MythBusters/Border Slingshot

Border Slingshot
Season 2, Episode 22
Airdate	July 27, 2005
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MythBusters — Season Two

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Border Slingshot is the twenty-second episode of the second season of MythBusters, and the thirty-eighth episode overall.

Is it feasible to fly over the frontier? In this episode, Adam and Jamie take on the myth that illegal immigrants are firing themselves 200 yards across the border and into the United States with a slingshot so accurate, it can land the human projectiles safely on a carefully placed mattress. Border patrols are reportedly baffled — can the MythBusters' handbuilt human-sized slingshot solve the puzzle?

Guest Stars:

Boarder Slingshot

The Myth

Illegal immigrants are entering the United States by a giant slingshot that flings them 200 yards over the border and having them land on a matress.

The Test

They decide to first figure out what kind if power they will need to actually fling an object 200 yards, so they scale it down and do some tests with hand slingshots. They then determine what type of material will offer the best result. They try a variety of materials from climbing rope to medical tubing, doing a test using a large scale slingshot in which they fire a 1 KG weight. The material that yields the most results is the medical tubing flinging the weight the furthest. They then will try to fling a bowling ball which is 1/10th of Busters weight to determine how much force they would need. They go to a local football field and use the goal posts as a slingshot. After a few mistakes, they finally are able to launch the bowling ball, however nowhere near 200 yards. They then build the final slingshot using radio towers. To test, they will put as much tension on the tubing as possible, then they will let Buster fly. To achieve the needed tension, they pull the tubing by using a well co-ordinated system of trucks pulling the tubes. However after many failures, such as the dummies not leaving the seat, the tubes structure snapping, and a variety of problems, they finally are able to fling the dummy. However, it does not go as far as they hoped due to the dummy leaving the seat too early and spinning, causing it to lose much of its power.

The Result

Busted. Due to the incredible difficulty of flinging someone 200 yards and the size of a slingshot that would be needed, it would be impossible to do this, let alone them not being caught by the border police.