11 Times The MythBusters Took Their Job A Bit Too Far

There are plenty of explosions.

The MythBusters have filmed 2,950 experiments, investigated 1,050 myths, and created 900 super-entertaining explosions:

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Some moments, of course, myth-busted harder than other moments. These are those moments:

1. That time Adam tried to exercise his drunk ass to sobriety:

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The question: Does exercise really sober you up?

The experimental setup: Make Adam get wasted and run on a treadmill for five minutes.

The result: It's plausible! Adam fell down and got back up like a champ. After that, he shockingly had improved results on a motor skills test.

2. That time they fired a rocket-propelled grenade at a trailer just to see what would happen:

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The question: Can you stop an RPG coming toward you by firing a handgun at it?

The experimental setup: First step? Blow up a trailer, film it in slow motion, and see what happens.

The results: Myth busted! A large stream of molten copper projected forward from the explosion, making it unlikely a gun-wielding human could have any power over an incoming RPG.

3. That time they tried to get a test dummy to ride a bitchin' explosive shock wave:

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The question: Can you actually use the shock wave of an explosion to propel yourself forward like you see in the movies?

Experimental setup: Lift a dummy into the air with a tiny explosion, then use a second massive explosion to propel the airborne dummy forward.

The result: Myth busted! It didn't really work, not even with the attachment of a ridiculously large “sail.”

4. That time they had to admit that mice actually DO scare elephants:

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The question: Are elephants actually scared of mice?

The experimental setup: Put a mouse under a fake piece of dung and release the mouse at the last moment.

The result: Myth confirmed! Even after controlling for movement of the faux dung, the elephants were specifically scared of the mice, proving the skeptical MythBusters astonishingly wrong.

5. That time Tory fully regretted being a guinea pig:

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The question: Can a person hold onto a ledge indefinitely?

The experimental setup: Put Tory on a ledge and see how long he can hold on.

The result: Myth busted! But more importantly, Tory fell shin-first onto a ledge, causing a deep wound and copious amounts of blood.

6. That time Jamie mixed some oxygen into his propane-filled log cannon and destroyed the whole setup:

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The question: Can a wooden cannon filled with propane fire planks of wood?

The experimental setup: Having failed with propane, they decided to add some pure oxygen into their cannon.

The result: Myth busted! But more importantly, this final experiment caused an unexpectedly scary explosion followed by an adorable “oops.”

7. That time they overdid it trying to bust the science of a Breaking Bad scene:

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The question: Can you melt a corpse in a bathtub and the bathtub itself using acid?

The experimental setup: After failing to recreate the scene faithfully using hydrofluoric acid, they decided to go balls to the walls and create a super-reactive mixture of an acid and a catalyst to make it happen.

The result: Myth busted! They went too far, everything melted, and they ran away. And even then they still couldn't recreate the scene.

8. That time they dropped a dummy from 22,000 feet above and tried to counter the fall with a massive explosion:

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The question: Can the blast from a 1000-pound bomb break a 22,000 foot fall?

The experimental setup: Drop a dummy and blow up its landing area before it hits the ground.

The result: Myth busted! They missed the target, but the fire department had to be called in to stop the raging fires created by the explosion, making it unlikely a human could have survived even if dropped in the right spot.

9. That time they accidentally let a driverless Mustang make a beeline for a river:

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The question: Can a Chevrolet Corvette become a ramp that a Ford Mustang uses to do a barrel roll without damaging either car?

The experimental setup: Modify the cars' suspension system just right and use a guide wire to drive them toward each other.

The result: Myth busted! In this case, the Mustang went full AWOL, but even less realistic tests couldn't recreate the scene.

10. That time they thinly disguised their desire for a huge explosion by seeing how much TNT a cement truck could survive:

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The question: Can a stick of dynamite remove a slab of concrete from the inside of a cement truck?

The experimental setup: After showing that a stick of dynamite could plausibly remove concrete from the walls of the mixer, they decided to see if the truck could handle 850 pounds of ANFO, a powerful explosive.

The result: Original myth plausible! In their later "fun" test, though, the truck pretty much vaporized milliseconds after the explosion, suggesting that a cement truck is no match for 850 pounds of ANFO.

11. And of course — that time they LITERALLY blew a ship out of the water:

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The question: Can you lift a boat out of the water with a massive explosion without destroying it?

The experimental setup: A 48,000-pound steel-hulled boat was anchored 30 feet above 1,000 pounds of ANFO and ignited.

The results: Myth busted! The boat certainly got some altitude, but its structural integrity was more than lacking.

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