, 2007 at 8:45 AMI think you’re show is really good and educational. I have a myth that I’d like to bust. I went to Paris a few years ago and I heard that if you drop a coin from the top of the eiffel tower it could kill a person at the ground. Fact or fiction?
October 20, 2007 at 7:12 PMI’ve heard that there was a plumber one time that couldn’t get a clog out of a elbow joint from a sink.So her removed it and place the elbow in a vice,stepped back 10 feet and fired a gun into the bottom end of the joint.The bullet entered one end came out the other,striking said plumber in the head killing him.Could this be true.
October 21, 2007 at 7:55 PMi wish there were more new episodes cuz i love this show!
October 23, 2007 at 8:17 PMI read you were coming to do a show in my state of Washington. I think it is at Hanford. When will you be coming here to do this show? Would it be possible to watch this or meet you guys or something?
October 25, 2007 at 1:25 PMI heard the that if you drink alcohol beverage from a straw you get drunk faster.
Note: It depends on the person and what alcohol drink. (I believe)???
October 26, 2007 at 12:16 PMRegarding bullets stores in an oven that later gets turned and the bullets are not lethal, you never really tested the myth. You only placed a single bullet in an oven. That is not “Bullets”. Safety would be a concern, but anyone who stores bullets stores them all together.
My thoughts are that once the first few went off, causing many of the others to be scatterred throughout the interior of the oven floor, the hot surface would cause many to explode at once. This along may be enough to blow the door ajar allowing shrapnel to escape. Now a child struck in the throat, eye, open month could receive a lethal wound. To point, only a big dork would consider storing ammo in oven. Maybe Adam. (Jamie told me to say that!)
October 26, 2007 at 10:11 PMhey ilove this show
October 28, 2007 at 10:20 PMDoes leaving a car/vehicle battery on a cement floor drain/kill the battery? Heard rumor of it but I cannot figure out why, if this is the case. Any help?
October 31, 2007 at 6:13 PMPUT BLOWN TRUCK TIRE THROUGH THE WINDSHEILD INSTEAD OF SIDE GLASS. LIKE YOU WERE DRIVING BEHIND THE TRACTOR TRAILER
November 1, 2007 at 1:21 PMI am sitting here at present with schapnel in my wrist from a shell that exploded outside a firering this weekend. It hit my wrist and traveled up my arm. If you think it can’t happen, I have the x-rays and medical reports to show differently. I am not sure at this point if it is part of the casing or bullet and can’t tell from the x-rays, only that it has an irregular shape. I am sure in another part of the body it would have caused more substantial damage.
November 5, 2007 at 11:50 AMlighters do explode in the dryer because i had one do it to me i was drying my closes and i heard a pop and when i went to take my close out the ligher was in pieces
November 14, 2007 at 11:44 PMOur household loves your show we all look forward to monday night!!!!
November 17, 2007 at 2:39 AMi hav heard the myth that if you are intoxicated that if u drink a bottle of soya sauce that it cant be detected by a breatherliser test
November 22, 2007 at 1:06 AMmore bullets need to be put in the oven to prove the myth busted u guys were only puting in one a a time!!!!
December 7, 2007 at 11:49 AMI don’t know about lethal force but I HAD a friend who got her finger blown off when she put a 22 bullet in a fire barrel and then reached in to retrieve it when it didn’t explode fast enough!!!
December 14, 2007 at 11:31 PMSo I guess we should stop using the phrase “Bull in a China shop.”
January 10, 2008 at 10:00 AMAbout American appliances not working in Germany. It is not a myth, it is a fact. Appliances in the US use 120V, while in Germany they use 220V. They would simply burn out.
February 1, 2008 at 5:46 AMUnfortunately, the bull-in-a-china-shop myth was not really tested, since the test done was not in a shop but in a yard that the bull was more familiar with.
Try putting a bull in an actual shop (way out of its usual environment) where the space is surrounded by 4 walls, the shelves are closer together and the bull enters a state of panic whilst trying to find a way of escape from the shop. A different result to that found on the show would result.
February 2, 2008 at 5:49 AMOn the mythbusters show, the beasts were the ones not wanting to willfully and wantonly smash stuff just for the hell of it and in this regard they seemed to display more intelligence than the people!!!.
Bullets in a fire.
March 28, 2008 at 4:10 AMI lived in Brittany, France where many UK people bought old barns and farm houses to convert into summer homes, some friends of mine had bought an old barn and they were cleaning out the straw and other unwanted material from the floor, they built a fire and threw the straw etc. onto the fire, there were some explosions and a bullet came out of the fire and passed through my friends neck, he was extreamly fortunate that it hit nothing vital, the bullets were probably left over from French resistance fighters during WW2, so I am sorry Jamie and Adam but you might have to try again. MYTH NOT BUSTED
Good day Myth Buster team great show
On the bullet myth episode 85, when storing bullets you actually want to hide it from a possible thief, you will not store bullets in front of an oven door window, you will store it out of sight, in its case against the walls of the oven or at the BACK out of sight.
That will provide the possibility to redirect the energy in one direction. Thus double the power of the bullet to go through the door.
Thanks from SA
March 31, 2008 at 2:13 AM