Air Date: August 29, 2007
Superheroes can use grappling hooks to quickly scale walls.
busted
To begin, Adam used a plain grappling hook and rope while Jamie had a special cannon that could shoot the hook 100 feet in the air. While it took several tries for Adam to throw the grappling hook over a 20 foot wall and gain purchase, Jamie managed to accomplish this task in one shot. They then attempted to scale the wall, but found that scaling a wall with just a grappling hook and rope was too difficult and time consuming. Adam and Jamie then began working on different parts of the popular grappling hook gadgets. Adam would build the gun what would deliver the grappling hook into the wall, while Jamie would build the winch that would allow the superhero to actually scale the wall. Jamie tested his hand held winch, which managed to pull him up 27 feet in just 20 seconds. Adam then tested his gun, which took numerous tries to find purchase in the wall. When Adam attempted to swing from the line, it instantly failed. Even with such mixed results, the Mythbusters agreed that a hand-held grappling hook device was too implausible.
A superhero can punch a person so hard, he can leave a scar that matches the imprint on his ring. This myth was based on the comic book superhero "The Phantom."
busted
First, the Build Team measured the force of their punches, and compared them to the punching strength of professional fighters. Grant then constructed a punching robot that could replicate these forces. Meanwhile, Tory constructed a ballistics gel fist while Kari designed the rings out of sterling silver. For the target, the Build Team obtained a human skull and stretched pig skin over it to simulate human skin. Punching the head with Tory’s level of strength caused some damage, but did not produce a ring-imprinted scar. The professional fighter’s level of strength produced similar results. The Build Team then used superhero level strength which crushed the skull. The Build Team concluded that a punch powerful enough to leave an imprint of their ring would most likely crush the victim’s skull, killing him.
A superhero can change into their costume while inside a phone booth.
confirmed
The Build Team took turns changing from street clothes into their superhero costumes while inside a phone booth. Kari was the fastest, changing in just 33 seconds while Tory was the slowest, taking over a minute to change.
A car can fire a grappling hook and use it to make sharp turns at high speeds.
busted
The Build Team converted the vehicle used in the earlier Knight Rider myth into a mock Batmobile dubbed the “Mythmobile”. They then built a nitrogen powered cannon portable enough to fit in the car and powerful enough to launch the steel grappling hook. They then tested how fast a car would need to go to make a manual turn impossible, which was about 30 miles per hour. While they were able to hook the grappling hook around the target, the cable always snapped when the car attempted to make the turn. They concluded that, while the other aspects of the myth are plausible, no rope or cable currently exists that is strong enough to withstand the force.
Newer: Episode 87: "Myth Evolution"
The superhero change in a phone booth was just plain dumb!
August 31, 2007 at 7:58 PMThe grappling hook is plausible. I am an avid off roader. We use military style tow straps that are far stronger than the steel cable you used to try and swing the car around. The steel cable, commonly found on winches, is a 12,000 pound test line and is frequently broken off road. Typical full size truck (say chevy k5 blazer) ways around 5,000 pounds when built, and when stuck can be suctioned far greater than that. A flexible 45 foot 4 ply strap tests to 45,000 pounds, while I believe 6 ply is about 60,000. It is much lighter than the steel cable, and much stronger. It also doesn’t store energy like steel so it won’t whip back. I have a source for these if you would like to test it. The also make synthetic winch rope with 26,500 (maybe more) pull strengths, weighing about a a 6th of that of equivalent steel cable and still no stored energy. Could easily be combined. The military tow strap weighs a little more than the synthetic rope, but can take 2 full size trucks backing up, flooring it, and yanking on a stuck car, when chains and cables would break. The tow straps are also still synthetic, and are much lighter, and more flexible.
Please test the synthetic cable and the tow strap. They are more flexible, lighter, and stronger. Cables do exist to do what you are looking for, you just didn’t think to look in the right place :)
Taylor
September 6, 2007 at 12:45 AMEE
University of Oklahoma
Also the above post should say might be plausible… A camaro/trans am/firebird weighs around 3k pounds, and is going 30 miles an hour, how much force is being exerted? How much force would the rope need to handle? Seems physics could help here and determine the proper rope. I am still a student, so I will let you all decide.
September 6, 2007 at 12:54 AMA rope ascension machine is plausible and already exists. Here is an article about it
http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/18204/?a=f
and this is a video of said machine
http://www.technologyreview.com/player/07/02/Atlas/1.aspx
True, it is larger than the contraptions we see on TV, but that doesn’t outweigh its innovation.
–Carr
September 6, 2007 at 6:55 AMPuget Sound Rope (www.psrope.com) makes a synthetic rope they call Plasma® 12 Strand rope. It comes in sizes from 0.04 inches (270 lb tensile strength) to 4.0 inches (1,520,000 lb tensile strength). Their 1.0 inch diameter rope has a tensile strength of 110,000 lbs while weighing only 0.23 lbs per foot. This is the type of thing a superhero would use.
September 6, 2007 at 2:23 PMis changing in a phone booth a myth NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO what a waste of valuable time mythbusters that was stupid
September 6, 2007 at 3:42 PMHey! If the quick change was so dumb then they should leave it out of movies. Spiderman likes it, i.e. in Spiderman 2 when he took his spidy outfit off in a janitors closet packed full of mops and stuff. I think a few people still liked that movie.
September 12, 2007 at 8:37 PMHey guys, just found your show and wish i found it earlier. the episode i saw was the one where you try to smash a car with two semi trucks. I was thinking, why not attatch both cables to the back of one truck and have the two trucks pulling front to back. that way the two trucks would not be fighting for position and the cables would be pulled at the same speed and at the same time . think about it guys, i think that might work out the best and man to see that work would be awsome. take care guys. you rock.
September 24, 2007 at 1:49 PMScaling vertical surfaces with grappling hooks.
Busted? Oh dear. I’m sure glad they didn’t tell that to the US Army Rangers on June 6 1944 D-Day when they scaled the cliffs of Utah and Omaha beaches. Using grappling hooks.
September 25, 2007 at 6:30 PMthe ring impression on the fasc is very plausable,ur ring didnt even hit the skin it was above it. how do i know? check police photos when we take pictures of domestic violence , u will see thanks
October 4, 2007 at 11:16 AMYou placed a grapple hook in a car and shot it out te side to catch and make the car turn a corner at 30 mph. I was surprised that the grapple held. If the hook had been placed around the front tire, the car will turn. placing properly, will make a gentle turn. By placing the grapple behind the rear tire, it only held the car straight and will not turn.
October 8, 2007 at 3:09 PMThey did not perform the Ring/face test properly. I have had the misfortune of being punched in the face by a guy who had a 1/2″ socket in his hand. I know it was a 1/2″ socket by measuring the bolt shaped gash in my face when I got home. My point is that you’d need to design the ring similarly to the face of a socket- narrow edges so it will slice in on impact. You’d ned a custom made ring specifically for the purpose.
October 31, 2007 at 10:24 PMWith the Mythmobile turning the corner. i noticed that the cable was attached to the back half of the vehicle, this would pull the back half of the car around the corner while leaving the front half to spin to the out side or toward your boxes. in order to over the come the outward pull the cable will have to be in the middle of the vehicle with about equal weight in front and behind the car. this will also decrease the need for a heavier cable.
November 4, 2007 at 11:10 PMI agree with brent here, the cable mechanism was definitely placed way off balance on the car to make any credible conclusion…Mythbusters your credibility is teetering on the virge of getting busted…
November 5, 2007 at 6:17 AMI have to agree with David about the Ring/Face test. When I was a kid I got hit in the head with a baseball, and had a visible scar of the baseball’s stitching on my forehead for years. If a baseball’s stitching can leave an imprint scar on someone’s forehead, then so can a ring.
November 10, 2007 at 7:32 AMI know a guy who actually used a grappling hook to scale a wall many years ago. He tied knots in the rope spaced a few feet apart so it was very easy to grip. I’m not saying it was a smooth accent, but it did work.
December 4, 2007 at 9:09 AMwith the ring leaving an impression the ring they made the skull was not raised it was below the surface of the metal seems kinda obvious if u have the skull extrudin out that it will leave mark then won’t it
December 10, 2007 at 5:55 AMI WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THESE SOUNDS ARE REAL, OR DOES EXTREAM HEAT CAN MAKE SCREAM LIKE SOUNDS
December 14, 2007 at 12:08 PMI WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THESE SOUNDS ARE REAL, OR CAN EXTREAM HEAT MAKE SCREAM LIKE SOUNDS
December 14, 2007 at 12:09 PMThe ring impression on the face from the superhero episode is plausible. While I didn’t take a photo of the injury to my forehead, the following description is so ludricrous that no one could in their sane mind could make it up!
December 15, 2007 at 11:10 PMTo avoid being struck by an object thrown at me while at work, I headbutted the control panel of a machine. The point of contact was a hex head screw, allen screw, cap screw whatever you want to call it, to the left side of my forehead. It left a perfect round imprint, even leaving a piece of flesh ‘floating’ in the centre where the hex key would be inserted into the screw. I had to have the centre removed and three stitches. Not a huge injury by any standards but it did leave a perfect imprint much to the other guys enjoyment. PLAUSIBLE!
OH JOY I LOVED THE PHOTO BOOTH ONE
December 17, 2007 at 7:07 PMI THINK IT WAS A WASTE OF TIME!!!!!!
December 17, 2007 at 7:07 PMI AGREE WITH SAM
December 17, 2007 at 7:08 PM:^
]
I seem to recall a murder/rape/assault or something, where an impression of the defendant’s class ring was found on the victim and helped convict him. Or was it an episode of Quincy?
December 27, 2007 at 12:29 AMI do agree that the ring imprint scenario is not done properly. I think they missed the fact that the cause of ring imprints is due to bruising, i.e. the blood of the person who was punched had accumulated on the impact site (which can pool in shape of the object that caused it). I can’t think of anyway to replicate that same effect, unless they actually punch a live subject… a definite no-no in this show. Therefore, I vote to move this to a PLAUSIBLE result.
December 27, 2007 at 6:53 AMA person i knew at youth club once heated a ring on a gas heater and after punching me (rather lightly) left a mark that stayed for around 24 hours. What fun it is to be a child.
Also i would buy jamies winch if it were on the market! I want to be a superhero!
January 1, 2008 at 10:06 PMthis is the best show ever i have seen every episode since season. everyone on the cast and crew are the best. adam jamie grant tory kari are the greatest
January 8, 2008 at 9:34 AMLoved the getting changed in the phone booth one. I notice omitted the additional hinderances of a phone and a shelf in there, as well as the phone ringing part way thru the changing process. Maybe you could have tries a few the gadgets of the late Don Adams as Maxwell Smart - Agent 86, like shooting someone across a small room, the person dies, but there’s no blood. You could try out the elevator in the phone booth trick.
January 19, 2008 at 6:33 AMHmm, I think the myth with the ring leaqving an impression is not based around just the impact of the ring, but some reagent on the ring as well. A form of mild acid would probably leave a lasting impression similar to a burn scar, as would a ring where the ring breaks the skin and is coated with some form of irritant. (Similar to the stuff used in scarification-body mods.)
January 30, 2008 at 10:40 PMI’m particularly impressed by the fact that the one who likes to promote his intellectual credentials, Taylor, is too stupid to realise that this webpage isn’t anything to do with Jamie, Adam, or mythbusters itself, it’s just a (quite superb) fan site. And the “doesn’t store energy” that he repeats is just plain false. It either stores energy, or through some relativistic anomoly gains mass, as you are putting energy into it. In simple terms, U = (k.e^2)/2. Stop trying to appear smart when you don’t even have a knowledge of physics even to high school level. Read up on Young’s modulus and Hooke’s law.
February 3, 2008 at 5:17 AMI would beg to differ with the grapple hook one. It is infact a prooven fact that a: they can shoot a grapple hook using a m16. And B: in many videos they show real people climbing with grapple hooks
February 19, 2008 at 8:03 PMNot 100% sure about the ring experiment as it was carried out on dead flesh. With not blood flow in the subjects body there would be no bruising or swelling so the way it was carried out would not work sadly there is now way to test this as it would really hurt or possibly kill any live subject.
March 2, 2008 at 3:16 PMThe Ring of The Phantom; The ring doesn’t leave a scar on the face of the phantom’s victims. The contours of the scull is “painted” with juice from the berries of the “banga bush”, which leaves an imprint sort of like a tattoo on the skin. Not a scar.
March 3, 2008 at 3:07 AMWhen I saw the superhero episode, I was obsessed with batman’s gadgets. I thought of my own grappling hook which is a mixture between Jamie and Adam’s ones. I like myth busters, I think they’re great.
April 19, 2008 at 2:08 PMThey should of used two of the thick rope not just one. Confirmed you can climb a wall with a grappling hook because i can and I’m 12 not an old man.
April 20, 2008 at 7:04 AMyou cant say that ring is busted,in comics or wherewer they dont hit dead pig-it have to be live subject with blood so that skin can bruse
April 28, 2008 at 1:47 PMEr. I think the point of the whole grappling hook thing was not to prove that you CANT scale a wall with a grappling hook but rather it is IMPRACTICAL for a superhero to scale a wall with a grappling hook due to time and effort.
June 15, 2008 at 6:33 AM