"Please don't try anything that you're about to see us do at home." "Ever!" "NARRATOR:" "On this episode of "Mythbusters,"" "it's all about you, the viewers." "TORY:" "This ought to clean out the pipes." "[Cheering]" "NARRATOR:" "We take four fan-fueled fables and apply the blowtorch of science." "TORY:" "Run!" "It's gonna explode!" "NARRATOR:" "First, can the fastest-growing plant on the planet penetrate a person?" "[French accent] Jamie is imagining himself to be a plant." "NARRATOR:" "And will brandy bring you back from the brink of hypothermia?" "I'm going into a delirium." "[Babbles]" "NARRATOR:" "Then, if you mix alkali metals and water, will it blow up your bathtub?" "[Laughter]" "And finally, will burning a baby grand" " really cause it to explode?" " TORY:" "Go, go, go, go!" "NARRATOR:" "So, sit back, drink up, and count backwards... 3, 2, 1!" "NARRATOR:" "Because we're back to test more of your myths." "[Cheering]" "Who are the Mythbusters?" " Adam Savage..." " Hey!" "Ow!" "We will need to bring some more power." "NARRATOR:" "...and Jamie Hyneman." "I'm not so sure this is a good idea." "NARRATOR:" "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "Oh!" "NARRATOR:" "Joining them..." "Kari Byron..." "Whose hair-ball idea is this?" " NARRATOR:" "Grant Imahara..." " Hwacha!" "NARRATOR:" "...and Tory Belleci." "This is gonna be a great day!" "NARRATOR:" "They don't just tell the myths..." "If you say so, Junior." "NARRATOR:" "...they put them to the test." "JAMIE:" "If you've got a myth for us to test, we'd love to hear about it." "Here, off the icy waters of San Francisco Bay, we have a very rare opportunity... to be able to view a very elusive television host in his natural habitat..." "the Hyneman." "Latin name..." "Hoosierus televisualus." "And he seems to be communicating with his viewers, asking them for ideas." "And who knew?" "Not only did you respond to the call, you opened the floodgates and sent us a gazillion myths." "So we selected a few of the best to test." "What's up first?" "Bamboo torture." " [Breathing heavily]" " You had enough yet?" "'Cause I can keep singing all day long." "I can take whatever you can throw at me." "JAMIE:" "All right, then." "Well, how about that, wise guy?" "A tiny bamboo plant?" "What are you gonna do to me with that?" "I'm gonna plant it and then grow it right through you." "Really?" "Does that work?" "I don't know, but that's the myth, and I've always wanted to try it." "NARRATOR:" "It's a far-fetched fable straight from the fan site." "During World War I I, captured POWs were supposedly stretched above and then penetrated by fast-growing bamboo shoots." "Aah!" "So, what's your plan for this one?" "It's pretty straightforward, I think." "We get some kind of a human analogue." "We get some fast-growing bamboo, and we plant the bamboo under the analogue and see if it grows through it." "Right." "Normally, I'd say we should use pig." "But given the fact that this is gonna take a few days, it's gonna get way too smelly." "Well, I tell you what..." "Why don't we measure how much force it takes to penetrate pig flesh and then we create a synthetic simulant that won't rot?" "And then put the bamboo underneath that." " Exactly." " [Gong clangs]" "[Eastern music plays]" "NARRATOR:" "And so crouching Savage, hidden Hyneman begin their long and arduous search for the legendary torture technique in the mystical bamboo groves of Santa Cruz?" "Luckily enough, we live in California, where bamboo grows beautifully." "NARRATOR:" "And the purveyor of these potentially penetrating plants..." "[Chuckles] That's the thing right there." "That'll get you talking." "NARRATOR:" "...is Larry Gullman." "JAMIE:" "Is a bamboo shoot physically capable of pushing its way through human flesh?" "Bamboo shoots in the ground have to push through the dirt, around rocks, through rotten logs." "I've seen bamboo shoots push up walkway pavers." "So yes, they do push very hard when they're in the ground." "If you're strapped down to this..." "Oh, I can already feel it." "[Laughs]" "So the early signs are promising." "JAMIE:" "That's what we want." "ADAM:" "And that's due to the unusual way in which bamboo grows." "The canes shoot out from an underground root system." "And while underground, the shoot tips are extremely tough and sharp in order to push out through the soil." "So the question is, do they have enough force to push through a human body?" "Let's say somebody owed you money." "What kind of bamboo would you use?" "I think you should use Spectabilis." "It's shooting right now." "It's about an inch in diameter and very sharp." "NARRATOR:" "Perfect." "With their potentially penetrating plants purchased, there's only one thing left to do." "Well, we've got our bamboo." "It's time to go back to the shop and torture some dummies." "Okay, so what's our next myth for the viewer special?" "We're doing a myth about metal, and not just any metal, but my second favorite metal..." "alkali metal." "You mean like rubidium and cesium." "Exactly." "There's this Internet video floating around where these guys throw cesium and rubidium into a bathtub, and they liken the explosion to a hand grenade." "Fans want to know if that's actually true." "Okay, that's cool." "But instead of bathtubs, why don't we do toilets?" "Like we used to flush the cherry bombs down in high school." "I wouldn't know anything about that." "I was too busy studying chemistry, but if you want to do that, by all means, let's do it." "What is this, Opposite Land?" "NARRATOR:" "Hand grenades and explosions, you say?" "Well, that can only mean a trip to the team's dream location... the Alameda County Sheriff's bomb disposal range." "GRANT:" "What are we blowing up today?" "TORY:" "Toilets, bathtubs." "KARI:" "Everything but the kitchen sink." "NARRATOR:" "And the reason the bathroom furniture is on death row is the fan furor over a video clip that looks a little bit like this." "Anybody got anything to read?" "NARRATOR:" "After demonstrating that the reaction between water and the alkali metals becomes more violent as you move down the periodic table, they get to rubidium." "And with what looks to be about 2 grams, they claim to get a hand-grenade-sized explosion." "So to find out if this is film fakery or fact, we're going to need a control." "TORY:" "Now, on the Internet video, they said the reaction was equal to a hand-grenade explosion." "This ought to clean out the pipes." "So we need to see what that looks like in order to have something to compare with." "How great is this?" "We get to start off with a bang." "We're gonna blow the crap out of that toilet!" " Get it?" " NARRATOR:" "Uh, sure." "But Grant and not Tory will explain how the team are going to safely explode the commode." "This is a grenade." "But it's not a live grenade." "In a live grenade, you'd have TNT in here." "You pull the pin, the clip pops off, and this is what would set off the explosion." "But what we're gonna do today is fill this with enough C-4 to have the equivalent blasting power of the TNT." "Then we're gonna set it off with a blasting cap." "That way, we can control exactly when it goes off, and it will be much, much safer." "NARRATOR:" "Fire in the bowl!" "TORY:" "3, 2, 1!" "GRANT:" "Whoa!" "The toilet's gone." "NARRATOR:" "Yep." "Now you see it." "Now you don't." "TORY:" "Oh, we blowed it up real good." "GRANT:" "That's nice." "[Laughter]" "All that's left is the water tank." " The bowl just shattered." " TORY:" "Yeah." "We destroyed this toilet, and now I know what a real grenade looks like when it goes off." "So now we've got a great reference for what it should look like when we put our alkali metals in a toilet, in water." "NARRATOR:" "Used in waterwheels and weapons..." "Aah!" "NARRATOR:" "Construction and the culinary arts... as a raw material, bamboo's versatility is virtually limitless." "MAN:" "In the Philippines, they call this the Dance of the Bamboo Pole." "NARRATOR:" "But fans want to know if this flexible, fast-growing grass could have been used as an instrument of torture." "Aah!" "NARRATOR:" "And to find out," "Adam and Jamie need a human guinea pig to pierce." "But which one?" "Hmm..." "The whole point of this test is to come up with a human analogue." "We've done this on the show but usually with ballistics." "[Lisping] I don't see any subcutaneous damage here." "[Normal voice] And this is a very well-explored field." "Not the slow penetration of something sharp like a bamboo plant." "Nobody's done a lot of figuring on that, so we have to do it ourselves." "We've got to go to the butcher, get a big slab of meat..." "[Laughs] ...start pushing spikes into it, come up with readings." "And when we get those readings as to how much pressure and resistance the meat provides..." "[Chuckles] ...we've got to imitate it with synthetic materials." "NARRATOR:" "Yep, to make a fake torso with accurate flesh-like resistance to a growing bamboo shoot..." "This has got to be the most gruesome thing I've ever made." "NARRATOR:" "...the guys need to know exactly what that resistance is." "Ah..." "[French accent] In pushing through the meat very slowly," "Jamie is imagining himself to be a plant." "JAMIE:" "What's our peak?" "[Normal voice] 8 max." "NARRATOR:" "Several tests later, and the guys have a decent sample range..." "ADAM:" "9.5 total." "NARRATOR:" "And decide to round up for simplicity's sake." "Well, 10 pounds seems to be the magic number with this spike in penetrating flesh." "So all we got to do is find a mix of materials around here that makes a flesh that doesn't rot and stink." "Our ballistic material." "I think it's perfect." "Let me see what the needle says." " 10 pounds." " ADAM:" "Wow." "That is close enough for my money." "I love that." " NARRATOR:" "Next..." " Hello." "NARRATOR:" "The guys whip up a rooftop greenhouse and then assemble it, unsurprisingly..." " Rise, my son!" " NARRATOR:" "On the rooftop." "Dude, touchdown!" "Going in." "JAMIE:" "This may look nice and sunny, and it is, but it's also a torture chamber, or it will be soon." "NARRATOR:" "So that's the greenhouse and bamboo in position, which leaves just one component." "Oh, you're mine now." "NARRATOR:" "And the torso is carefully positioned above several shoots that have yet to fully break through the soil's surface." "ADAM:" "This version of Buster is our final stage of testing in the bamboo." "Will it grow through a person?" "After experimenting with a bunch of different flesh analogues..." "Those are the two growth points." "They're beautiful." "...this ballistics material, which is non-water-based... it won't rot..." "is the perfect material in terms of the amount of pressure it takes to push through." "So that if the bamboo grows through this chest, we can definitively state that it would grow through you as well." "Is that it?" " That ought to do it." " All right." "Well, let's get out of here and come back in a couple days and see how it did." "JAMIE:" "The way I see it, if the bamboo shoot works its way two or three inches into the back of the dummy, then it's an effective means of torture." "All we've got to do is wait." "NARRATOR:" "Kari, Grant, and Tory are taking on an alkali-metal myth." "A video on the Internet claims that if you add 2 grams of rubidium or cesium to water, it'll blow up your bathroom furniture... with a hand-grenade-sized explosion." "This ought to clean out the pipes." "NARRATOR:" "To find out if it's actually true, we're doing a direct comparison." "This is the hand grenade." "Bring on the alkali metals." "But first, here's the science-y bit." "This is cesium." "And this is rubidium." "And they're part of a special class of elements called alkali metals." "Now, what makes them special is they have one electron." "Now, normally, what they want to do is react with other things and give up that electron." "Now, what happens when the alkali metals react with water is they release a lot of heat, and the other by-product is hydrogen gas." "And the heat tends to ignite the hydrogen gas." "It's a perfect storm of something that causes an explosion." "NARRATOR:" "And to put these highly reactive metals in contact with water safely, the team has a couple of safety precautions lined up." "Pretty simple." "It's a little guillotine." "The weight drops down onto small glass vials which are holding the metals, releasing it into the toilet, and we'll see what happens." "TORY:" "In the video, they said used 2 grams and they got an explosion the size of a hand grenade." "Now, we're gonna use 25 grams." "That's more than 10 times the amount." "So if it's true what they're saying, we're gonna have a huge explosion." "Mayor of Rubidium Town." "Ready?" " TORY:" "Yep." " GRANT:" "Yep." "3, 2, 1." " TORY:" "Whoa!" " GRANT:" "Whoa!" "TORY:" "That was quick!" "Look at that cloud." "NARRATOR:" "Well, it all went according to plan." "The string was cut, and the guillotine fell." "The rubidium was released into the water, and cue the chemistry." "The sudden release of hydrogen gas and heat combines to give us a satisfying toilet-bowl geyser." "NARRATOR:" "But... and here's the key... it was nothing like the Internet video hand-grenade-sized explosion." "Well, we may not have had hand grenades, but at least we still have good chemistry." "NARRATOR:" "But we haven't given up yet." "Next up in an attempt to blow up the bowl is cesium." "GRANT:" "So this is it." "This is cesium." "This is the most reactive alkali metal that we can get our hands on that's not radioactive." "We're gonna put this in the toilet bowl and see if it behaves when exposed to water, like a grenade." "Okay." "In 3, 2, 1!" " [All groan]" " Cool." "There was a bit more reaction, more popping, but it was just a big cloud of gas again." "NARRATOR:" "More energy, more flame, but definitely no explosion." "TORY:" "Now, I feel like I've been lied to, because what I saw on that Internet video was an explosion." "What I saw here was a cloud of smoke." "Now, a cloud of smoke is not gonna destroy a toilet like a hand grenade would." "NARRATOR:" "So, Kari, what does that mean?" "Which means they faked it, and this is busted." "NARRATOR:" "The Mythbusters are no strangers to tall tales of torture." "After all, they've already confirmed that Chinese water torture can send you 'round the bend." "[Voice breaking] I don't want to do this test right now." "NARRATOR:" "But now, at your behest, they're testing the power of botany to bring you to the brink." "And with the ballistics-material dummy suspended above the soon-to-shoot bamboo, the clock is ticking." "JAMIE:" "I'd imagine that torture is a pretty results-driven business." "And so we're looking for a couple of things here." "We're looking as to whether the shoot can actually grow through this flesh simulant and also how much time it takes for it to do that." "And they're both really important." "Because if it takes months to do it, it's not really an effective means of torture." "If it does it in a couple of hours or a couple of days, though... that starts to put it in the realm of possibility." "NARRATOR:" "And Jamie's prediction is spot-on." "Because after just three days, our tortured torso is surely ready to talk." "ADAM:" "Dude!" "The bamboo is growing into our poor dude." "The experiment could not be going better." "We have already gotten exactly what we came looking for, which is at the point at which bamboo meets flesh, does it make a left-hand turn or does it just keep on going?" "And it's pretty clear that it just keeps on going." "Well, you know, I said earlier that if there was any penetration at all, then that's torture." "So I say this myth is..." "Ho!" "Let's not call it just yet." "I want to see how far we can take it." "Let's let it keep on growing." " Okay." " [Chuckles]" "NARRATOR:" "But over two weeks later, the news isn't good." "Despite several other shoots making their way into the dummy," "Adam's wish to see complete penetration comes to naught." "ADAM:" "Look at that." "They haven't grown an inch in two weeks." "Those things are dead." "Yeah, and look at that." "The ballistics gel is melted." "It must have got so hot in here." "That's what killed him." "We did prove that you could torture somebody with bamboo, if you were determined." "Yeah, but we didn't see the bamboo grow all the way through the guy." "I mean, that was supposed to be the grand finale." "You know, we've got one more dummy." "Let's chuck it up there and see what happens." "Okay." "NARRATOR:" "So a second ballistics-material torso... this time with attractive wig and facial features... is taken to the roof, where the team has set up a second growing area... one that's open to the elements." "ADAM:" "Our dude is set up, and this is our last chance to see bamboo grow through a person." "It's our last mannequin." "It's our last viable bamboo shoot, and it's pretty much the end of the growing season." "So if it's gonna happen, it's got to happen here." "NARRATOR:" "And what do you know?" "Adam's desperation is well rewarded." "Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and this time, the results are nothing short of astounding." "JAMIE:" "That's what I'd call a through and through." "[Laughs]" "We wanted to know if the bamboo would grow all the way through you." "It turns out, not only will it, but it actually thrives!" "This is 12 feet of bamboo, and it's going right through this guy's chest." "It doesn't get any more definitive than that." "I feel like someone's almost playing an April Fools' joke." "That's so perfect." "JAMIE:" "Obviously, bamboo can grow right through you, like it did over here, but for this to be a reasonable method of torture... if you can consider torture reasonable in any sense... it needs to do it fairly quickly." "And our time lapse shows that this penetrated that body in a matter of a couple of days or so." "It's possible, as gruesome as it is." "ADAM:" "That is awesome!" "Plausible!" "And awesome." "Plausible." "Imagine yourself on the frozen Arctic tundra." "Your sled dogs have abandoned you, you've run out of equipment and food, and slowly you are dying, your life ebbing away, minute by minute." "Yeah, okay." "I remember that." "And then, through tear-soaked eyes, you see relief... salvation on the horizon in the form of a Saint Bernard trotting towards you with a barrel around his neck." "That barrel is full of brandy." "You take a couple of snorts of that brandy." "It warms you up just enough to keep you alive until the rescue team arrives." "Or this is like an aperitif before I eat the dog." "You can't say that." "MAN:" "This brave lifesaver is a one-man... or rather a one-dog..." "rescue squad." "In fact, that cask around his neck is full of brandy that he's taking to some lost traveler." "NARRATOR:" "The Saint Bernard and its barrel of lifesaving brandy is a famously warm-and-fuzzy fable that you want answered." "Will the arrival of a keg on legs really keep you alive?" "Or is it..." "you knew this was coming... just a shaggy-dog story?" "I've actually heard that alcohol has the opposite affect and it cools you down, not warms you up." "That's strange, because I swear it has a warming effect when I drink it." "Should be pretty straightforward to try." "I think so." "I think all we need to do is find ourselves a nice, big freezer, a way of monitoring our body temperature, drink a few shots of the hard stuff, and see what kind of change occurs." "Works for me." "My ears are starting to sting." "NARRATOR:" "But before the guys get to test this frosty fable" " in the freezer..." " I'm going into a delirium of thinking about what I'll do once I'm warm." "[Chuckles]" "NARRATOR:" "...Adam's ensuring accurate info by ingesting a thermometer." "Since this whole test is about whether or not there's any change in our body temperature from the drinking of the alcohol, we need to know exactly what our body temperature is." "And this isn't a thermometer under the tongue or one in the ear or one on the skin." "We need our core body temperature measured." "We've done this on the show before back when I got painted with gold paint and I had a rectal thermometer." "Oh, Sanjay." "Sanjay, will you respect me tomorrow?" "[Laughter]" " [Pop]" " Oh!" "[Laughs]" "Neither of us want to do that this time." "So we're bringing in a brand-new piece of technology called a core-body-temperature capsule." "Here we go." "[Chuckles]" "It's basically a passive radial." "It goes into our stomach, keeps track of our core body temperature, and we check in on it with this." "We hold this up to our bodies, and boop!" "It tells us what our core body temperature is." "And couple days later, we pass it." "They're disposable!" "I ate a radio for science!" "NARRATOR:" "But that super-accurate body-temperature thermometer is not all they'll be using." "The guys are going for data overload." "We're gonna be doing some standardized tests at regular intervals throughout the day." "Now, the first one is the core body temperature." "Go ahead and swallow that puppy." " Mm." " I know." "JAMIE:" "The second one is, we're gonna check in on how we actually feel." "On a coldness scale, 1 being the coldest and 10 being not cold at all, where do you stand?" " 8." " 8." " You're just a little bit cold?" " Yeah." "The third one is we're gonna be using a thermal imaging camera to check our heat signatures on the exterior of our bodies." "Wow." "You look funny." "[Laughs] I can see you breathing." "Basic temperature of your left hand, 94. 1." "NARRATOR:" "And so, armed with their battery of data-gathering equipment and a warm-weather baseline..." "JAMIE:" "Tip of the nose, 96 degrees." "NARRATOR:" "The boys are ready for the big freeze." "All right." "Let's baseline." "Let's get cold." "NARRATOR:" "Kari, Grant, and Tory have already busted the myth that a few grams of cesium or rubidium can cause a hand-grenade-sized explosion." "The Internet is lying again." "NARRATOR:" "So now it's time for the patented "Mythbusters" ramping up." "We're flushing the toilet." "And to blow up the bathtub, we're stretching the budget and moving into the realm of ridiculous by using a massive 2.5 kilograms of sodium." "TORY:" "You ready to do this, Grant?" "GRANT:" "I'm ready to do it." "NARRATOR:" "And to accommodate the 2.5 kilograms of sodium..." "TORY:" "Let's run." "NARRATOR:" "Kari has adapted her guillotine." "She's added a sledgehammer." "Which means there's only one thing left to do." "Find out... for the fans... if supersizing the sodium will blast the bathtub." "TORY:" "All right, this is sodium." "In 3, 2, 1." " Oh!" " Oh!" "[Laughter]" " TORY:" "Yeah!" " GRANT:" "Yeah!" "KARI:" "Wait, wait, wait." "Oh, my God." "Poisonous gas." " Ohh!" " Ohh!" "NARRATOR:" "Uh, while the team holds its breath, let's check out the replay." "[Laughter]" "That was incredible." "NARRATOR:" "Yep, spectacular, but it only caused a crack." "The tub didn't disintegrate." "So, how about taking it up a notch?" "TORY:" "It's like Christmas." "GRANT:" "That was amazing." "But up next is potassium, which is even more reactive, and, yep, same amount." "NARRATOR:" "Uh-huh." "2.5 kilograms of potassium." "GRANT:" "Take it away." "NARRATOR:" "School-lab chemistry like you've never seen it before." "Okay." "We're good." "Let's go." "NARRATOR:" "But will it provide the big boom we and you have been waiting for?" "GRANT:" "...2, 1!" " Wow!" " Whoa!" "[Laughter]" "That was..." "That was like fireworks." "GRANT:" "Wow!" "KARI:" "Wow." "That was the Fourth of July in there." "NARRATOR:" "Yes, once again, it's an exciting chemical reaction, but it's still not high explosives." "[Laughter]" "So, in conclusion, you can use ridiculous amounts of sodium and potassium." "You can use the more reactive elements in the alkali-metal family." "But you won't get a hand-grenade-sized explosion and blow up a bathtub unless you use C-4, like this." "All right, J. D. In 3, 2, 1!" "[Cheering]" "Whoo!" "Nice!" " TORY:" "Whoa!" " Yeah!" "Did you see how high it shot that water?" "!" "NARRATOR:" "Yes, the shock wave emanating from a C-4 detonation is approximately 8,000 meters per second, which is in a different league to alkali metals in water proving that that Internet video is nothing but science fiction." "Adam and Jamie are about to chill out to find out if a shot of brandy..." "Good boy." "NARRATOR:" "Will actually stave off hypothermia." " [Dog barks]" " Or is it simply a furry fable?" "Since we always want to be authentic on "Mythbusters,"" "Bob here, a Saint Bernard, is going to be delivering the brandy to us." "Isn't that right, Bob?" "ADAM:" "We are at the very perfect place to test this myth... a company called Dean's Services." "And they've got 125,000 square feet of freezer-cold rooms at 0 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature we're gonna be working at." "NARRATOR:" "Remember, Adam and Jamie, with their core-body-temperature capsules already in their stomachs..." " JAMIE:" "It's cold." " ADAM:" "I know!" "NARRATOR:" "Are literally walking thermometers." "But they'll also be monitoring their mood as well as the surface temperature of their extremities." "It's weird having a job where our only task today is to get cold and then drunk." "NARRATOR:" "Yep, stage 1 of the test is to simulate a situation in which the guys will need rescuing by a brandy-carrying Saint Bernard." "I'm starting to get uncomfortable." "NARRATOR:" "And that means getting very cold very fast." "Right now, I don't feel so bad, but it's changing rapidly." "NARRATOR:" "Stage 2." "Once they've completely chilled out..." "Ooh, calamari." "Get the brandy off of him." "[Clink]" "NARRATOR:" "...the drinking commences." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "But just 10 minutes into the test and the guys get the first piece of relevant information, and it's not what you'd expect." "My temperature has been steadily going up." "It's now at 98.56." "What does yours say?" "Yeah, I'm going up, too." "I'm at 98.9." "I haven't read up on this, but the fact that my internal body temperature is rising while I'm feeling like I'm getting colder says to me something like my vascular system is clamping down on my extremities and keeping the heat inside." "ADAM:" "Check out the big brain on Jamie!" "Because he's nailed one of the key responses of all endothermic animals to the cold." "The superficial blood vessels constrict, preventing heat loss through the skin and directing blood to critical internal organs." "NARRATOR:" "With such amazing evolutionary adaptations, it could take a while before the guys need rescuing." "So to hurry things along, they decide on some drastic action." "I don't think we're getting cold enough fast enough." "I think we should take off our hats and unzip our coats." "Subjective testing..." "coldness scale, 1 to 10?" "Mm, I'm saying I'm at least about a 2." "ADAM:" "Yeah, I agree with that assessment." "Uh, extremities?" "Extremities are painful." "My hands are hurting, my head especially." "NARRATOR:" "And the thermal camera, as well as providing Adam with entertainment..." "ADAM:" "[Laughs] Wow, man." "I got to tell you, with your hat off, you look like a Bond villain in this shot." "NARRATOR:" "Seems to confirm Jamie's earlier theory." "Despite their stable core body temperature, their extremities have plummeted by over 20 degrees." "Oh, my fingers hurt." "JAMIE:" "Okay, your face is 65 degrees." "NARRATOR:" "With the numbers noted, there's just one thing left to do." " My ears are starting to sting." " Yeah." "JAMIE:" "Help me, Bob." "I'm freezing." "[Piano plays ragtime music]" "[Gasps]" "We've got a really weird myth for the viewer special." "Have you ever heard that a piano can explode in a fire?" "No, I have not, but it does make sense, because the strings are under a lot of tension." "Who cares if it makes sense?" "We might get to see a piano explode." "NARRATOR:" "Ah, the humble piano." "Tickle its ivories, and you get beautiful music." "But in a fire, could it turn from innocent keyboard into an instrument of mass destruction?" "Well, it sounds pretty straightforward." "All we need to do is get a piano, build a fire under it, and see if it explodes." "Well, hang on." "I think before we do that, we need to find out how much tension the strings are under." "Actually, I know the perfect people for that." "NARRATOR:" "And that perfect piano place..." "GRANT:" "Ready to get your tune on?" "NARRATOR:" "Is owned by John Callahan, the piano man." "KARI:" "So, the myth that we're working on is that if you put a piano in a fire, it will explode." "Wow." "I've actually heard people talk about that before." "Having never burned a piano myself," "I don't know if that's true." "I'm not sure exactly what's gonna happen." "To me, it sounds relatively plausible, because I understand there's a lot of tension on the strings." "CALLAHAN:" "Well, there sure is a lot of tension on the stings." "In a piano, the steel wire is stretched across the cast-iron plate, and there's about 200 pounds of tension on each wire, average." "We have about 230 wires in the piano." "So there's a total of over 20 tons of force trying to collapse the piano." "NARRATOR:" "Now, that sounds promising." "The strings stretched across the cast-iron plate hold 40,000 pounds of pressure." "And if the flames cause them to fail, hey, presto... exploding piano." "KARI:" "It's always a good day when you start it at the bomb range." "NARRATOR:" "Callahans have kindly given the team a baby grand to ignite." "Now all they have to do..." "[Sour chord plays] ...is get it off the truck..." "Moving a piano sucks." "NARRATOR:" "...and into position." "I'm just gonna do a little tension music." "NARRATOR:" "While Kari does some, you know, actual work," "Tory and Grant serenade her the only way they know how... badly." "[Off-key] She's the organ grinder" "Grinding organ all day and night" "NARRATOR:" "With the piano standing on its own legs, there's just one thing left to do... tune it." "All right, John, I know that tuning a piano at a bomb range is probably a pretty strange working condition for you." "But we need to give this myth the best possible chance of working." "We need to get each one of these strings at the proper tension." "I'll do my best." "NARRATOR:" "And as John brings the piano to perfect pitch, the guys pitch in to build the bonfire." "GRANT:" "So, to all the piano aficionados out there," "I just want to let you know, we love pianos." "Not enjoying this in the least." "Light it on fire" "Light it on fire" "Okay, just a little bit." "But this piano was destined for the dump." "It's not salvageable." "Unfortunately, it's beyond repair, so somebody had to do it." "Might as well be us." "NARRATOR:" "So it's this baby grand's finale." "But will the meltdown be a letdown?" "TORY:" "Run!" "It's gonna explode!" "NARRATOR:" "Or will it be a musical mushroom cloud?" "TORY:" "Piano is definitely on fire." "GRANT:" "Wow!" "TORY:" "Hey, that is a nice fire." "NARRATOR:" "Adam and Jamie are chillin' out..." "literally." " My ears are starting to sting." " Yeah." "[Barks]" "NARRATOR:" "And at the limit of their cold-weather endurance, they need rescuing." "ADAM:" "Get the brandy off of him." "NARRATOR:" "But is the mythical shot of brandy" " the right way to go?" " ADAM:" "There we go." "Cheers." "It's good brandy." "NARRATOR:" "The immediate signs, at least on a subjective level, seem to back up the myth." "Yeah, the brandy sort of helped a little bit." "There's definitely a feeling, a distinct feeling, of a warm glow happening down here." "NARRATOR:" "A few minutes after downing the supposedly lifesaving shots, the guys rustle up another set of data." "And although their body temperature remains stable..." "I'm 99. 15." "Mine's 98.6." "NARRATOR:" "The numbers for skin temperature are very interesting." "JAMIE:" "Face is 74 degrees." "NARRATOR:" "Which is an increase of 9 degrees from their pre-brandy temperatures." "Again, the science backs up the numbers." "Alcohol does in fact dilate your blood vessels, leading to flush cheeks and more blood flow to your skin." "And to find out if this effect is really helping" " fight off the cold..." " Cheers." "NARRATOR:" "Another shot is called for and duly drunk." "[Spits] I got a hair." "NARRATOR:" "And once again, the immediate signs are that the alcohol has a positive subjective effect." "ADAM:" "I'm picturing big, steaming pans of warm food and dunking my hands into them." "[Laughs]" "I'm going into a delirium of thinking about what I'll do once I'm warm." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "But assuming this is a life-or-death situation, maybe improving your mood isn't a priority." "I can already tell that my mental faculties are impaired." "[Laughs] What were we supposed to do?" "Left hand." "Oh, I'm getting them wrong, aren't I?" "[Laughs]" "I don't think, just from a subjective point of view, that I'd want to further impair them with alcohol, although caring less about the cold certainly has its merits." "JAMIE:" "Yeah, you might do better by trying to light a small fire or something like that." "Get shelter." "NARRATOR:" "And with that pearl of wisdom, it's time to gather the last set of data." "Okay, face... 72 degrees." "NARRATOR:" "Again, the thermal camera shows the guys' skin temperature to be higher than or equal to pre-brandy numbers." "ADAM: [Laughs] Dude, I just can't get over how funny-looking you look on the thermal camera." "NARRATOR:" "But critically, the same can't be said for their core body temperature." "97.37." "NARRATOR:" "Which is a sudden and worrying drop of a whole degree." "Although by this point, Adam's having too much fun to care." "In a few minutes, I feel like the creature that's running the Jamie engine is gonna [Babbles]" "And run away 'cause it's too cold." "It's got to find a warmer host." "NARRATOR:" "And with that last observation, it's time to pull the plug, get warm, and draw some conclusions." " Can we go now?" " JAMIE:" "It turns out that Saint Bernards carrying brandy is a myth." "Now, If these guys actually saved anybody's lives, it would be due to their body warmth." "'Cause like Bob here, they're big brutes." "They're really furry, and he's actually keeping me quite warm." "NARRATOR:" "Yep, a shaggy-dog cuddle is the solution to this shaggy-dog story." "In summary, alcohol dilates your vascular system, which sends blood to your extremities, where it loses its warmth." "And as a result, your core body temperature quickly cools." "You don't mind if I have a little nip, huh?" "[Yelps, barks]" "I got to tell you, right after that second brandy," "I was thinking, "I understand what this myth is all about,"" "'cause I was feeling pretty fine." "Probably 'cause you didn't care about the cold so much anymore." "Well, no, alcohol also has a diluting effect." "My blood was thinning and moving more towards my extremities, making me feel more comfortable." "But right after that, your core body temperature started to drop like a stone." "Right, which is precisely the opposite of what you want to happen in a freezing-cold situation." "So in the short term, it might make you feel good, but ultimately it's the last thing you want to do." " Absolutely." "This one's busted." " Busted." "NARRATOR:" "Kari, Grant, and Tory love a good, explosive bonfire." "So when viewers suggested that burning a baby grand might make it explode..." "Kerosene" "[Piano plays softly]" "NARRATOR:" "They couldn't wait to fire up..." "TORY:" "Run!" "NARRATOR:" "...and find out if it was true." "Oh, my God." "That fire's awesome!" "NARRATOR:" "Remember, if there's any truth to this myth, the 20 tons of tension in the strings has to be suddenly and explosively released." "KARI:" "Seeing a little caving in." "TORY:" "Maybe it will collapse on itself." "NARRATOR:" "That's the theory." "But as the baby grand slowly but surely burns down to the ground, the myth of the exploding piano goes up in smoke." "GRANT:" "Well, no explosion." "In fact, all we see that's left of the piano is a smoking hull with a skeleton of the cast-iron piece." "You can still see some strings, which is not what I expected." "I thought in all the heat, strings, which are very thin compared to the cast iron, would have been going bing, bing, bing, bing, bing!" "But we didn't hear anything." "TORY:" "There's no way this thing will ever explode." "I'm so confident that that's why I'm this close to the piano." "No matter how much tension is put on these wires, they're never gonna explode and pop." "Because as the wires heat up, the metal is just gonna expand." "It's just gonna stretch." "So you're never gonna get the bing, boing, snapping wires, and you're not gonna get the exploding piano." "It's just not physically possible." "NARRATOR:" "And that's the key." "Yes, the tension will be released, but it happens slowly, as the metal strings expand in the fire." "And so..." "KARI:" "This is definitively busted." " Busted." " Busted." "NARRATOR:" "But hold on." "Aren't they forgetting something?" "KARI:" "The myth that a piano will explode in a fire is completely busted." "But now we want to replicate the results." "So we're gonna blow a piano up anyway." "So, J. D., the regular piano in the fire kind of sucked." "Didn't explode." "But we do have a backup piano that we can explode." " What do you have for us?" " What I think you need is the "Mythbusters Concerto in C-4."" "[Laughs]" "All right, J. D., this one's for you." "Go, J. D." "Go, J. D." "Fill this piano with some TNT" "Go, J. D." "Go, J. D." "Everybody, now!" "Come on!" "Go, J. D." "Go, J. D." "Fill this piano with some TNT" "NARRATOR:" "It's a catchy tune, and J. D. Hums along as he tunes the piano for the "Mythbusters Concerto in C-4."" " All right." "You guys ready?" " I'm ready." " Are you ready?" " Ready." "This is it." "In 3, 2, 1." "NARRATOR:" "Invented in Italy in 1698 by Bartolomeo Cristofori, brought to popularity by Mozart and Beethoven in the 18th century, and now, 2008, exploded by the Mythbusters." "[Cheering]" "Now, that's what I call an exploding piano!" "Nice!" "Man, one second it was there." "Next second it was gone." "[Laughing] Look." "It's all over the place." "NARRATOR:" "And because it's the viewer special, especially for you, here's the high-speed encore of the "Mythbusters Concerto in C-4."" "[Slow music plays]" "Rest in pieces!" "We wrecked that piano." "This is my '80s rock band." "We all had these and did this move." "Now, that was cool, but the myth is still busted." "If your piano is on fire, it's not gonna explode." "If it's filled with C-4, well, that's another story." "Looks like this myth" "Of the exploding piano" "Is bust-e-ed" "[Piano plays ragtime music]"