Mythbuster Compilation
January 24, 2007 8:08 PM   Subscribe

Every Mythbuster myth in nifty graph form on one page. Quick and easy reference to each myth busted, confirmed, or plausible.
posted by GatorDavid (38 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
The lengths people will go to get asavage to comment on one of their FPPs...
posted by c:\awesome at 8:33 PM on January 24, 2007


Why do people assume Mythbusters actually busts myths? Is it just because they adopt a pseudo-scientific posture on TV? For fuck's sake whatever happened to not believing everything you see on TV?
posted by nixerman at 8:34 PM on January 24, 2007 [1 favorite]


ahhh. If Adam pops up, I have a question about the disposable lighter myth.

Did you dismiss a lighter exploding in a car? I've come back to my car twice and found a lighter I have left on the dashboard in pieces (quite relieved that it didn't catch alight). This was in England on sunny days. (Sunny days in England are not a myth..)
posted by Frasermoo at 8:34 PM on January 24, 2007


"Quick and easy reference"

Sure, if I want to click each little box to find a specific myth. Is there anything that shows a list?

But this it still pretty cool
posted by niles at 8:36 PM on January 24, 2007


whatever happened to not believing everything you see on TV?

When did that start? I only believe the internet.
posted by The Deej at 8:52 PM on January 24, 2007


niles: try mousing over. Your status bar might show the title of the myth...
posted by R343L at 9:04 PM on January 24, 2007


Why do people assume Mythbusters actually busts myths?

Why do you consistently piss all over everything in sight? IT IS A MYSTERY.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 9:11 PM on January 24, 2007 [1 favorite]


"niles: try mousing over. Your status bar might show the title of the myth..."

No good in IE or Firefox, but I'll take your word for it.

Why don't I ever get nice things?

posted by niles at 9:30 PM on January 24, 2007


Kind of cool, but as other have stated, there are alot better ways to organize the information. That page is like Edward Tufte antimatter.
posted by Spacelegoman at 9:43 PM on January 24, 2007


asavage ... I SUMMON THEE!

This never seems to work, but maybe, just this once...
posted by frogan at 10:13 PM on January 24, 2007


Mythbuster Results
posted by aye at 10:17 PM on January 24, 2007


It has come full circle.
posted by Rhomboid at 10:17 PM on January 24, 2007


Awesome. I've never seen the show, but the descriptions sound really cool.
posted by russilwvong at 10:24 PM on January 24, 2007


Frasermoo: I have seen a disposable lighter explode after being put on hot concrete. We were talking to the woman in the house behind us and she thought I was being a dick and trying to scare her dogs.

Unfortunately there are a metric shitload of myths involved in that site, so I am unsure if that's related to the myth you're talking about. x/y co-ordinates would be helpful
posted by Sparx at 10:49 PM on January 24, 2007


Confirmed: A Decomposing Body Can Destroy the Car's Interior.

Fuck. I gotta go get 'er out.
posted by jimmythefish at 11:27 PM on January 24, 2007


Confirmed: A Decomposing Body Can Destroy the Car's Interior.

Fuck. I gotta go get 'er out.

Wait, I'm not done yet.
posted by secret about box at 11:47 PM on January 24, 2007 [3 favorites]


> Sure, if I want to click each little box to find a specific myth. Is there anything that shows a list?

Wikipedia: One season per page with full descriptions of premises and conclusions.
posted by ardgedee at 2:16 AM on January 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


Why do people assume Mythbusters actually busts myths? Is it just because they adopt a pseudo-scientific posture on TV? For fuck's sake whatever happened to not believing everything you see on TV?

There should be negative favorites on Metafilter. That would be way cooler than positive favorites. Then I could give the sort of feedback I long to give--and do it in an easily clickable ajax format, without all these sentences and so on.

80% of the enjoyment in the show comes from the interaction between the cast members, as well as the inventive (and sometimes zany) ways they come up with to test the myths in question. Your life must be a fucking bore if you take everything so seriously.

-----

GatorDavid: as a bit of a Mytbusters fanboy (it's a very entertaining way to pass an hour), I was entertained by this link. It's a neat way to look at a breakdown of the results they've come up with over the past couple years.

My favorite result is also the most useful result: the episode wherein they tested the quickest way to bring a beer down to a desirable drinking temperature (one Mr. Savage also used to respond to a question on AskMe one day). Fun!
posted by The God Complex at 2:17 AM on January 25, 2007


I *heart* MythBusters... I even have a signed Adam and Jamie photo.

Oh jeeze. That's a bit tragic isn't it?
posted by sycophant at 2:22 AM on January 25, 2007


I *heart* MythBusters... I even have a signed Adam and Jamie photo.

Oh jeeze. That's a bit tragic isn't it?


I always have an incredible urge to shave off Jamie's mustache whenever I watch the show. Were I to every be in their proximity in real life, I'm not sure I could control the urge...
posted by The God Complex at 2:26 AM on January 25, 2007


IT IS A MYSTERY.

Yes, it's mythterious.
posted by Wolof at 2:40 AM on January 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


I always have an incredible urge to shave off Jamie's mustache whenever I watch the show.

Think of it this way. This guy has a shop, lots of tools, good contacts, and a TV contract.

He'll kill you in a vastly entertaining way, and the film will be on the net within a day.
posted by eriko at 5:16 AM on January 25, 2007 [1 favorite]


getting to work early has never been so much fun.

what's that? these posts are timestamped? well, I started reading about 30 minutes ago.
posted by paul_smatatoes at 7:09 AM on January 25, 2007


Why do you consistently piss all over everything in sight? IT IS A MYSTERY.

Here's a clue: nixerman
posted by Kirth Gerson at 7:40 AM on January 25, 2007


Well Dang! A casual click-through busts one of my treasured beliefs: that a silver spoon will preserve the bubbles in an opened bottle of champagne.

I really enjoy the occasional glass (or two) of champagne but Mr. Knucklehead Gravy not so much, so I liked the idea of being able to open a bottle and just having a glass (or two.) The silver spoon myth was floated to me by the proprietor of a fine wine and spirits shop, and come Valentine's Day (or some random Wednesday) I intended to open that bottle of Krug and have a glass (or two.)
posted by Secret Life of Gravy at 7:56 AM on January 25, 2007


this was addictive.
posted by altman at 8:11 AM on January 25, 2007


Why do you consistently piss all over everything in sight? IT IS A MYSTERY.

Not such a mystery. It's the bright colors. Yellow, orange, red -- all of these colors incite aggression and trigger the fight-or-flight reflex.... that's not a myth.
posted by nixerman at 8:20 AM on January 25, 2007


No duh, Frylock. Ith a mytherry.
posted by loquacious at 11:02 AM on January 25, 2007


I always have an incredible urge to shave off Jamie's mustache whenever I watch the show.

What the hell are you talking about? Are you insane? Jamie receives all his super-human powers from that 'stache. It is his triforce.
posted by afx114 at 12:19 PM on January 25, 2007


nixerman : Why do people assume Mythbusters actually busts myths? Is it just because they adopt a pseudo-scientific posture on TV?

I don't know, I'm a pretty faithful viewer, and I'd be hard pressed to fault the science on most of their tests. And in the few instances where I saw something that I would have done differently, invariably they end up coming back to it when a bunch of people write in and point out the mistake. In some of their viewer response episodes, they show stuff that got cut out of the actual initial airing (usually because it wasn't all that interesting, or ended up not proving or disproving anything) but because we don't see it doesn't mean that they don't do it.

Can you give any examples of where their science was not accurate? Or where their "pseudo-scientific posture" came at the expense of a correct answer? Or are you just hating because you don't like something that lots of other people clearly enjoy?

For fuck's sake whatever happened to not believing everything you see on TV?


I've been asking people who watch FOX news this same question for years.
posted by quin at 12:42 PM on January 25, 2007


Mythbusters does not always employ the scientific method as intelligently or rigorously (or at all) as I would like but the show is usually entertaining. And when they do fail to do so (or the editors of their show make it look like they fail, which I suspect in at least one case I noticed) it's usually still informative to see what they DO rule out.

Put another way: it's tv, what I expect from it, better than the average show, and worth what I paid for it.
posted by phearlez at 12:58 PM on January 25, 2007


They don't apply the scientific method because most of the things they're testing aren't scientifically verifiable postulates. Too many conditions to control, criteria that has to be too subjective, etc. They aren't trying to determine how much NaNo3 will dissolve in 5M HCl, they're trying to produce entertainment and interesting factoids at the end of the show. Just how would test -scientifically- that an ice/meat/gel bullet wouldn't work? Proving a negative is really, really hard. I'll give you a hint: it involves doing an infinite amount of trials.
posted by tehloki at 5:09 PM on January 25, 2007


Interesting, but it looks like (?) they messed up the Cola Can Clean a Penny (Season 1) one (just to the left of the P in the middle row). From the description ("The cola was very good at cleaning the penny. The only part of the coin that wasn't cleaned was where a bubble had been sitting."), I'd think it would be a Confirmed, but it's marked as Busted.
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 11:57 PM on January 25, 2007


Sorry--just to the left of the P in the middle of the top row.
posted by sleeplessunderwater at 11:57 PM on January 25, 2007


sleepless: I noticed that too. A lot of myths that they confirmed or proved plausible on the show are marked "busted", even with descriptions that lean towards "confirmed" or "plausible".

Another beef: somehow, because they couldn't buy the right kind of jet engine to test the "car flipped over in jet airliner's wake" myth, they only marked it as "plausible", even though it actually happened and was documented by witnesses, newspaper articles, etc. Weird.
posted by tehloki at 8:35 AM on January 26, 2007


There's a video of that car-flipping, also. I think they used a Fiat and an airplane (not just the engine).
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:02 AM on January 26, 2007


Here it is. Not a Fiat, but the 747 blows the thing away.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 9:08 AM on January 26, 2007


There's Scientific Method and there's scientific method. I don't think it's asking too much for a simple control group, which they are usually pretty good about but not always. The one that sticks out for me in particular was one of the coke cleaning myths where they didn't include WATER as a control, meaning there was no way to tell if ANY moisture would have done the same thing. I think it was the blood cleaning one but it could have been another.
posted by phearlez at 8:36 AM on January 29, 2007


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