"Attention, viewers..." "Do not try anything you are about to see at home." "We're what you call experts." "NARRATOR:" "On this high-velocity episode of "Mythbusters"..." "KARI:" "You killed the dwarf!" "NARRATOR:" "Adam and Jamie investigate yet another way your car could kill you..." "ADAM:" "This is fun." "Whoa!" "NARRATOR:" "As they test the myth of exploding bumpers." "This is actually really scary." "NARRATOR:" "It's hot, smelly, dangerous work." " We're fully armed?" " We're hot." "NARRATOR:" "And that's the way we like it." "We may have overdone that." "NARRATOR:" "Then Kari, Tory, and Grant are on the edge of their saddles..." "TORY:" "Yeah!" "Got 'em!" "NARRATOR:" "As they challenge an awesome myth of medieval cavalry." "TORY:" "Grant, you're going the wrong way!" "NARRATOR:" "Can an expertly fired arrow really penetrate double deep with a galloping start?" "And how far will they go to prove the point?" "[Roaring]" "NARRATOR:" "We're all "a-quiver."" "Who are the Mythbusters?" " Adam Savage..." " Whoo!" "I ate a radio for science!" "NARRATOR:" "...and Jamie Hyneman." "[Grunts] I'll deflect a bullet." "NARRATOR:" "Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience." "There's your problem." "[Chuckles]" "NARRATOR:" "Joining them..." "Tory Belleci..." "Punch through!" "NARRATOR:" "...Grant Imahara..." "That's right." "I'm gonna build a robot." "NARRATOR:" "...and Kari Byron." "This is gonna be a whole lot of fun, huh?" "NARRATOR:" "They don't just tell the myths." "They put them to the test." "What are you doing?" "Is it time for, like, fire-safety tips or something?" "In fact, it is." "Today's fire-safety tip is don't stand near a car that's on fire." "Okay." "Why?" "All right." "I'm glad you asked." "Because it turns out that some cars have a bumper attached to them by a shock absorber." "And this is to allow the bumper to absorb some of the hit when it bumps into something." "And then in a car fire, that shock absorber can overheat and explode and send the bumper shooting out, potentially kneecapping anybody who's unfortunate enough to be standing in front of or behind the car on fire." "I sense a car fire in our near future." "I think it's definitely something we should test." "Okay." "NARRATOR:" "Bumpers are designed to protect your car, by absorbing some of the impact from a low-speed collision." "But if your car's on fire, this myth contends that the gas-filled pistons can heat up to a point where the bumper becomes a deadly projectile and its range is an incredible 50 feet." "As far as the methodology goes," "I think it's pretty straightforward." "We just go to a junkyard, we get some bumpers of the appropriate type, we subject them to some really high heat, and we test them." "Right, but since this whole thing is about what happens to these bumpers in a car fire," "I think our very first step is to simply set a car on fire and take some measurements and readings to figure out what kind of temperatures we're actually talking about." "Agreed." "NARRATOR:" "So the boys bowl up to the bomb range to set a car on fire." "This is familiar "Mythbusters" territory." "So, how hard can it be?" "Well, as hard as you want to make it." " JAMIE:" "Whoa." " [Metal creaking]" "[Chuckles]" "We're all right." "What the hell are you doing?" "!" "Having some fun." "NARRATOR:" "Jamie's idea of fun is likely different to yours, mine, and Adam's." "Remember, kids, you really can get in trouble with one of these things." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "It's an apt start to a day that will not go quite to plan." "We have found some potential cases of this actually happening... that maybe bumpers shot off during car fires." "And the researchers have found us a make and model similar to those in the reports that we have." "So we're gonna set this thing on fire, find out how hot a car fire actually gets, take temperature readings all around it." "And if we're very lucky, maybe we'll get a bumper shooting off." "NARRATOR:" "That would be a bonus." "But remember, their primary purpose is to see just how hot a car fire gets." "Fortunately, there's some adult supervision on hand." "Good morning." "We got just a small car fire we're gonna set and hopefully ask you guys to put out." "No problem, sir." "NARRATOR:" "Adam draws on boyhood skills to raise the car and strip the wheels in next to no time." "Here in California, it's a crime to burn tires." "For some reason, it's not a crime to wear a silver suit with suspenders." "As Adam slips into something less comfortable," "Jamie considers the finer details." "We're gonna light the car on fire." "And being as the engine has fuel... it has oil, it has plastic parts, it's got batteries with electricity... you've got all the elements you need to create an energetic fire." "And that also happens to be the area around the bumper." "So that's where we're gonna focus our ignition, and we'll see what happens." "NARRATOR:" "And just for good measure..." "ADAM:" "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "When the car's ablaze, they'll get accurate temperature measurements by circling it with a thermal-imaging camera." "ADAM:" "That ought to do." " What do you think?" " Go for it." "ADAM:" "This is fun." "NARRATOR:" "But try as he might," "Adam can't manage to set fire to the engine, even though it's swimming in gasoline." "Making fire is something even cavemen mastered." "But we've struggled with this before." "Who could forget the shaky start to "Trailblazers"?" "That's hard stuff to light." "JAMIE:" "It only lights when it gets mistified." "[Lighter clicks]" "NARRATOR:" "This delayed ignition is risky business." "And statistically, it's getting more perilous by the second." "I mean, nothing's gone wrong for almost 40 minutes." "Whoa!" " JAMIE:" "You all right?" " I'm okay." "JAMIE:" "You got a little bit of a haircut there, didn't you?" "ADAM:" "I got a little bit of a..." "not a haircut." "I got a little bit of a hair on the back of my hand." "NARRATOR:" "Considering the rough start, the car is quickly engulfed in flames." "ADAM:" "It's all happening a lot faster than I thought it would." "JAMIE:" "That's one out-of-control car fire." "You were afraid that it was gonna burn itself out." "NARRATOR:" "As the wind shifts," "Adam's forced to move the thermal camera 20 feet to the left." "Any thoughts of circling the blaze are abandoned as the flames follow the smoke in an unpredictable arc." "JAMIE:" "Are you getting any kind of a reading yet?" "Yeah." "I'm actually getting easily 1,000 degrees." " JAMIE:" "Okay." " ADAM: 1,050, 1, 100." "This is hot." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "At this point, a bumper flying 50 feet would confirm the myth." "The Skipper and Gilligan could high-five each other, share a man hug, and head home." "But it's just not that kind of a day." "JAMIE:" "Well, our pistons are still there." "[Laughing] But the bumper is melted." "JAMIE:" "And that actually tells us something about what temperatures were achieved, 'cause the bumpers are aluminum, and aluminum melts at around 660 Celsius." "Well, riddle me this, Batman..." "What's the melting point of glass?" "Look at that!" "I've never seen anything like that." "That's even hotter because that melts at around 1,400 Celsius." "NARRATOR:" "There's no doubt they had the heat... an impressive 1,400 degrees Celsius." "And that's what they came here to measure." "Still, the bumpers didn't go ballistic." "Of course, they're designed not to." "But there are those who swear they've seen this myth in action." "JAMIE:" "What this tells us is that this is a very, very specific set of circumstances that is required to make this happen." "I think now we've got to go back to the shop, work on some individual shocks... heating them and seeing what kind of results we can get." "JAMIE:" "So, how's your hand?" "ADAM:" "Eh, it hurts a little bit, but it'll be better by tomorrow." "JAMIE:" "And you've got another one." "ADAM: [Laughs] I do." "You know, you guys, ever since we did "Hwacha,"" "I've really wanted to do some more medieval-weaponry myths." "That is perfect, 'cause we have one that comes out of the Hungarian army during the 1500s." "Now, apparently they believed that an archer riding on the back of a galloping horse, if he were to shoot an arrow, that arrow would have twice the penetrating power as an archer firing an arrow standing still." "Sounds like a myth to me." "I know." "It's hard to believe, right?" "Physics, history." "Let's do it!" "[Chuckles] Two of my worst subjects." "NARRATOR:" "Back in the 1500s, Hungarian archers were the most skilled and feared warriors in Europe." "In fact, archery was practiced as a martial art." "And the boldest claim made by these master bowmen was that they could actually get twice the penetration when the arrow was shot from the back of a galloping horse." "Okay, so it sounds like we need to get our hands on a medieval-style bow, fire arrows at the target from a stationary position and then gallop at the target and fire arrows again." "TORY:" "Right." "Then we'll look at the two sets of arrows and see which ones" " go deeper into the target." " Wait a minute." "So if you're firing a bow from atop of the horse, that means you have no hands to hold on to the reins." "And don't they gallop at like 40 miles an hour?" "Exactly." "That's why you have to be an expert horse rider." "What could possibly go wrong?" "[Horse neighs]" "NARRATOR:" "Custer's very words to the 7 th Cavalry at Little Bighorn." "The team has wisely chosen a venue that specializes in mounted archery." "[Dog barks]" "Give him a little squeeze and a click." "[Clicks tongue]" "That way." "That way." "Yeah." "Okay." "That wasn't the way I wanted to go." "He's got steering." "It's just not power steering." "That way." "Hard left." "NARRATOR:" "Forget archery at the gallop." "Let's see if these amateur light horsemen can shoot from a saunter." "TORY:" "I think we're ready to attack." "NARRATOR:" "Grant's the first to try his luck." "[Groans, laughs]" "Interesting strategy, Grant." "NARRATOR: "Interesting" isn't quite the word." "Grant, you're going the wrong way!" "Attack!" "NARRATOR:" "A man with a drawn bow on a wayward horse is a deadly threat to all and sundry." "TORY:" "Use the "horse," Grant." "GRANT: [Laughing] "Use the 'horse."'" "Oh, ho ho!" "NARRATOR:" "More by good luck than good management, the horse eventually turns toward the target." "GRANT:" "Try not to shoot the horse in the head, Grant." "Oh!" "So close!" "NARRATOR:" "Kari's horse has a much better sense of direction but, still, no sense of occasion." "Go faster." "[Clicks tongue]" " Yeah!" " Yeah!" "Now, if we could just do that a little faster." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "At least she hit the target." "Let's see if Tory can do it a little faster." "Yeah!" "Got 'em!" "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "Not bad at all, but we're testing a myth based on the best mounted archers in history." "There's no point in our guys taking a static comparison shot." "It's time to saddle up the professionals." "Now, the three pieces of data that we need are the speed of the horse the terminal velocity of the arrow and then finally, the thing about which this myth is truly about, is the penetration of the arrow." "NARRATOR:" "So the team demotes itself to setting up the gizmos that should accurately measure the speed of the arrow and the penetration." "We're also gonna be measuring the speed of the horses." "So I've got this radar gun." "Gonna point it at the horses, and it'll give us their speed in miles per hour." "NARRATOR:" "First up, Lukas, Katie, and Holm take a bunch of shots from a standing start." "This is the key control data they'll need to compare with arrows fired at the gallop." "Average arrow speed is right on the money for the myth... between 130 and 140 miles per hour." "61/8 inches deep into the foam." "83/8 inches." "103/4 inches." "NARRATOR:" "And now for some real riding." "Top speed for light cavalry is reckoned at close to 40 miles per hour." "So to properly test the myth, they all need to hit 40 and hit the target." "TORY:" "Wow." "Nice shot." "You notice she smiles the entire time?" "Like, "Oh, yeah, whatever."" "She's galloping at 44 miles an hour and hitting the target." "I'd be smiling, too." "NARRATOR:" "Every arrow that hits home..." "TORY:" "Dang, she is good!" "NARRATOR:" "Gets wrenched out and measured." "111/2 inches." "121/2 inches." "NARRATOR:" "On average, the penetration is deeper, but not by much, suggesting that this medieval myth might be horse manure." "But the data just isn't consistent enough to make a call." "Three different archers, three different horses, arrows fired at different speeds from a variable distance." "The data is diabolical." "KARI:" "Our riders did really great." "I mean, they were accurate, and they had a great speed." "Unfortunately, all of these numbers are just not consistent enough to give us a really good conclusion." "Nothing here really supports the myth, but I'm afraid that our margin of error is way too big." "I mean, we've got moving horses, and of course human error is involved here." "So I think we really need to take this back to the shop, see what variables we can cut out, and see if we can just find the core of this myth, which is, will the momentum of movement" "add penetration to the shot?" "NARRATOR:" "Testing the myth of exploding bumpers," "Adam and Jamie torched a car to see just how hot it burns... around 1,400 degrees Celsius." "Whoa!" "NARRATOR:" "The car fared much worse than Adam..." "I'm totally all right." "It just scared me." "NARRATOR:" "But the bumpers failed to blast off." "Well, our pistons are still there." "ADAM: [Laughing] But the bumper is melted." "NARRATOR:" "Time for a pit stop to pick up the parts they'll need..." "Yeah, this one's it." "NARRATOR:" "Specifically, the kind of bumper shocks that supposedly launched the legend." "JAMIE:" "Like little rockets right there, huh?" "You've got an internal sleeve and an external sleeve." "And when you hit something at a slow speed, the internal sleeve moves slightly." "It's pushing against some kind of gas, and that hopefully reduces damage to the car." "But when you heat that gas that it's pushing against, it expands, causing this thing to fail catastrophically, and maybe hurt some safety personnel in the vicinity." "At least that's the theory." "That's what we've got to test." "NARRATOR:" "They'll start the testing without the actual bumper, because these are the alleged culprits." "Adam sets up the blast screen as Jamie spot-welds a steel tube to a heavy stand." "At a certain point, we suspect we're gonna reach a critical kind of heat level, where the gas pressure exceeds what this chamber will hold and this shoots out this way at high velocity." "NARRATOR:" "Adam attaches a thermocouple to monitor the surface temperature." "And now for the heat source." "Jamie lights an oxyacetylene torch, and they're good to go." "Moving it in." "ADAM:" "All right." "That looks good." "JAMIE:" "Try not to bump that." "Temperature's rising fast." "10 seconds in, we're at 50 degrees Celsius." "NARRATOR:" "They don't expect this to get quite as hot as the car fire." "After all, that was 1,400 degrees Celsius." "The aim here is to see if directional heat works where an unfocused inferno failed." "ADAM:" "Any predictions as to when it's gonna blow?" " I'm guessing 620 degrees." " JAMIE:" "I don't know." "All I do know is that right there is a pipe bomb." "ADAM:" "It's at about 500 Fahrenheit, 295 Celsius." "You know, this is actually really scary." "ADAM:" "I agree." "Ho!" "Ho!" "Ho!" "Looks like we've got some kind of failure." "NARRATOR:" "Nine minutes in, with the temperature just past 400 degrees, toxic smoke starts to billow from the piston." "No one knows for sure what it is, but the noxious smell is enough to put the fear into everyone." " Are you gonna turn it off?" " Yeah." "It's just making a lot of smoke." "I think we've lost pressure." "All right." "Let's all clear out of here and evacuate." " This place is getting toxic." " Yeah." " Who knows what that is?" " Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "When the smoke clears and the piston cools, they decide to do what maybe they should have done first off... cut the darn thing in half to see how it works." "Oh, interesting." "JAMIE:" "There's an O-ring in there, actually." "Yeah, and some melted plastic." "NARRATOR:" "They know that somewhere inside the inner tube is a fluid chamber, and somewhere else, there's a compressed-gas chamber." "And that's what they're looking for." "JAMIE:" "I don't get this at all." "NARRATOR:" "Just as confusion hits critical mass..." "So, it looks like that is the gas chamber." "So one way or another, that's where the heat has to go." "We were heating it up at the other end." "Yeah." "So we got to put the flame right on the end of this." "And hopefully it won't melt the seals." "Hopefully." "NARRATOR:" "Test two proceeds with a more focussed flame, hopefully raising the heat so fast that the gas explodes before the sealing ring melts and lets it dissipate disappointingly safely." "ADAM:" "We're getting the back end as hot as possible as fast as possible." "NARRATOR:" "But these smoke signals are not sending a hopeful message." "Does that mean I'm burning a hole?" "[Snap, hiss]" "[Laughs] That means you burned a hole." "[Timer beeps] 52 seconds." "I'll bet that hole is part of the design process." "I'll bet that's made to fail just in that exact way." "This thing is made to not blow." "How are we gonna get it to blow?" "NARRATOR:" "Don't you hate it when something you've paid good money for won't break the way you want it to?" "As for blowing this thing the mythical 50 feet, 50 miles looks just as likely." "This is failing, but it's failing safely." "We don't want a safe failure." "We want a kaboom." "We want this thing to become a projectile." "So next thing we're thinking of is putting heat right here at the neck, away from this safety release, away from this O-ring, away from this plastic, hopefully to get enough pressure in this gas chamber" "to cause the catastrophic failure we're looking for." " JAMIE:" "The metal." " ADAM:" "That looks good." " JAMIE:" "Okay." " ADAM:" "Great." "JAMIE:" "Oh, it's getting it red hot there." "Yeah, that's really fast." "NARRATOR:" "And a rapid heat spike might just do the trick." "[Air hisses]" "Then again, it might not." "Too much heat too quickly." "Too much heat too quickly." "NARRATOR:" "This failure to launch becomes all the more frustrating when Adam and Jamie get new intelligence from the researchers." "They've found a real live person who's experienced a genuine exploding-bumper event." "Oakland firefighter Jennifer Schmid wasn't just a witness." "She was a casualty." "Can you tell us what happened?" "Sure." "We got called one night for a vehicle fire in someone's driveway up next to a house." "When we got there, the car was on fire." "So I pulled the hose line around to the side of the car... the right side..." "and started to put the nozzle up under the wheel well to put the flames out." "And that's when we heard the first of two explosions at that point." "I thought, initially, that it was the right front tire that exploded, 'cause I've heard and seen that several times during car fires." "And I moved in front of the car." "And just as I opened the nozzle, we heard another explosion, and that's when something hit my legs." "And I was knocked to the ground and started yelling for help." "I had no idea what happened." "ADAM:" "So it turned out to be the bumper that hit you?" "SCHM ID:" "Yes, and they brought the bumpers, actually, to the hospital to show me." "So it was kind of scary to see that." "What were the extent of your injuries?" "Well, the bumper hit both legs, but it only broke my left lower leg, and it broke both bones..." "the tibia and the fibula." "The tibia was broken in about 20 pieces." "Wow!" "So, pretty significant." "NARRATOR:" "But our myth from the fan site is a bit more extreme." "There's no doubt that Jennifer was badly injured, but bits of this bumper flew 15 feet, not 50." "Still, this firsthand account of Jen's trauma inspires Adam to rethink his methods." "ADAM:" "The difference between our setup and the real world is that that shock is usually mounted to a bumper, and the bumper in question is a massive piece of aluminum about a quarter-inch thick that is acting as a heat sink... i.e., it is pulling heat away from the end of that bumper," "exactly where we're finding one of the most effective safety valves." "So we're going to bolt back a piece of bumper onto that shock, heat it in the same place, and see if we get a different result." "[Clangs]" "There you go." "One big heat sink coming up." "NARRATOR:" "And a finishing touch from Jamie." "This is perforated metal." "I'm gonna wire a couple of these pieces on there, and so hopefully this will spread the heat out to where we don't end up with a red-hot molten area that will burst the chamber before it, like, explodes the way we want it to." "I hope this one works." "Me too." "These one-in-a-million myths kick our ass every time." "NARRATOR:" "And these two must have targets tattooed on their own rear bumpers." "After five minutes..." " [Air hisses]" " ADAM:" "Oh." " That was it." " Where did that come from?" "Looks like it blew a hole in that front part." "JAMIE:" "Where it did before?" "ADAM:" "Yeah." "Damn it!" "I don't think we can do anything more with this." "NARRATOR:" "It could take a lifetime of testing to replicate what must be a one-in-a-million occurrence, and the boys might have better things to do with their twilight years." "I think we have to abandon it." "NARRATOR:" "But if you think they're giving up before we see a bumper go ballistic, just remember, you're watching "Mythbusters."" "1!" "NARRATOR:" "Despite the best efforts of our amateurs..." "TORY:" "Yeah!" "Got 'em!" "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "And the pros, inconsistent data means that our medieval-archery myth remains unresolved." "The legend we're testing is that expert Eastern European archers got twice the penetration shooting from horseback." "To bust or confirm it, man and beast need to take a backseat." "Mounted archers were amazing." "But the results... just not consistent enough to call it." "Yeah, to make this an accurate experiment, we need to have the speed of the horse, the speed of the arrow, and the accuracy all be repeatable." "And with humans and horses in the equation, that's just not gonna happen." "All right, well, why don't we get rid of both?" "We'll replace the bow with a crossbow that's calibrated to a medieval bow, and then we'll replace the horse with a vehicle." "So that way, we make sure it's going at the same speed every time." "And to make sure that we're firing from the same place every time, we can mount the crossbow." "This is gonna be great." "I know the perfect vehicle." "I'll go get it." "Okay, he'd better not be going for my car." "But then you'll have a crossbow attached to your car." "[Horse neighs]" "GRANT:" "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "Kari's wheels are safe for now." "Grant's already sourced a replacement horse that will do 40 miles per hour every time, guaranteed." "TORY:" "Oh, my God!" "It's perfect!" "NARRATOR:" "The Jeep comes fitted with what looks like a .50-cal. machine gun." "Does this work?" "No, no, it's a replica." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "Tory plans to replace that with a compound crossbow." "Naturally, he'll have to test it first." "So now for one of those definitive" ""don't try this at home" moments." "Well, it looks like it's accurate." "Now whether or not it's consistent..." "I'll find out." "NARRATOR:" "While Tory sets the platform for a more credible set of crossbow tests Kari carves out a hood ornament that honors the origins of the myth." "KARI:" "We have to take the horse out of the equation, but I don't want to take it out entirely 'cause, really, it's the essence of the myth." "So I'm gonna dress up our car so it looks a little more like a horse." "NARRATOR:" "Meantime, Tory's found a target to test the consistency of the penetration." "That would be the back of Grant's head." "[Laughs]" "NARRATOR:" "As you'd expect, the damage done to the jelly brain is almost the same from each shot." "21/8 inches." "NARRATOR:" "And Tory's fine-tuned the bow speed back to a more leisurely medieval pace." "We're taking out a few variables here so we can just get down to that one little question." "Our horse is now a car horse." "That way, we don't have all of the jostling and we have a constant speed." "Because the horses, they just weren't getting it when I was explaining to them to go one speed." "NARRATOR:" "With a horse head to the fore and a horse tail aft, this custom Jeep is undeniably one-of-a-kind, especially when the whole thing is sprayed in "we mean business" black." "KARI: "Black Shoot-y." That's her name." "Black Shoot-y." "Get it?" "NARRATOR:" "But Grant's head is way too small to be a viable target." "So the man himself offers up an alternative with a similar density to the flesh of a barbarian enemy." "Now, this foam is gonna make a great target for comparing the penetrating power of our arrows." "But I think it's missing a little something." "I think it's missing that hint of realism." "NARRATOR:" "Time to dress down for the occasion." "What exactly are we?" "We're ancient warriors." "It's not really very accurate, but..." "Yeah." "We're the invading horde." " [Laughs]" " Okay?" "All right." " This isn't the History Channel." " GRANT:" "Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "Grant sets the timer on the camera, and the crew do their best to say "cheese" in barbarian." "[Roaring]" "NARRATOR:" "We're left with a happy snap well and truly fit for a big foam dart board." " KARI: [Coughs]" " Good." "I thought that was good." "Yeah, it felt convincing to me." "I felt angry." "That was good." "NARRATOR:" "It's one thing to ride a horse at speed without falling off." "It's at least twice as hard to drop the reins and shoot an arrow." "But will that arrow get twice the penetration?" "TORY:" "I think we're ready to attack." "NARRATOR:" "Kari, Tory, and Grant began testing their medieval-archery myth with real horses and a handheld bow." "Oh!" "So close!" "NARRATOR:" "For the sake of consistency, they've changed up to a Jeep and a crossbow." "But the principle is just the same." "Could a modest 40-miles-per-hour running start double the depth of the arrow?" "[Laughs]" "GRANT:" "Huh?" "We got our own billboard." "Xena, Conan..." "Papa Smurf?" "NARRATOR:" "Hopefully, they've nailed the consistency." "But let's remember that this myth rests entirely on added momentum." "Tory needs to shoot at speed precisely 60 feet short of the target." "60 feet." "Right here." "NARRATOR:" "It's a legend that's been hotly debated for 500 years." "So I guess we can hang on for a few more minutes to call it confirmed, plausible, or busted." "[Horns honking]" "Back in the 1930s, there was nothing funnier than watching an automobile deconstruct after a minor collision." "Okay, it's still funny." "I told you not to make that last payment." "NARRATOR:" "But these days, we're less inclined to laugh at catastrophic car failure." "Adam and Jamie have gone into meltdown trying to replicate the myth of the exploding bumper." "[Snap, hiss]" "Jennifer Schmid said the bumper that broke her leg traveled just 15 feet." "But the myth we're working with says 50." "So far, Adam and Jamie haven't managed to shoot a bumper 5 inches." "Damn it!" "Man, this one is kicking my butt." "I mean, we are just not seeing any of the exploding-bumper action we're trying to get out of these shocks." "Well, yeah, but it kind of makes sense." "I mean, these things are designed to not fail catastrophically." "We still have to get that shot." "We still have to see a bumper shooting 50 feet through the air." "So how do we get that?" " When in doubt, C-4." " [Chuckles]" "Well, maybe not C-4, but you get the picture." "[Laughing] Yeah, I do." "NARRATOR:" "So now, throwing caution and custom to the wind, they're engineering the spectacle we've all been begging for." "Jamie cuts two massively up-scaled pistons, and the plan here is to stuff them with sand, water, and explosives." "The best venue in these situations, as always, is the bomb range." "Like a surgeon." "Nicely done." "We've got one main thing to do before we run this experiment, which is attach the bumper to the car." "It's got a little more support than your average bumper." "These explosive pistons are about 14 inches deep, and I need to hog out enough of the car's structure to get this puppy in there to attach the bumpers." "NARRATOR:" "Adam enthusiastically hogs out the front end, making room for Jamie's up-scaled hand-built pistons." "ADAM:" "I think that's pretty much it." "NARRATOR:" "Now for the explosive bit." "To make it happen, we've re-enlisted the man who set a similar charge for "Motorcycle Flip,"" "pyrotechnician Matt Heron." "Boom?" "Ba-boom." "We're ramping it up, which is kind of what we do on this show." "So in this case, what we're doing here is putting the same amount of gunpowder that we used just a little while ago on "Motorcycle Flip"" "to shoot a motorcycle that weighed, you know, 250 pounds or so straight up in the air." "[Laughs] Well, the timing was perfect." "If you say so, Junior." "[Laughs]" "In this case, all we've got to do is launch about 50 or 75 pounds straight that way, so it's going." "So, what do you think?" "Charge in the end, sand the rest of the way?" "Sounds like a plan." "Yeah." "NARRATOR:" "Adam's plan is to place a mannequin exactly 50 feet in front of the car, just like the myth says." "[British accent] Oh, be cooperative, love." "NARRATOR:" "For some reason, he's overcome by an urge to paint it red." "ADAM: [Normal voice] Well, that increases its visibility." "NARRATOR:" "Meantime, Jamie's focused on the details of the detonations." "Now, instead of compressed gas, we're going to put some gunpowder and a bunch of wet sand in here." "Okay." "JAMIE:" "Why the wet sand?" "Well, if we just packed this with gunpowder, we'd have a pipe bomb." "So the wet sand actually acts as a shock absorber for the gunpowder, and it translates that bang into forward movement." "NARRATOR:" "Matt connects both charges to the same circuit." "HERON:" "This is my favorite part." "NARRATOR:" "So the two shocks should blow simultaneously." "Jamie lards up the cylinders to minimize the friction." "JAMIE:" "That ought to do it." "NARRATOR:" "And the bumper gets refitted nice and tight." "HERON:" "That's good right there." "Perfect." "What do you think?" "I think we're gonna hit this guy." "I think this thing's gonna fly 50 feet." "I have a good feeling." "I think the bumper's gonna stay still and the car's gonna go up the hill." " You don't really think that." " No." "Yeah, I didn't think so." "NARRATOR:" "So Matt sets the twin fuses." " We're fully armed?" " We're hot." "NARRATOR:" "And hopefully, we're about to get the finish we've come to expect." "All right, simulated bumper blast in 3, 2, 1." "ADAM:" "Ooh." "Damn." "Wow." "[Laughter]" "We may have overdone that." "NARRATOR: "Overdone" is a word we discourage here on "Mythbusters."" "The trajectory was perfect." "The mannequin's a shattered wreck, and, hey, we got what we came for." "Well, it definitely flew 50 feet." "JAMIE:" "[Chuckles]" "Oh, look." "It's up there on the hill." "ADAM:" "Wow." "Looks like we're gonna have to get another dummy." "ADAM:" "[Laughs]" "We go through these mannequins like candy." "[Laughing] I know." "NARRATOR:" "They had to fudge the method, but now we have an insight into how unlikely a 50-foot blast must be." "The bumper that smashed Jennifer's leg broke in three because the two shocks didn't explode in unison." "We needed Matt's expertise and two plugs of gunpowder to make that happen." "Still..." "JAMIE:" "These red stripes right here... those are your kneecaps." "Now, granted, we might have exaggerated a little bit with this." "But we know that this did happen with a very similar device with a car fire." "So if you see a car fire, you shouldn't stand around it." "You might get hurt." "I'm pretty happy." "We came here to make a bumper fly 50 feet, and we totally exceeded that." "It's a good test." "NARRATOR:" "Hey, it's a great test." "But simultaneous catastrophic failure and a 50-foot launch?" "No way in the wide world." "This one's busted." "Grant, Kari, and Tory are testing the myth that an arrow fired from a galloping horse has twice the penetration of an arrow fired from rest." "They've had to make a few adjustments along the way." "GRANT:" "Even with trained horses, they might gallop at a different speed on each run." "And even with expert archers, sometimes you might draw back the bow just a little bit further." "So what we're doing right now is getting rid of all those variables." "NARRATOR:" "So the horse becomes a Jeep, and the medieval bow gets replaced by a modern crossbow." "The changes are essential for reliable, repeatable testing." "The first set of data points we're gonna take are our static shots." "We're going to shoot a bunch of arrows into our target." "I'm gonna mark and measure each one, and that way we'll have a great comparison for when we actually do our moving shots." "NARRATOR:" "Tory's ready to rip through 10 arrows in quick succession from a standing start." "TORY:" "In 3, 2, 1." "Fire." "Fire." "Nice." "TORY:" "In 3, 2, 1." "Oh!" "Ooh!" "NARRATOR:" "He is consistent." "But there's an unsettling pattern developing here." "That was a little too close for comfort there." "NARRATOR:" "Still, nice grouping." "3, 2, 1." "Oh, ho ho!" "Right in the ding-dong!" "NARRATOR:" "Now it's up to Kari to mark the depth of each shaft..." "That one had to hurt, right there in the genetic legacy." "Ow." "It's like I was aiming or something." "NARRATOR:" "...then put her back into it." "10 test arrows should give us a good average static depth to work from." "KARI:" "The average from our static shots is 8.77 inches of penetration." "So now we're going to take our moving shots and compare the two." "Here we go." "NARRATOR:" "Grant revs the Jeep like it's a rental..." "[Engine revving] ...then gets it up to speed." "Tory steadies, aims... and makes one tiny mistake." "I got excited!" "I got so excited I forgot to take the safety off." "Okay." "Good practice run, everyone." "This one's for real." "[Laughs]" "TORY:" "Good time, everyone." "All right." "Hi-ho, Shoot-y!" "Away!" "GRANT:" "All right." "13, 17..." "NARRATOR:" "Now, let's see if Tory can keep his composure and hit the target." "TORY:" "Yeah!" "[Laughs]" "Go." "Oh!" " Yeah!" " Yeah!" "Yeah!" "NARRATOR:" "The first three shots found a steady latitude." "One hit the shield, one hit Tory, and the last hit Kari in her favorite kidney." "[Laughs] I keep forgetting we're trying to get, like, some actual data from all this." "GRANT:" "Yeah." "Oops." "TORY:" "I thought we were just having fun." "Yeah, don't forget to do the science." "[Both laugh]" "NARRATOR:" "Yeah." "Let's not forget the science." "These 10 running shots will bust or confirm the myth that arrows shot forwards at 40 miles per hour bury themselves twice as deep in the target." "You're ready to go." "NARRATOR:" "Tory turns out to be a natural-born archer." "If shooting a crossbow from the back of a moving Jeep was an Olympic sport..." "Actually, why isn't it?" " Whoo-hoo!" " Whoo-hoo!" " Oh, I could do this all day!" " GRANT: [Laughs]" "I got to remember to stop." "I just want to keep going." "TORY:" "This just never gets old." "NARRATOR:" "But Tory's down to his last arrow." "Ready when you are." "NARRATOR:" "And so far, barbarian dwarf Grant is unscathed." "KARI:" "Whoo!" "Yeah!" "TORY:" "Got the gnome!" "You got the dwarf!" "TORY:" "I got the gnome!" "KARI:" "Yeah!" "You got the little bearded Grant!" "Aw, man!" "You think you were gonna get out of this battle unscathed?" "I don't think so, friend." "All right." "Now for the fun part!" " Yeah!" " Yeah!" "Data!" "I'm gonna go do math." "Don't be jealous." "NARRATOR:" "Once more," "Kari marks the shafts exactly where they pierced the foam." "And they're even harder to extract than last time." "Well, they feel like they've gone in further." "NARRATOR:" "Now for the tale of the tape, as Kari measures the penetration of all 10 arrows shot from a 40-mile-per-hour running start." "KARI:" "The figures are actually pretty interesting." "We are getting an average of 11 inches with all the moving shots, which is a little over 2 inches more penetration than all the static shots." "So we are getting more penetration, but it's not the double that the myth actually claims." "Fire." "NARRATOR:" "If it was double, these arrows would have buried themselves all the way up to their feathers." "Okay, Kari." "So, what do you got?" "Well, for the static shots, I got an average of 8.77." "Now, for the moving shots," "I got an average of 11.04 inches." "All right, well, before we call this one busted," "I think we need to go back to the shop, double-check the high speed and see what the speeds of the arrows were." "[All cheering]" "The key to this myth is penetration." "But after measuring our arrows, this one's busted." "Yeah, and we used bead foam, which has a similar density to both our ballistic material and the human body, and we only got 25% more penetration, which is far from what their stories told." "And that was backed up by our high-speed footage, which showed that our iron horse increased the speed of our arrows by 31%, resulting in only a 72% increase in kinetic energy." "Not quite double." "Yeah, but you got to give it to them..." "Riding horseback did give them some advantage." "It just wasn't exactly as much as they bragged about." "Yeah, but that being said, the arrows still didn't go twice as deep, so this one's busted." "Busted." "Busted."