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MythBusters/Cell Phone Destruction, Silicone Breasts, CD-ROM Shattering
| Cell Phone Destruction, Silicone Breasts, CD-ROM Shattering | |
 | |
| Season 1, Episode 2 | |
| Airdate | October 3, 2003 |
| ← 1x01 Ice Bullet, Exploding Toilet, Who Gets Wetter? |
1x03 → Barrel of Bricks, Pissing on the Third Rail, Eel Skin Wallet |
| MythBusters — Season One | |
Cell Phone Destruction, Silicone Breasts, CD-ROM Shattering is the second episode of the first season of MythBusters, and the fifth episode overall.
Can Cell Phones really make you explode at the Gas Pump? Can High Altitudes cause problems for Silicone Implants? Have computer drives reached dangerous Warp Speeds? In this episode Adam and Jamie try to find out.
Guest Stars:
Contents |
Cell Phone Destruction
The Myth
The use of a Cell Phone near a Gas Station, could case an accidental explosion
The Test
They build a blast chamber big enough to contain a large explosion, and able to control environmental conditions.
First test will be gas vapours and the Cell Phone ringing, to see if the Cell Phone causes the gas to ignite. On test day, the chamber fails to ignore when the mobile phone is ringing.
The second test, will test the theory that it is not actually the mobile phones causing the explosions, but people who get back into the car while the car is refilling, and build up a static charge, which in turn ignites the gasoline being filled into the car when they go to remove the pump. They create a Leyden Jar which will hold the static charge they get off clothing and car apolosthery. When it comes to testing this theory the first time, they cannot cause the gas to ignite by this method either.
In light of the first tests failing to disprove anything, and the want to see how they can actually make the gasoline explode, they go back to the lab to create a smaller version of the tests, with modified circumstances. Jamie creates a Jacobs Ladder to create a bigger spark to ignite the gasoline, which will be useful, as it has a higher voltage than the static electricity. On testing this, they are successfully able to make the gasoline ignite.
Adam has also improved his Leyden Jar, to a heavier-duty version. Also, they are getting a ideal blend of fuel and air. This time it ignites with the static electricity from the Leyden Jar.
They try again with the Cell Phone now that they have the ideal blend, but they cannot get it to ignite the gas.
On a second time out in the field to test it, the static electricity test fails to work again. In the end, to blow things up, they use an electricial spark to let things off.
The Result
Busted. While they could get it to ignite with static electricity, it was proved impossible for it to ignite because of the mobile phone.
Silicone Breasts
The Myth
When you go up in a plane, the reduction in pressure will explode your implants.
The Test
They create a body from Ballistics Gel women, which will have the implants inside. The body will go into a Pressure Chamber, so they can control high and low pressure situations.
As a parallel experiment, they put an implant in a jug of water, so that any changes, should be easy to see, because the water level will raise if the implant expands.
The first test, the implants are subjected to normal inflight cabin pressure (about 8,000 feet). Bubbles on the outside of the implant in the water seem to get bigger, and the water raised a tiny amount. There seems to be no actual size change on the implant. The next test, they raise the pressure to about 30,000 feet, an impossible height for humans, unless they were in a pressurised cabin. The implants do not appear to change. At high pressure also, there is no change in the implant.
On talking to a professional in the field of implants, they learn that even if the implant was to double or triple in size, the implant would not explode. They presume would be more likely to die from the Nitrogen bubbles that ended up in their brain from the 'Bendz' before the implant exploded.
On a side test, they decide to try low pressure with some food substances. The Marshmallows get exponentially bigger, and the cream filled buns rupture. The snowballs get much bigger and fall off the plate they are sitting on.
The Result
Busted. They aren't going to be ever be able to kill you, because you would never go to pressures where they might even be able to kill you.
CD-ROM Shattering
The Myth
That new, extermemly high speed drives, they may be exceeding the structural capabilities of the actual drive, which would cause them to shatter.
The Test
They initially test with a CD-ROM drive spinning the CD. Even with CD's that had been exposed to direct sunlight for extended periods of time, corrosive liquids and in the microwave, they don't break in the CD-ROM drive. However it seem the CD-ROM drive is not getting to the top speed that it should get to.
So Jamie modifies some power tools, so they are able to spin the CD at much higher speeds to see results at much higher speeds. Adam creates another Ballistic Gel body to see how far into the body, the CD, if it does break, could penertrate and hurt somebody. At 23,000 RPM, the CD they Microwaved was able to be exploded. The broken CD parts implant itself about 2 inches into the Gel body. At 25,000 RPM, the control CD was able to shatter into pieces. They then try with the cd drive Cover over the top of the spinning CD, to see how much damage it would take. The broken CD caused the case to bend and be damanaged quite considerably.
They decide to increase the voltage, as only the one control CD had exploded during all their tests, the others simply warped. At 220 Volts, all CD's they test, break quite instantly as they are getting to higher RPM's faster.
The Result
Busted. Even at high speeds, if the CD was to shatter, it could not possibly hurt you, as the case on the Computer and CD-ROM Drive would prevent the CD pieces from getting out into the open.
