MYTHBUSTERS 4/20: "Running on Water"

[Christopher]

Running on Water: Gods, what a stupid myth. This one's a total no-brainer. Water-repellent shoes? How would those help you run on water? You don't sink in water because your shoes absorb it, but because your weight displaces it. Repelling water wouldn't repel gravity. It's an incredibly stupid, bogus video. Obviously there's a plank under the water. It's a common special effect in movies (e.g. Superman II), and a very simple one. It was nice seeing the guys demonstrate how to create the illusion at the end, but I wish they hadn't wasted so much time testing something so nonsensical. I miss the days when they fit three myths or more into an episode, rather than doing two and padding them out to fill the space.

The "Jesus lizard" rigs were kind of fun, though. I wondered if maybe the "shovel shoes" rig would work if, instead of trying to waddle in from the ground, you started out in the water and tried to get up to speed with them and get some lift, like water-skiing.


What is Bomb-Proof?: As it happens, io9 did an essay about a similar topic just days ago:

http://io9.com/#!5793265/how-big-an-explosion-could-you-realistically-survive

That suggests that the Mythbusters may have been overoptimistic here. I wonder how reliable those burst discs really are. The article suggests that death can come from pressure changes as low as 40 PSI, even less if the change is fast enough. Also, I think the 'busters were focusing too much on immediate fatality and not considering the prospect of an injury (like ruptured intestines or lungs) severe enough to cause death swiftly if not immediately treated.

And come on, even if that brick wall saved you from the blast wave, it didn't save you from having a freakin' brick wall fall on you.

 

[Trekker4747]

Meh, episode. Fun, but meh.

I knew the running on water thing was going to be disaster when part of the claim of the myth was "really wanting it." Because that's how physics work, because we really want them to.



The myth also seemed hinged on the water-repellent shoes, because that's how water-repellent shoes work. That people who generated the viral video obviously relied on people being idiots.

Seeing Jamie and Adam's rigs for running on water were fairly fun, however, if impractical. They sort of reminded me of this:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aABFs6oYJbU[/yt]

The "bomb proof" myth was fun too but, as Christopher said, seemed to ignore a lot of the collateral damage that could come from a bomb and I've never trusted the "burst discs" either. (Nor do I trust the shock-watch stickers they're often fond of on the show.) I suppose it could be "possible" in some cases and, I guess, if you're trying to eascape a bomb what else are you going to do?

 

[Forbin]

Yeah, I kinda saw the water-myth results coming a mile away.
This ep was good for a few good explosions, and some cute Kari shots. Forgettable otherwise.

 

[dru]

Ugh. That was too lame. There are so few episodes I can't believe they wasted one on these non-myths.

Didn't they do a walking on water one before with a pool?

 

[Marc]

Ugh. That was too lame. There are so few episodes I can't believe they wasted one on these non-myths.

Didn't they do a walking on water one before with a pool?

Yeah when they were doing Ninja myths.

 

[Forbin]

At least the ducks seemed amused.

 

[Professor Zoom]

And come on, even if that brick wall saved you from the blast wave, it didn't save you from having a freakin' brick wall fall on you.

They kept saying they weren't testing about shrapnel, etc. Just the pressure wave.

 

[Christopher]

But they were testing for shrapnel -- that was the whole point of the styrofoam cutouts. So why include them as an element of the test and then barely talk about the results? There was maybe one line about shrapnel near the end. Maybe there was more discussion that got cut out.

 

[Professor Zoom]

But they were testing for shrapnel -- that was the whole point of the styrofoam cutouts. So why include them as an element of the test and then barely talk about the results? There was maybe one line about shrapnel near the end. Maybe there was more discussion that got cut out.

They brought up they were testing the blast, not the shrapnel around the table test, actually.

If they were honestly testing the shrapnel, then foam is a weak analogue. I think it was more for show than any honest testing.

 

[Trekker4747]

Unfortunately the Aftershow doesn't give much insight into what's going on behind the scenes in the "bomb proof" myth.

I'd still argue that if you're running from an impending bomb finding cover would be the best choice as you're not going to be able to out-run an explosion.

I wonder who.... "viable" the cinder-block wall is? Cement needs days if not weeks to fully cure and harden so that it's viable and has made a strong "bond" with the cinder blocks. The wall in the explosion falls apart with the blocks still mostly intact which makes me wonder if the cement hadn't fully cured, dried out, and hardened.

 

[Roger Wilco]

^^
It seemed to me like distance made a big difference, (at least with the size bomb they used) even it's just a couple meters.

And you're probably right about the wall. Also, a larger wall with support on the sides (like a house) is probably more structurally safe than such a stand-alone piece.

 

[Trekker4747]

^^
It seemed to me like distance made a big difference, (at least with the size bomb they used) even it's just a couple meters.

True but my thought is you run as fast as you can to the nearest solid object and hide behind it not keep running in hopes of out-running the explosion.

It'd be interesting if they had tested to see what the furthest distance someone could run before the bomb goes off and see if that person would have survived over the person(s) in the various shelters using the bust disks/whatever methods.

See if passing up that car or that dumpster for the sake of more distance would have been the better choice.

 

[Christopher]

Unfortunately the Aftershow doesn't give much insight into what's going on behind the scenes in the "bomb proof" myth.

I'd still argue that if you're running from an impending bomb finding cover would be the best choice as you're not going to be able to out-run an explosion.

Well, it depends on how much time you have before the blast. As they showed, if you can get at least 20 feet away before it goes off, then you're safe from the blast wave, though the shrapnel could still kill you. But as the io9 article I linked discussed, if you're close enough to be affected by the blast wave, then just being behind something won't necessarily protect you, and being in an enclosed space could be even worse because it would amplify the blast effects. And there's the risk of the object being blown over on top of you. (I was wondering about the broken glass from the car, how dangerous that could be to the person hiding behind it.)

So it seems the best bet is a two-pronged strategy -- run as far away as you can before the explosion to diminish the impact of the blast wave, then duck behind something to protect yourself from shrapnel.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Is this one different than the one they did where they used some kind of gel to thicken the surface? It sounds very familiar.

 

[Trekker4747]

The earlier one was something about a myth on special shoes ninjas wore to walk across water Jamie and Adam tried the shoes that supposedly existed in the tale as well as their own "designs" and they ended up using corn-starch (and blue dye) in water to make it more dense/gelatin-like as the "how far you'd have to go duplicating the result" portion of their process. This episode's "myth" was debunk of a specific viral video with certain conditions (the water-repelling shoes, the angle of attack and the "believing it" part. () and apparently done at viewer-request.)

 

[Professor Zoom]

The particular viral video busting was a little lame.

I think anyone with half a brain would really the video was faked. So spending half an episode on it... lame.

 

[Trekker4747]

The particular viral video busting was a little lame.

I think anyone with half a brain would really the video was faked. So spending half an episode on it... lame.

Well, they did also have to debunk the viral video of someone unlocking a car door by pumping a tennis ball's worth of air into the lock, telling people it was likely staged by someone out-of-frame holding the key fob.

I wouldn't underestimate the stupidity of people out there.

 

[Professor Zoom]

The particular viral video busting was a little lame.

I think anyone with half a brain would really the video was faked. So spending half an episode on it... lame.

Well, they did also have to debunk the viral video of someone unlocking a car door by pumping a tennis ball's worth of air into the lock, telling people it was likely staged by someone out-of-frame holding the key fob.

I wouldn't underestimate the stupidity of people out there.

But DID they? I mean, was there this outcry of people going, well, water proof shoes it MUST BE TRUE!

I hadn't even SEEN this video of guys running on water...

I think it's less of a they HAD to debunk because people believe it (like the moon landing hoax episode) and more... what can we do this week? It feels like they're stretching their mission.

It's mythbusters not hoaxbusters.

 

[Trekker4747]

Only thing I can do is go look at their fan site, dig through the older posts in the requests forum, and see how much this was demanding to be tested. I'm not going to do that because the Mythbusters forums are a lot like TNZ only with a lot worse syntax, a lot more douche-baggery, and one of the most cumbersome BBS systems this side of the AOL Forums circa 1998.