Mythbusters

jlckansas

I watch Mythbusters as much as possible on the Discovery Channel. I was trying to come up with some alt-hist myths that could be proven to maybe send into the show, they ask for ideas from the viewers all the time.

So any ideas folks? I am cross posting this to both the before and after 1900 forums.

My idea was the lead used by the Romans for water pipes, drinking vessels and liquid storage containers that some historians say was poisoning them and was wondering if this was true or not.
 

jlckansas

What got me to posting this thread was their show on Archimedes's Death Ray and the Confederate rocket that they did. And they showed that they just might not be ASB.
 
9 Fanged Hummingbird

9 Fanged Hummingbird

jlckansas said:
What got me to posting this thread was their show on Archimedes's Death Ray and the Confederate rocket that they did. And they showed that they just might not be ASB.
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IIRC they were both busted. The Confederate rocket didn't have anywhere near the range the myth stated and the Death Ray was busted outright.
 

Helios Ra

I believe they said that the only way to get the deathray to work was to leave the ships anchored, multiply the size and number of mirrors by several tens, and stop the earth's rotation and orbit to keep the sun in one place.
 

jlckansas

Yes I know they didn't work. But was trying to come up with some other ones that might be plausible. They did the Korean rocket one, a primitive MLRS/Katyusha setup that actually did work.
 

MikeTurcotte

I wouldn't mind seeing them try to bust/confirm some of the myths about ancient mariners; i.e. could the Romans have sailed to America. Also, test the 1421 Chinese discovery of America book (Don't know much about that one personally, but the whole 'Bimini Road was actually a pier for the Chinese Navy' things struck me as more farfetched than it being a wall from Atlantis).

Mike Turcotte
 

robertp6165

Hresvelgr said:
The Confederate rocket didn't have anywhere near the range the myth stated..."
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The one the Mythbusters constructed certainly didn't. That doesn't prove or disprove that the rocket was impossible.

One thing I dislike about the Mythbusters is that quite often they construct things that work, but declare the myth "busted" because it didn't meet some outrageous goal derived from the version of they particular myth they are using.
 
Tallest Skil

Tallest Skil

Banned
robertp6165 said:
The one the Mythbusters constructed certainly didn't. That doesn't prove or disprove that the rocket was impossible.

One thing I dislike about the Mythbusters is that quite often they construct things that work, but declare the myth "busted" because it didn't meet some outrageous goal derived from the version of they particular myth they are using.
Click to expand...

So, for example, Apple was rumored to release a tablet for Verizon. They released a tablet for AT&T. You're saying that the rumor was true because they did release a tablet. :rolleyes:
 

Ofaloaf

Tallest Skil said:
So, for example, Apple was rumored to release a tablet for Verizon. They released a tablet for AT&T. You're saying that the rumor was true because they did release a tablet. :rolleyes:
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Myth: Archimedes built a steam-cannon that could, from a harbor fort, effectively fire on Roman vessels chilling in the harbor.

What they did: First try, they welded a tube to an oil drum and then tried to boil the water inside the drum with charcoal bricquettes. Unsurprisingly, the cannon petered out. But then, they built something that actually resembled a boiler, but still used the piddly little flecks of coal or whatever it was to heat up the thing. Even without reaching optimum pressures, the cannon fired a ball off a mile. Because they used an unreasonably small heat source that took forever to warm up and their first model didn't work, they considered the whole thing Myth Busted.


That episode still russles my jimmies.
 

robertp6165

Tallest Skil said:
So, for example, Apple was rumored to release a tablet for Verizon. They released a tablet for AT&T. You're saying that the rumor was true because they did release a tablet. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

Not at all, and not really a valid example of what I was talking about. As you know, since in all likelihood you're just being a troll.

But in case you're really ignorant of what I'm talking about, I'm referring to things like the following, from episode 145...

MYTH: A person can slide down a supersized waterslide, launch off a ramp at the end, fly 115 feet (35 meters), and land in a kiddie pool with perfect accuracy. (Based off of a popular online video).

They busted this because they only got 72 feet distance instead of 115. They did prove that you could get the perfect accuracy part, just not the distance. Leaving aside the fact that the slide they built was not exactly a great one, the fact they got 72 feet from a very imperfect slide was quite impressive. I've seen them "bust" stuff where the difference between the "myth goal" and what was actually achieved was much smaller. Basically they bust anything that doesn't meet the "myth" exactly in all its particulars, and they would have busted this one if they got 114 instead of 115 feet. That's just what they do.
 
9 Fanged Hummingbird

9 Fanged Hummingbird

robertp6165 said:
Not at all, and not really a valid example of what I was talking about. As you know, since in all likelihood you're just being a troll.

But in case you're really ignorant of what I'm talking about, I'm referring to things like the following, from episode 145...

MYTH: A person can slide down a supersized waterslide, launch off a ramp at the end, fly 115 feet (35 meters), and land in a kiddie pool with perfect accuracy. (Based off of a popular online video).

They busted this because they only got 72 feet distance instead of 115. They did prove that you could get the perfect accuracy part, just not the distance. Leaving aside the fact that the slide they built was not exactly a great one, the fact they got 72 feet from a very imperfect slide was quite impressive. I've seen them "bust" stuff where the difference between the "myth goal" and what was actually achieved was much smaller. Basically they bust anything that doesn't meet the "myth" exactly in all its particulars, and they would have busted this one if they got 114 instead of 115 feet. That's just what they do.
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But that's the point. The myth was wrong. Like the confederate rocket, they weren't testing whether or not the Confederates could make such a device (well, they were, but that's only part of it), but they were also testing whether it could have any of the qualities the myth attributed to it. The rocket achieved very little accuracy or distance whereas the myth said it went very damn far. Therefore, myth busted. Or in your example, the myth wasn't whether they could go 72 feet, it was 115 feet. No prizes for getting halfway there.
 
Tallest Skil

Tallest Skil

Banned
robertp6165 said:
in all likelihood you're just being a troll.
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*looks at user title*
*questions sense of humor*
*questions basic understanding of the purpose of the show*

Example
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My point on this matter has already been further explained. But with something like this, how would you explain their coming to the conclusion of "Plausible" as they occasionally do?
 
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