Attention, viewers. Do not try anything you are about to see at home.
We are what you call experts.
On this combustible episode of "mythbusters"...
I see good things in our future.
...We test a tale
That brings out the teenage boy in all of us.
Dude, you got to be careful.
It's nonstop fireworks for Tory, Grant, and Kari...
When in peril, I will use one of my co-workers
As a human shield.
...As they tackle the myth of the human skyrocket.
One.
Oh, my God.
Meantime, Adam and Jamie try turning the tables
On their favorite episode of "CSI"...
I am aimed.
...To see if combining two supposedly nonlethal weapons...
Welcome, earthlings. We mean you no harm.
...Could actually make them a deadly duo.
There's your fireball.
With any luck, we will end up with a charred corpse.
Stand clear. I'm going hot.
Who are the Mythbusters?
Adam Savage... Aah!
That is science. ...And Jamie Hyneman.
Things are gonna start to get a little crazy in here.
Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience.
Joining them --
Grant Imahara... Burn!
...Kari Byron...
Let's do it.
...And Tory Belleci.
But don't worry. We're not gonna give up.
They don't just tell the myths.
They put them to the test.
-- Captions by vita -&www.M
Captions paid for by discovery communications
First up, a shocking tale of crime-scene chaos.
So, what do we got?
Well, you remember a few months ago
That you and I did a cameo on "CSI"?
I do. We played scientists in lab coats.
It was about a perp who had spontaneously combusted
After being hit with a stun gun,
And it turned out, upon investigation,
That prior to being hit with the stun gun,
He was pepper-sprayed,
And that the pepper spray had a flammable component in it
Which, when coupled with the spark of the stun gun,
Caused him to burst into a huge fireball.
And guess what happened after that episode aired.
We got a ton of requests
To do it ourselves and test it for real.
Exactly right.
It would appear that not only did we make a cameo on "CSI,"
But "CSI" is making a cameo on "Mythbusters."
The science unfolds in the C.S.I. Lab
As Nick Stokes shows that stun gun plus pepper spray
Equals an instant, massive fireball.
It's a nice bit of tv,
But we all want to know if it works in real life.
Well, if I'm gonna potentially set something on fire,
I think right here under Jamie's exhaust hood
Is as good a place as any to do it safely.
The boys have made a bold decision
To simply set up the scene and go for it.
Standing in for the victim is one dead pig.
We use pigs a lot on this show
Because they're great human analogues.
But we're not wasting them because they're too darn tasty.
In fact, after we're done with him here,
I'm taking him home and cooking him up.
You ready? I am. Let's hook it up.
Okay.
With the pig analogue securely fastened,
Adam fits a small flannel shirt they've been saving
For just the right occasion.
There we go.
Now Jamie unloads
A whole can of police-issue pepper spray.
All right, time to take him down with the stun gun.
And hopefully replicate that "CSI" fireball.
I am aimed, and...
3...
I got to say, I don't think
We're gonna get fire on this one.
Okay.
...2...1...
What do you know? I was right.
Yep. No fire.
That's disappointing.
That's putting it mildly. It's a complete dud.
Even Adam's surprised by the totality of the failure.
I don't know what to say.
We did everything right -- no flaming pig.
Yeah, well, there are
A number of different things going on here,
And I think we need to break them out separately
To see what's happening.
Before we call it. Yeah.
Okay, let's do that.
And here's the breakdown.
Successful combustion needs three things.
The first is oxygen, and there's plenty of that.
Second is something combustible and there's plent of that --
Supposedly the pepper-soaked shirt.
Third is a reliable source of ignition.
So let's reboot this myth by reexamining the stun gun.
The operation of these stun guns is relatively simple,
And it happens in two phases.
Allow me to illustrate.
The first phase -- when you pull the trigger,
The gun fires a pair of shiny little barbs across the room
That embed themselves right into your skin.
And the second part -- it starts pumping voltage
Through these wires into those barbs and into your body,
And when that voltage gets to your body,
It starts interrupting your brain's ability
To tell your muscles what to do,
And you pretty much collapse in a heap on the ground.
But the question remains --
Can even 50,000 volts produce enough spark
To start a human bonfire?
There you go. Plenty of sparks.
I have to say, I'm kind of surprised.
I was actually expecting that once those barbs
Embedded themselves in the pig flesh,
They'd complete a circuit and we wouldn't see any sparks,
But we do.
Look at that.
I was also surprised that the barbs
Were creating sparks while they were fully embedded in the pig,
But it's easy to understand why.
The company has decided it's most efficient
To simply tie a knot in the end of the wire
So it locks into the hole like so,
And they know that, given the fact
That they're using such high voltage in these things,
That the spark will jump across into the needle
And do its job.
But that jumping spark
Also serves as a potential source of ignition.
But will it be big enough to ignite the myth?
You know, we've dabbled with small sparks before.
How hard can it be to blow up a room full of gasoline?
And often enough, we're left disappointed.
Nothing. What a shocker.
So, ideally, they'd like a much bigger spark.
And they've worked out a way that perfectly fits the myth.
All right, let me describe the experimental setup here.
This ham hock is our perp.
This barb is the barb that's in his skin.
This vinyl shower curtain is our perp's clothing.
And this barb is the barb
That didn't make it all the way to the perp's skin
'cause it got caught up in his clothing.
Let's see what happens.
It's an intriguing twist on the basic test.
But will it work?
That's what I'm talking about.
Nice big 3-centimeter spark
Through the clothes into the guy's flesh.
Bingo.
That's a big tick for reliable ignition.
Next up, they'll be pushing the button on pepper spray.
Our second myth has
Blatant disregard for self-preservation
Written all over it.
So, a guy is lighting off fireworks
At a German fireworks festival,
And he decides to take an action figure,
Strap a skyrocket to it, and send it flying.
Well, I used to do that all the time when I was kid.
Yeah, but that's not the myth.
The myth is that he then decides to step it up
And strap the fireworks to himself.
So he gets around 400 skyrockets,
He attaches them to himself, he builds a ramp,
He lights them all off, and whoosh.
He goes flying 150 feet over a lake
And splashes down to safety.
The details are delightfully vague.
All we know is that some guy builds some kind of ramp
And launched himself with 400 skyrockets.
Is that even remotely possible,
Or is it a special kind of stupid?
All we do know for sure is that he wasn't a professional.
So likely the fireworks he used were over-the-counter.
All right, well, why don't we just start there?
We'll take some of these skyrockets,
We'll add some weight, and find out
Exactly how much one of these skyrockets can lift.
Good idea, because if we can find
The carrying capacity of a single firework,
Then we can calculate how many it's gonna take
To lift an average man -- somebody like 200 pounds.
So they book the bomb range
And get hold of the biggest over-the-counter skyrockets
Money can buy.
We're out at the alameda county bomb range
So we can test the most powerful consumer fireworks
That we can find.
Then, with the help of a high-speed camera
And one of the biggest scales we've ever used...
Does this look straight?
We'll time how long it takes to get
From the bottom of the scale all the way to the top.
That, plus knowing how long the scale is,
Will give us the speed.
Once we have the speed, we'll find the carrying capacity
By adding weight to the tip of the firework
Until it slows it down by 50%.
And we'll call that our carrying capacity.
The plan is rock solid,
But it still needs some caressing and finessing.
Now, for these tests, it's important that these skyrockets
Have identical flight paths.
So I've hooked up this steel cable
That we can connect our fireworks to
So that way, each test, we have the same path
But we do not change the thrust of the rocket.
The first control rocket
Carries no extra weight whatsoever.
Here we go.
Run! Run! Run!
Whoa.
Blink and you miss it.
But the high-speed camera
Captures and records every detail.
Okay, so we went 32 feet in .4 secos.
Okay, that's 80 feet per second.
That's around 55 miles an hour. That's a pretty good speed.
Great. Let's add some weight. All right.
The extra weight comes
Courtesy of some heavy-duty nuts.
Each one weighs exactly...
50 grams.
All right. This is perfect.
So I'll just glue it to the top of the rocket,
And we'll find out if this affects the thrust of it.
Yeah.
Kari lights the fuse... There we go.
...Then scampers.
Oh!
The extra weight only swed the rocket by 20%.
So instead of adding just one more nut to the next rocket,
They'll add two.
Okay, this is consumer-grade firework with 150-gram load.
Here we go.
Yeah!
Definitely slowed it down. Definitely.
Yeah, we might have found the number. I like that.
The replay confirms
That they've got what they wanted --
A 50% reduction in speed.
That's the good news. Now here's the bad news.
Well, with 400 rockets, 150 grams,
That's 60 kilograms.
That's a carrying capacity of about 130 pounds.
But wait. The guy alone without all his gear in this myth is 200 pounds.
Yeah, it's not looking good for the myth.
I mean, you would need well over 400 rockets to lift this guy.
In fact, they'd need around 800
Of these U.S.-Made rockets to haul a full-grown man,
So here's hoping somebody's got a plan "b."
After the break, Adam and Jamie suit up
For a spectacular pepper-spray shootout.
It's not everybody who gets to come to work in their jammies.
Out at the treasure island fire test facility,
Adam and Jamie plan to ignite some pepper spray.
I love it out here.
They've already shown that the spark from a stun gun
Could have some kick to it.
Now to advance the investigation.
Is pepper spray flammable?
And if it is, which one is the most flammable?
Here's our methodology for finding out.
We're gonna take each of our samples
And spray it from this location over this open flame,
Both from 6 inches away like this and from 18 inches away.
Different sprays have different recipes,
So we'll test five different types,
Some of which aren't used by the California cops.
These pepper sprays are nonlethal,
But they are really pretty nasty.
In fact, when we were testing with them earlier,
I managed to get some on my hands,
And my skin was irritated for days.
The crew that was taping this was coughing and sneezing.
It was really kind of unpleasant.
So this time around, we've got ahold of some levechem suits
That we're gonna be wearing
So we can focus on the testing and not about how bad we feel.
Adam's already dressed for success,
So Jamie, uh, follows suit.
It's not everybody who gets to come to work in their jammies.
So a persistent rumor
Is confirmed by the great man himself.
Jamie does go to bed wearing hazmat pajamas.
Welcome, earthlings. We mean you no harm.
Our first five samples tested from 6 inches away.
The first one's supposed to be nonflammable.
Let's see if it's true.
Just for the record,
That 6-inch gap is exactly the industry standard
For testing flammability.
All right. You ready for number 1?
Yep.
All right. Here we go.
The first canister fully lived up to its no-burn promise.
So let's check the second.
Bupkes.
That's two quick strikes,
But the third shows some promise.
Oh. Not bad.
As for number 4,
Just lay back and bask
In the ambient heat of the can that can.
Whoa! Ho! That's the money right there.
Want to see it again?
I think we all do.
The key thing that made this a fireball
Was the kind of propellant it used.
So, on to can 5.
Oh! 5 is a contender.
As it turns out, at 6 inches,
2 out of our 5 samples were aggressively flammable.
So they found the two most volatile cans,
But there's no guarantee that either one will ignite
When it's sprayed on a fabric.
To test that, we will be staging
The world's first wet-flannel-shirt contest.
We're back in the shop because we found
Even the most powerful consumer fireworks
We can get in the entire United States
Did not have the thrust we need to propel a man.
So, since this myth originated in Europe,
We're thinking maybe they had something
A little more powerful.
Now, since we weren't able to get
The european skyrockets with the greater thrust,
We have to make our own rocket.
So we have the next-best thing --
A model rocket motor.
It has the same exact thrust.
Now what we need to do is add a cone, attach a stick,
And maybe make them look more like skyrockets.
Things get off to a slowish start...
I've glued myself to the rocket already.
...As they set about custom-building an arsenal
Of european-strength single-stage skyrockets.
We pride ourselves on quantity, not quality.
Let's hope he's joking,
Because all these homemade fireworks
Have to be just as reliable as the store-bought ones.
That's it.
If I won a pageant, this would definitely be my bouquet.
Those look awesome.
All right. You guys ready to set them off?
Yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely.
So it's back to the bomb range with nothing to prove.
Yeah, I got high hopes.
If these rockets can't bear a much bigger load,
The myth is as good as busted.
All right, so our first test is gonna be our control.
This is our new and improved rockets with no weights.
We'll find out how fast they go.
This time, they've hooked up the rocket
To a much safer electric fuse,
And Kari's about to show how she responds
In a moment of pure panic.
In 3, 2, 1.
Okay.
The skyrocket turned kamikaze,
But it stayed straight enough for long enough
To get the data --
96 miles per hour at the top of the scale.
I also learned something very valuable, which is,
When in peril,
I will use one of my co-workers as a human shield.
Sorry, Grant.
But Grant remains unfazed.
He's already decided
They can afford to up the starting weight.
So, I think we can go directly to the 150-gram load,
Which is exactly what the consumer-grade firework
Could do for its maximum capacity.
By adding small weights to single rockets,
They hope to find out if 400 fireworks
Really could launch a human.
In 3...2...1.
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
Wow!
It's gone.
I don't think that weight did a whole lot.
That weight didn't do anything.
Actually, it did.
But the homemade rocket bore its burden with relative ease.
Nice.
But the homemade rocket bore its burden with relative ease.
That's crazy.
All right. That is 53 miles per hour, so not even 50% yet.
Well, I'd also like to point out
That the commercial ones that we were using before
Looked like they were slowing when they got to the top of the scale.
These have way more thrust. I think we can double the weight.
All right. Let's take it up to 300 grams.
All right.
So Tory glues six nuts
To the top of the cone of the next skyrocket.
This seem dangerous to launch 300 grams of steel into the air?
Well, given the flight path of the first rocket, yeah.
In 3...2...1.
Nice.
It lifted it.
Great. Let's see how fast it went.
The high-speed confirms
They've honed in on the goldilocks figure
For weight-bearing rockets.
- That is cool. - Wow.
All right. And that is 43 miles per hour.
And that's pretty impressive.
Yeah, but it is slowing at the end of the line,
So I think we're gonna have to call this the limit,
The carrying capacity for the rocket motor.
Okay, with 300 grams added to what is already 100 grams for the rocket.
That means we're going to have to have
about 400 rockets to get our man off the ground.
That gives validity to this myth.
All right. Guess we got to get building.
Cool. God, that's awesome.
So, the myth of the fireworks man
Is alive and kicking.
They just need to put all that potency into practice.
Well, so far, so good.
Yep, stun guns do provide
A very reasonable spark for ignition,
And some pepper sprays are quite flammable.
So now all we got to do is put the two together
And see if we get some kind of spontaneous combustion.
Slow down there, cowboy.
I think there's one more thing we could take a look at in here,
Which is what kind of material
Was the shirt made of that the perp was wearing?
There's a lot of different things
They make clothing out of,
And some are more flammable than others.
I think we need to do some tests and find out
Which kind of material we can find that burns the fastest.
Okay.
Armed with a lighter
And a charming selection of swatches,
The method is pretty straightforward.
Fabric placed on a 45-degree angle,
Exposed to a lighter at the bottom for one second
And timed how long it takes for the flame to reach the top.
We compare all these and figure out
Which one's the most flammable.
I like it.
The guy on "CSI" to get set on fire
Was wearing a flannel shirt.
Now, what is flannel?
Well, in the early days, it was a wool material.
Then it was a wool blend.
Now it can be virtually any kind of material
That is thick and sort of Fluffy and has this plaid pattern.
So, from natural fibers...
Here comes cotton.
...To acrylics and acetates,
The guys put the torch to some hopefully flammable fabrics.
All right. Let's try rayon.
Some take their own sweet time.
45 seconds.
And that's it.
Some just refuse to catch fire.
No burning at all from wool.
And others burn up like a trail of gunpowder.
Dude. Fleece burns with vigor.
Bang. That's it right there. 15 seconds.
Now all that remains is to find out the fastest.
The results are in.
We have burned eight kinds of fabric,
Gotten eight different burn times,
And the winner, it turns out, is a tie at 15 seconds.
The fastest-burning fabrics are both acrylic and fleece.
Robert, tell them what they've won.
Thanks, Adam.
Yes, today's two fabrics both win the chance
To return to the game as real shirts,
Then get burned right down to their buttons
In a winner-takes-all torch time trial.
Back to you, Adam.
In order to do that, I'm going to call upon all the skills
I remember from home economics in 4th and 5th grade
With Miss Cavinitis.
I still remember a couple things.
Adam's not showing off.
We just couldn't buy a plaid fleece shirt.
So this is a home-spun savage original.
But he will need some torsos to hang his designs on.
That's where this guy comes in, because I'm going to make
A wire mannequin that looks roughly like this
So we have something to hang them on while they burn.
In just a few minutes,
They both finish flirting with fashion,
And they both seem enamored with their efforts.
Show Jamie my threads.
Check it out.
Uh, who's your tailor, dude?
I am my tailor.
Hey, these are one-time use.
These guys look great.
Meet Bernie and his little brother, Crispin.
So Bernie and Crispin get shirted up --
One with a plaid that's all acrylic
And the other made from so-called fleece,
Another synthetic that's partly made from recycled plastic.
The boys are eager to learn just how combustible a shirt can be.
Both shirts are lit from the same point at the same time.
All right, now, the acrylic really seems
To be winning by a fair bit.
It's much more aggressive.
Indeed.
With no pepper spray,
Both shirts burn slowly but consistently.
Adam, of course, has a vested interest.
Come on, fleece -- after all our training,
After all our discussion, is that all you got?
You're gonna let acrylic take you to town?
You're gonna let him show you up?
Put something into it, man.
But he's backed the wrong blouse.
Eventually, the acrylic is the first one to give up the ghost.
I'm gonna call it.
8:25 --
The acrylic is completely burnt up,
To a crisp,
And the fleece still has more than halfway to go.
Yep.
So, acrylic it is, and here's the upshot.
Shirts do burn, stun guns can make a big spark,
And some pepper sprays are totally flammable.
Now all that remains
Is to pull these best-case combustibles together
To see if they can really make
That instantaneous human fireball.
Don't try anything you've seen on this show at home.
We are what you call... Experts.
All right, so, according to the tests,
We are gonna need a lot of these fireworks
To get this guy off the ground.
But the toughest part is getting all those rockets
To ignite at the same time.
And how were they attached to him?
What kind of rig are we talking about here?
Again, the details are vague.
We do know that he launched himself off a ramp,
But there's no other information.
All right. Well, then, why don't we do this?
We'll each come up with our own design, small-scale,
We'll attach an action figure to it,
And we'll launch him off the ramp,
And we'll see which one has the best launch
And which one has the best flight pattern.
So, in this workshop arena,
Three specialist craftsmen go head-to-head.
They have just one hour to whip up a workable prototype.
So, let the games begin.
Each contestant gets two basic ingredients --
One raw mini-buster and one sprig of skyrockets.
The winning design is the one
That can best launch the doll from a miniature ramp.
Okay, so, my idea is
A giant christmas-tree-shaped fireworks cluster.
I mean, what is more directional than an arrow, huh?
So all the thrust is gonna go down this way,
And the guy's gonna go... Whoosh...Straight out.
The only problem is making sure
That the exhaust from all the fireworks
Doesn't burn him to a crisp.
I'll work that out later.
Yeah. Good luck with that.
Meantime...
That's the outfit.
Now, my design for fireworks man is very simple.
It's basically taking a set of wings
And attaching them to his back.
And then down the wing, I'll be attaching rockets.
And when I launch that off, hopefully it'll act like a jet.
Only thing is I hope these guys can keep up with my pace.
But we still haven't heard from Kari.
Essentially, this is my design.
We have rockets shooting out the back,
A big wing for stabilization,
Comfortable pillow for my guy to lay on,
And a skateboard
That's going to reduce the resistance up the ramp.
Now, I think the best part of my design
Is that I've created a flashpan
That's going to ignite all of my rockets at once,
Because simultaneous ignition is something
That we've always had trouble with on "Mythbusters."
While Kari and Grant push on with their plans,
There's been a small sensation over at team Tory.
He's decided to scrap his design and go with a new one.
I really wish that I had come up with Tory's design
Just 'cause I'm a big "Star Wars" fan
And it looks just like an X-wing fighter.
I know it was a little late in the game
To change the design of firework man,
But, you know...I think this design is much better.
The hour is up,
And these radically different designs
Are about to be put to the test.
3, 2, 1, and stop.
Done. Done.
Let's see them.
All right.
Oh, are you ready to put your rockets where your mouth is?
Bring it. Let's launch them.
All right. Get ready to lose, you guys.
Just like Adam and Jamie,
They're testing at treasure island
Under the Bay bridge.
They're aiming to see which design
Has the best flight path
And which one flies the farthest.
For that, they'll need to stake out their turf.
That might be a little presumptuous.
Given the strength of the mini rockets,
200 feet might be a tad optimistic.
Now, for that occur, two things have to happen.
One, we have to have straight and stable flight.
Two, we have to not explode on the launch pad.
Two very good points.
And Tory's the first to test his luck.
I have trays of black powder at each bundle of fireworks.
I'm using an electric ignitor to light off
Each of those trays of black powder.
Once I hit the button, all rockets should fire
At the exact same time.
In 3, 2, 1.
- Whoo! - Wow!
It did something.
I think it exploded on the launch pad.
The x-wing aircraft went pretty much nowhere.
But the pilot covered some fair piece of real estate.
Tory's launch was awesome,
Mostly because I can't even tell what happened.
And the guy ended up with his butt burned up
Over on the lawn in a totally different direction.
Now, there's a piece of my fireworks rocket.
There's another piece. Talk about epic fail.
Not only did it crash and burn, it exploded into pieces.
Time for the next fledgling to test her wings.
But it's Grant who makes the prediction.
And if you pick up her "flight vehicle,"
It's a little back-heavy, actually.
So it could end up sort of doing --
I think it's actually gonna do a loop-the-loop,
As a matter of fact.
Hold on, little missy.
Fireworks man, Kari design, small-scale, in 3, 2, 1.
Holy...Wow! Whoa.
Whoo-hoo!
Well, if we wanted something
To go across the surface really quickly,
We got it.
That was spectacular. Oh, my God.
It didn't fly high, but it did fly straight,
And every bit of that unlikely apparatus left the ramp.
As for the added sparkles, nice touch.
My guy isn't charred.
We had a perfect ignition.
We had a pretty good distance.
So maybe if I had longer wings,
This would have been a perfect flight.
I think I might actually have the winning design here.
But we're yet to see Grant's design take to the air,
And he's suffering from preflight nerves.
Okay. Here's my biggest fear.
Instead of going on this nice ballistic trajectory
Out that way,
It goes...Whoosh, sss...
And comes right back at us.
If I see that happen, I'm hitting the deck.
Okay. Good luck.
When even the experts are scared,
It's probably wise to duck and cover.
In 3, 2, 1.
Grant's launch looked
More like a guy slipping on soap.
Whoa!
So there's no real need for a high-speed replay.
But let's do it anyway.
This one barely mad
It but let's do it anyway. Off the launch pad,
Did not achieve flight,
Could not get simultaneous ignition,
And, therefore, has to be rejected.
Whoo! Ohh!
So the winning design is clearly Kari's.
In the end, this is the design we're going with.
We have one bank of fireworks that all ignite simultaneously.
We have a heat shield
That keeps our little driver from getting fried.
And the wing created enough stability
To get us a nice, short flight.
Now, I think if we increase the length of the wing,
We'll get more stability and maybe get a perfect trajectory.
After days of experimentation,
Adam and Jamie are finally ready to test the myth
Of the "CSI" stun gun.
This fine specimen of manhood here
Will soon be our perp for our final test.
Now, in order to be a proper perp,
I needed to have conductive skin.
So I'm gonna give him a layer of foam,
And then I'm going to cover that foam with foil,
And that foil will act as the conductive skin
That hopefully will give us the spark
To light our perp on fire.
He's ready.
And in hope of a blazing conclusion,
It's back to treasure island.
The methodology here is actually pretty simple.
Our perp here is dressed in the latest fashion --
The acrylic shirt that we found the most flammable.
We are going to spray him down
With the pepper spray we found most flammable -- number 4.
And then I am going to stand back with this stun gun...
...And pop him right in the chest
And see if he bursts into flames.
All right. Stand clear.
So, confirming the myth
Of an instant, massive fireball
All comes down to this.
Just like they did on "CSI,"
Adam unloads for a good few seconds.
Freeze!
Hey!
Dude! It's burning.
I totally -- wow! He's totally burning.
And we totally need the fire extinguisher.
You have the right to not be on fire.
Anything you burn
Can and will be held against you in a court of law.
But do we have the right to call this confirmed?
Of course, it wasn't quite the big fireball
That we saw on "CSI."
* I'm on fire *
But this being "Mythbusters,"
We're gonna do our darndest to get one.
So they postpone the judgment,
Discharging four whole cans on a backup acrylic shirt.
Think that's enough? No.
Just for good measure, Jamie almost doubles the dose.
All right.
Freeze!
Nice!
Yeah.
Now that's really close
To the human bonfire we saw on tv.
There's your fireball.
It's instantaneous. Look at that.
Yeah. Might as well have lit it with a match.
Unbelievable.
It's a fabulous fireball,
But in this case, they did use an ocean of pepper spray.
So, how do we want to call this one?
Well, let's do a little math.
One acrylic shirt plus a can of flammable pepper spray
Plus one stun gun equals...
Plausible.
I agree.
One acrylic shirt plus a stun gun
Plus a whole crapload of pepper spray equals...
Gratuitous.
That's our favorite four-syllable word.
So the verdict on this myth is plausible.
But we're not done yet.
Jamie's determined to end with a serious spectacle.
And believe me, you don't want to miss this.
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Okay, so, we're back in the shop
After our small-scale experiment.
The myth that we're testing is that some crazy German
Thought it was a great idea to strap 400 fireworks to himself,
Propel himself off a ramp into a lake.
So, it is gonna take 400 of our homemade skyrockets
To launch our fireworks man.
Now the big challenge of this design
Is to attach all 400 together
And to get them to go off at the same exact time.
And I'll be attaching a new and improved wing design
Which should help with the one flaw from my small-scale,
Which is spinning out of control.
Whoo-hoo! Whoo!
And they figured the best way
To minimize friction on the ramp
Is to hook two skateboards
Up to a shiny, slippery metal rail.
I can't stop.
Aah!
Ohh.
Are you okay? Yes.
Dude, you got to be careful.
Now, why a skateboard, you ask?
Well, this was clearly not some sort
Of highly engineered NASA launch.
This is a guy that strapped a bunch of fireworks to himself.
And if you're in that mind-set, what are you gonna use?
You're gonna use some sort of fancy system?
No. You're probably gonna use a skateboard.
Now, for the sled, I came up with something interesting.
A surfboard. It serves two purposes.
For one, it's really light.
It's not gonna add a lot of weight to our contraption.
And number two -- we're launching, hopefully,
All the way into a lake,
And retrieving all of our rockets
Would be a pain in the butt if our whole thing sank,
So...It's made of styrofoam.
This thing floats.
So, while the team gets very, very busy with the building --
Kari with these new wings
And Grant with some stabilizing fins --
Tory gets to play with fire.
So, I've removed the sticks from the skyrockets,
And I've glued together banks of 100.
Now that they're all glued together,
What I'm gonna do is cut grooves on the table saw
Through the nozzle area.
That way, these grooves will be filled up with black powder.
And when I fill this whole thing up with black powder and ignite it,
The flame will move through the grooves into the nozzles
And ignite all the rockets at the same exact time.
And there's no time to test Tory's groove
Like the present.
In 3, 2, 1.
Yeah!
Oh! That looked so synchronized.
Whoo-hoo!
Wow.
That was synchronized.
That is a beautiful ignition system.
I see good things in our future.
Back inside,
The wings, the fins, and the skateboard rail
Are the key additions to our makeshift vehicle
That just might launch a stand-in man 150 feet.
And it's probably just as well
He's missing the back of his head.
If all of our calculations are correct,
We should see this fireworks man
Fly up that ramp and across the lake.
Or it's gonna fail miserably and explode on the ramp.
With the myth of the "CSI" stun gun wrapped up,
The boys feel the need to go out
In a totally gratuitous blaze of glory.
Jamie left me this really cryptic message which said only,
Bring him a burnable perp and dress for a fire.
I am, as they say, intrigued.
Here we go.
Adam dresses his man in a fitting fashion.
And the shirt, as you've guessed, is the famous flannel.
Ah. Are you ready, little buddy?
This is actually the standard model of robot
That are all of Grant's servants back at his castle.
So, the savage awaits the barbarian.
And Jamie's weapon of choice
Is a vintage vietnam-era gasoline flamethrower.
Ah, hey. What do you got?
Stand clear. I'm going hot.
Okay.
Long-time viewers know that sometimes,
When a myth falls frustratingly short of confirmation...
You see any bullet holes?
I don't see any at all. No.
...We like to, uh...
Firing.
...Turn it up a notch or 10.
Once again, Jamie's ready to skip the method
And go straight for the mayhem.
3, 2, 1.
There's no better way to unleash hell
Than a 60-foot flame.
Nice!
That's what I'm talking about.
Very post-apocalyptic of you.
Is that hot enough for you?
Well, that was only ever going to end one way.
And thanks to a $5 shirt,
We've got a million-dollar memory.
Any kid who's ever read a comic book
Has surely dreamed of personal rocket propulsion.
According to fans,
One man actually flew 150 feet with skyrockets,
So we had to see for ourselves.
We've studied the physics, built the best amateur rig we could,
And found a flooded quarry for the crash landing.
Oh, this place is cool.
Whoa!
Already dangerous.
So, if our math is correct
And our fireworks do what they're supposed to,
We should get a man landing in the lake any time now.
Ooh. Nice.
He's got to not explode on the launch pad,
Have a stable flight,
And, according to the myth, fly at least 150 feet.
I hope he does it.
Now to check on correct starting weight.
All right. How much does he weigh?
Okay.
183.
Well, the sled weighs 60, so that makes him 243.
That's perfect. That's exactly around what we need.
All right.
Load him up. Let's do this.
Kari and Grant fit skateboards to rails
For a hopefully friction-free ride,
While Tory sets the charge
To ignite every last one of those 400 rockets.
Fingers crossed, they will launch together.
Now, I know this might not seem like a lot of black powder,
But I'm actually using 6 ounces.
I mean, that would be plenty to fire off a cannonball.
So the fuses are fixed,
And the very last bits of the puzzle
Slide neatly enough into place.
You're like a surgeon with that thing.
Do you guys realize this is a dream come true?
I think for all of us.
It's a thing of beauty.
But let's remember that fireworks man
Still has a hell of a lot to live up to.
For this myth to be possible, we need two things to happen.
One, we need Buster to launch off that ramp and hit the water.
And two, we need him to not be
A burning mass of melting Buster.
You can bet your bionic britches
That Buster's in full agreement.
We're all wired up, ready to go.
This is fireworks man in 3, 2, 1.
We got a launch. It's still going. Look.
From the shore,
It's a dazzling display of smoke and sparkles,
But just put yourself in Buster's shoes.
It was looking so good.
We got a perfect launch.
He was going up the ramp, he gets to the top of the ramp,
And that's where everything goes all wrong.
In fact, it's the good, the bad,
The ugly, and the awesome
All in one amazing launch.
As Buster gets dragged from the drink...
Hi.
...It's time to reflect on what worked and what didn't.
So, we got simultaneous ignition,
We used actual fireworks,
He made it off the ramp and into the water.
Yeah, and on top of that, he didn't catch on fire or explode,
Which means he would have survived the launch.
Well, he might have survived the launch,
But I'm not so sure about the landing.
And we didn't fulfill all the criteria of the myth.
I mean, he did not go the 150 feet we talked about.
It's one of the toughest decisions
They've ever been faced with.
On the one hand,
It was really only those loose legs tipping the sled backwards
That spoiled the party.
On the other hand, Buster only flew 30 feet,
And there's no doubt that the yahoo in the myth
Went to way less trouble than we did with far fewer resources.
So, with regret, that's where we're drawing the line.
So, I think we're still gonna have to call this one busted.
All right. Busted.
Busted.
But, man, what a way to bust a myth.
Right.
Want more?
dsc.discovery.com/tv/mythbusters. Go.
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