How many myths busted

Kari Byron made a rope out of human hair and then climbed down the face of a building. This is Mythbusters in one of its finest moments. Another doubled up myth. The premise of the experiment is that a boat going 25 miles per hour can be split down the middle by hitting a channel market.

The first time they got a boat, but only did the test on land with their boat the Mythity Split. So, the second time around, they tested it on water, a more daunting task, but once again it was busted. Then, naturally, they went to that awesome rocket sled place and completely split the boat in half. Also, while neither Mythity Split was one of their better, more elaborate works, the art and design done by the trio, particularly Kari, needs to be noted.

An experiment that was both funny and practical, Tory and Grant tested various cures for the heat that comes along with eating certain foods. Basically, Tory and Grant ate spicy food, and then used stuff like toothpaste and petroleum jelly to try and alleviate the pain. Spoiler alert for those looking for an answer: milk is the only one that worked.

Tory hid himself under a barrel with wheels, which was amusing, albeit unsuccessful. Kari went America Gladiators on us with a giant hamster ball that almost worked. Then, of course, Grant built a robot. Specifically, it was a freaky-looking, but ultimately awesome robotic cat. This one seems so simple, and so small, but it was one of the best things to come out of the show. The trio tested the myth of whether or not you can fold a piece of paper more than seven times.

The guys took a gigantic piece of paper, and with a huge crew and a steamroller and a forklift folded it 11 times.

You might not believe that seeing a piece of paper getting folded eight times makes for great television. Some of us would beg to differ. This was the final big, spectacle of awesome that The Build Team performed on the show. In this episode we bore witness to two people standing on airplane wings attached to a moving truck hitting a tennis ball back and forth.

Tory and a pro tennis player were on a truck going 35 miles per hour, were able to complete over five hits standing 32 feet apart. Being on an actual plane is the only thing that would have made this more impressive—but the myth as is was good enough.

The team got to tackle three skydiving myths from the seminal surfing bank robber movie Point Break , which meant that Grant also got to play Keanu Reeves in some cheap dramatizations of the film. Basically, it involved a bunch of people jumping out of a plane.

But it was very entertaining, even if it robbed Point Break of some of the verisimilitude on which it thrives. The Build Team went back to the snowplow to see if a certain kind of plow could split a car in half. This one was more successful than their first snowplow test, and we got to see cars get almost split in half, though none ever went all the way.

Nearby, several cameras follow a teenager. The teen is explaining how a domino could crush a car. A drone carrying a camera buzzes in the sky. It's the newest version of the hit television show MythBusters.

The show tested myths, rumors, and internet beliefs from to Adam Savage, one of the original hosts, is back—this time with six junior scientists, all between 12 and 15 years old. In each episode, the kids split into two teams. Each team tackles a different myth. They figure out how to test the myth, build the machines to test it, collect data, and run the numbers on the results.

Then they prepare for the big reveal in the finale. The day I visited, the MythBusters wanted to see if dominos could knock over increasingly larger dominoes, with the last domino being large enough to crush a car. The lineup went from a regular-sized domino that the cast named Dominic to Domino No.

Adam Savage, one of the original hosts, is back. This time six junior scientists are joining him. They're all 12 to 15 years old. The team works together to test myths. Then they label each myth as "busted," "confirmed," or "plausible. The kids split into two teams in each episode.

Each team takes on a different myth. First they figure out how to test the myth. They build any machines they need to test it. Then they collect data and analyze the numbers. In the show's finale, they reveal the results.

The day I visited, the MythBusters were experimenting with giant dominoes. They wanted to see if dominoes could knock over increasingly larger dominoes. The last domino would be large enough to crush a car. The lineup started with a regular-sized domino that the cast nicknamed Dominic. The last one, Domino No. This season, they also want to test whether lithium batteries crushed by a garbage truck will set the truck on fire.

They design and conduct the experiments, and do most of the data analysis. They can solve worldwide problems! The team will test many myths this season. And the dominoes aren't the only test that could end in destruction. The MythBusters also want to see what happens when a garbage truck crushes lithium batteries.

If one rumor is correct, it could set the truck on fire. Savage doesn't think that MythBusters Jr. They design and conduct the experiments themselves. That makes four states.

Plasma isn't some gel or goo, it's more like superheated ions and electrons. Lightning, fire, the sun, and the tail of comets are all plasmas. Most any element or chemical compound can become plasma if heated high enough, but since plasma is just ions and electrons, the molecules have broken down.

Water, for example, can be reduced to plasma, but it's no longer H2O; it's not even hydrogen or oxygen. And You definitely wouldn't want to drink it. Toilet flushes spin a different direction in the Southern Hemisphere Both directions can be found in both hemispheres.

There is some science behind this myth, but it doesn't really apply to toilet flushes. Typically, this myth calls upon the Coriolis Effect , where flow patterns are effected by the earth's rotation.

That helps explains things like the Gulf Stream, or hurricanes, but toilet flushes and even tornados are too small to be influenced directly by the Coriolis Effect. Instead, the direction of spiral is a product of other features such as the design of the toilet, the plumbing, and water pressure. Glass is a high viscosity liquid Obviously glass isn't like water or even like molasses, but could it be characterized as having super high viscosity such that it is an ultra-slow flowing liquid?

Well, no. This myth arises from the fact that window glass in older buildings is typically thicker at the base. In reality, glass is categorized as a solid , but in "olden days" it was difficult to get a perfectly even pane of glass using old fashioned methods.

When a craftsman made a reasonably flat piece of glass, he would then cut the glass to size, and if one side was thicker than the other, he'd put that side at the bottom for stability. Not everything sags with age. Lightning never strikes the same place twice This myth is not only wrong, it's dangerously wrong. Lightning often strikes the same place twice, at least within a close vicinity. If you find yourself standing around outdoors during a lightning storm, there is no outdoorsman or forecaster who'd recommend you go stand where lightning has already struck as if you are somehow protected at that spot.

Instead, you need to find shelter, stay away from windows and avoid touching anything metal or electrical. And it's always a good idea to suspend your golf game or kite-flying till the storm passes. Astrology According to 60s soul-pop group The 5th Dimension, "This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius," or at least it was back in Apparently, the current pattern and position of stars many light years away from here is supposed to inform us about the geo-political outlook of human civilization.

Astrology is also supposed to tell us things regarding our birthdays. The Chinese Zodiac offers 12 different avatars. And somehow each of these signs, describing a pattern of stars in the sky currently or at the time of our birth, is also supposed to tell us about ourselves, our fortune, and our fate. How so? Well, that's the problem. Modern science took a different turn when it came to studying stars.

Astronomy got picked for the team, and Astrology was left standing in the cold, estranged from science. Modern science distinguished theories by their predictive power, testability, and essentially, the "scientific method. Its theories are too esoteric, supernatural, vague, unfalsifiable, or generally unreliable. However, even though astrology hasn't passed muster as real science, it survives today largely in the form of amusing horoscopes and dodgy singles-bars Hey babe, what's your sign?

Bananas grow on Trees Bananas grow on something the size of trees, but the Banana "tree" is not actually a tree. The banana plant, which can grow up to 25 feet, is actually the world's largest perennial herb. When you carefully inspect a banana plant, you'll notice that it doesn't have woody fibers. It has strong stalks and leaves, yet it lacks the trunk and branches that would qualify it as a tree.

Another related fact is that bananas are berries, since they don't produce mature seeds. The Blue whale might be the largest ocean creature. The Redwood Forest may include the tallest trees.

The Titanosaur may have been the largest dinosaur in its day. And a collection of aspen trees found in Utah called Pando might be the oldest in the world. But the largest living organism on planet earth is the humongous honey fungus in the Oregon Blue Mountains.

This single organism has thousands of mushroom fruiting bodies roughly 2. The bad news is that it's spreading. But, on the bright side, its mushrooms are edible. Bon appetit! The mustard seed is the smallest seed Many seeds are smaller than the mustard seed including duckweed, watermeal, and poppy seeds. The smallest seed on record is the orchid seed.

But even though the mustard seed isn't the smallest, it's still pretty small, especially when compared to other seeds sown by ancient and modern gardeners. This myth has biblical origins. In the biblical account, Jesus is reported as saying that faith is like the mustard seed, which is "the smallest seed on earth" yet it grows to be the largest garden plant giving shelter to birds of the air Mark The error may be in the mind of the reader, interpreting literally what was a generalization or hyperbole exaggerated phrasing common in informal language.

Moreover, the mustard seed was quite possibly the smallest seed that that audience would have known, and it could have produced the largest garden plant they would have had in their gardens in ancient Israel.

The next time someone talks about their "5 senses," you can say that you have "9 senses" and then sit back and let them think you have superpowers. This one is not so much a myth as an outright hoax. Charles Dawson came across an astonishing fossil, a skull and jaw bone with mixed human-ape features. The problem? Moreover, the skull and jaw had marks of artificial staining and a workman's file.

Apparently, Dawson, his students, or his colleagues had combined fragments of jaw and skull from two different species, human and ape, artificially stained the pieces to give the appearance of age, and filed down the teeth and jaw to make them fit with the skull fragments. While this myth is now a well-known hoax, it was touted as a legitimate discovery until the 's—40 years later!