On this episode of "MythBusters"...
Okay. Fire at will.
...Adam and Jamie stare down the barrel
for a death-defying bullet dodge.
Damn.
Jamie: We want to see
how close a sniper could be
and you would still be able to dodge his bullet.
Narrator: Provided you can see the muzzle flash...
Oh, I saw that.
I totally saw that.
...can you ever dive to survive?
Jamie might be able to dodge a bullet,
but can he dance like this?
[ grunts ] Oh, yeah!
Narrator: Then Buster is used and abused...
- Anybody feel sorry for Buster? - No. No.
Narrator: ...as Kari, Grant, and Tory
investigate the vertigo-inducing myth...
Kari: Belly flop!
...that if you fall from a great height...
Dropping Buster on his face repeatedly doesn't get old.
Narrator: ...water has the same impact as pavement.
Adiós, muchacho.
Narrator: Who are the MythBusters?
Adam Savage...
Ah-choo!
I'm done with science for today.
...and Jamie Hyneman.
Bye-bye.
Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience.
Joining them... Grant Imahara...
It's why we can never have anything nice.
...Tory Belleci...
I'll try not to let you guys down.
- ...and Kari Byron. - Whoa!
You know, I went to college for this.
They don't just tell the myths.
They put them to the test.
MythBusters 9x08 - Dodge a Bullet Original air date June 1, 2011
Sync and corrected by atrn97g www.addic7ed.com
[ gunshot ]
All right.
This week, as voted by the fans,
we are tackling the myth that it is possible to dodge a bullet.
What do you mean? You can't move faster than a bullet.
Ah, it is not about moving faster than a bullet.
The theory behind this myth is the idea
that there is a theoretical distance
at which you could both see a bullet being fired
and yet have enough time to get out of the way
of the bullet that's been fired at you
before it gets to you and hits you.
Well, the shooter would have to be
some distance away, like, say, a sniper.
Exactly.
It's no myth that dodging a bullet at close range
is never gonna happen.
[ bullet ricochets ] Agh!
But when you increase the distance from shooter to target,
you increase the travel time for the bullet.
[ gunshot ]
So, assuming a sniper is far enough away
and you see him take the shot, can you really dive to survive?
Here's what I'm thinking. This story is all about time.
Yeah.
So, the first thing I think we want to determine
is how much time a bullet spends in the air
between the rifle and the target
from a bunch of different distances.
Makes sense to me. Let's get shootin'.
All right.
And to find out just that,
Adam and Jamie need a supersized gun range,
like this handy abandoned airfield.
It's true that in the course of doing "MythBusters",
Jamie and I have done our fair bit of shooting,
and we're not bad shots.
Oh, Jamie!
Now we're talkin'.
But for this story, we need real precision, real expertise,
and that's why we brought in
one of the finest marksmen in the country.
Don't believe me? Check this out.
Narrator: In a modern interpretation of William Tell,
the tiny, tasty target is 300 yards away.
[ slow heartbeat ]
[ gunshot ]
Adam: That's how it's done.
[ laughs ] How do you like them apples?
Narrator: Them apples and this shooter are just fine.
Dave Liwanag has been a U.S. Army sniper for 31 years.
He was commander of the army shooting team.
He's one of the president's top 100 distinguished riflemen.
It doesn't get any better than that.
He's shooting a .338 sniper rifle.
This is specifically designed
for accuracy at extreme distance.
Narrator: And speaking of distance,
200, 500, and 1,200 yards
are the marks from which the marksman will shoot.
Purpose of this test is to shoot the rifle at a fixed distance
and record how much time it takes
for the bullet to hit the target.
That's the amount of time that we'll have to dodge a bullet.
Narrator: And to accurately measure the muzzle-to-target time,
Adam and Jamie set up a foil-based electronic circuit.
Good.
Here's how we're going to time the bullet's time of flight.
The instant the bullet leaves the gun,
it will cross through this piece of paper
with a piece of foil on each side.
When it breaks that piece of paper, the foil will connect,
creating an electronic switch connection,
which will send a signal through this wire to this here timer
and tell it to start timing.
That timer will keep timing
the whole time the bullet flies through the air...
[ clock ticking ]
...right up until our bullet hits the target,
crossing through the same type of piece of paper
with foil on both sides, closing a switch connection,
telling our timer to stop timing,
and giving us an exact time of flight of the bullet
from the rifle to the target.
The first distance we'll be sending a bullet to our target
is 200 yards... 600 feet,
two entire football fields end to end,
six M5's.
Narrator: So, with Dead-Eye Dave in position...
All right. Time of flight... 200 yards.
...his spotter, Kevin, all lined up...
Kevin: Bias right ever so slightly.
...and the trusty foil timing system
ready to record the flight time of each round...
Go right edge, Dave.
Liwanag: Right edge.
...this test is gonna be a breeze.
Send it.
[ gunshot ]
Jamie: - What? - Nothing.
It started timing. It didn't stop timing.
Narrator: Maybe not. The trusty timing foil is failing.
Basically, we've got an infarction
somewhere in the circuit.
The timing's just not working.
We can't tell if it's at the gun or it's at the target,
but in order to get timings, we have to suss this out.
[ bullets ricocheting ]
Narrator: Next up, is the physics of a fall onto water
really the same as pavement?
Okay, so, we've got a good one.
In this episode, we're testing
that water is as hard as pavement.
Yeah, I've heard this one.
The idea is that if you fall from a height tall enough
and you get up enough speed,
when you hit that water, it behaves just like pavement.
Wake up Buster. He's got some fallin' to do.
[ chuckles ]
Narrator: It's an oft-repeated urban myth
that if you fall into water from a great height,
rather than a splash landing,
you have a pavement-equaling crash landing.
Okay.
So, I think we need to get Buster,
rig him with some accelerometers
so we know how much impact he experiences,
and then drop him on pavement
and drop him on water and compare the results.
Sounds good to me.
But bad for Buster.
Real bad.
This myth is about water behaving like pavement.
Now, you may be thinking that that's crazy.
I mean, water is soft, and pavement is hard.
How can they be the same?
Well, under certain conditions, they can be.
Let me demonstrate.
In this syringe, I have air.
In this syringe, I have water with some food coloring in it.
Air is compressible.
Compresses.
Springs back.
Water is incompressible.
I try and push it in...
...and it doesn't compress.
And that's what's gonna happen
when your body falls out of the sky
and hits the surface of the water.
It doesn't give, just like pavement.
So, to find out whether or not
water is, in fact, as hard as pavement,
we are gonna be dropping Buster from heights
wearing one of these.
This is an accelerometer.
It is an electromechanical device
used to measure acceleration forces.
Now, these forces are commonly known
as gravitational forces, or "G" forces.
Grant: Now, the challenge with our specific experiment
Is that we're gonna be measuring very high "G" loads,
much higher than ordinary accelerometers can handle.
That's why we have this system.
I'm not fondling his nipple.
It's specifically designed to measure up to 500 G's.
I've mounted it inside of a waterproof case
in Buster's chest.
Just like airplanes have black boxes,
Buster has a black box, and this is it.
[ air whistling ]
Narrator: All rigged up and ready to roll,
the team hits the perfect location
for a spot of Buster-bouncing.
Tory: Here we are
at the South San Francisco Water Treatment Center,
and this is the perfect location for us to test this myth.
It's always exciting when the crane shows up.
Tory: We have pavement, and we have water.
Once we get our crane set, we won't even have to move it.
Bull's-eye.
You know, Buster has been very, very quiet today.
I have a feeling he might know what we're up to.
Narrator: In the team's sight
is a series of consistent comparative drop tests
onto water and pavement at ever-increasing heights.
Tory: Good!
Kari: Okay.
So, the way Buster falls and lands will affect the results,
so we've rigged a system
so that he should fall the same way every single time.
All right! 25 feet! That's good!
And first up is the feet-first fall.
How's that for alliteration?
Narrator: It was perfectly poetic, Byron.
But Buster, suspended 25 feet above the pavement,
doesn't really care.
In 3, 2, 1...
Ow!
Narrator: With a long day ahead,
the dummy took that one in his stride.
But what do the numbers tell us?
Grant: Get a peak "G" load of 60 G's.
Tory: Well, that seems about right.
I mean, he has his legs to break his fall.
Tory: So, we just dropped Buster from 25 feet
onto the pavement, feet first, and he pulled 60 G's.
Now what we're gonna do is hook him back up to the crane,
swing him over to the water,
drop him again from 25 feet, feet first,
and see how many G's he pulls.
All right. That looks good.
Grant: Now, I know water is technically incompressible,
but compared to the pavement,
I think we're gonna see a lower "G" load
because his feet are gonna dip in,
the water's gonna give,
and he's gonna be decelerated over a longer time period.
Kari: In 3, 2, 1...
Oh, that didn't look so bad.
That's definitely not the same as pavement.
Narrator: And the numbers bear that out.
Okay, so, I got no trigger,
which means that that fall was less than 25 G's.
It won't trigger anything below that.
And, remember, in this same situation,
over pavement, it was 60 G's.
Narrator: But the myth states
that water equals pavement from a great height,
and at greater heights,
Buster will be falling at greater speeds.
Perhaps hitting the water faster means the liquid won't displace
and will behave just like an incompressible solid.
Buster, my friend, things are looking up...
75 feet up.
That's a long way to fall.
Anybody feel sorry for Buster?
- No. - No.
Just checking. All right. Here we go.
75-foot fall, feet first, into water in 3, 2, 1...
Oh!
Narrator: Ooh, that was a solid hit.
And as Buster is raised and assessed,
It looks like he's taken a severe pounding.
But the data in the black box holds the objective key.
We got...
29.
Kari: No way.
Yeah, so that's half of what we got on pavement
at three times the height.
Grant: Wow.
Narrator: Not good news for the myth.
The fall onto water at 75 feet
is half as damaging as pavement from 25 feet.
But there's one more test before the data set is complete...
75 feet onto pavement.
Oh.
[ laughter ]
That had to hurt!
Kari: Watching Buster fall 75 feet onto the pavement
was painful.
I mean, his body twisted in ways that a human body never should.
Tory: All right, so, we just dropped Buster
75 feet, feet first, into the pavement.
What kind of G's did we pull?
Whoo-hoo-hoo!
We absolutely maxed out our accelerometer.
Narrator: And "maxed out" means
the "G" load was in excess of 500.
That's an impact at least 17 times harder than the H2O.
In these circumstances, water clearly does not equal pavement.
But the myth isn't sunk just yet,
and here's Grant's theory as to why.
Now, water is incompressible. That's a fact of physics.
And if I put my hand in the water slow enough,
the water can displace... it can move out of the way.
But if Buster were to hit the water fast enough
and if he had enough surface area,
the water wouldn't have a chance to get out of the way.
And because it's incompressible...
...there will be some point at which the "G" force
is equivalent between water and pavement.
Narrator: So, because surface area may be a factor,
it's time to bring out the belly flop.
Up next...
Adam: The next distance we'll be firing from is 500 yards...
the distance of your average restraining order.
Narrator: Adam and Jamie are testing the myth
that you can literally dodge a bullet,
provided the shooter is far enough away.
And to find out, they've got an expert sniper
who's hitting the target first time, every time...
[ gunshot ]
...and a clever foil-based timing system that isn't.
[ gunshot ]
It didn't work. It didn't stop it.
It's not working? It has to work!
Narrator: But despite the foil's initial failings,
Adam and Jamie tweak, tinker, and persevere
until the mysterious gremlins in the system are iron out.
Jamie: 200 yards. Time of flight.
Fire at will.
[ gunshot ]
Adam: Hey! We got a number.
What'd we get?
231 milliseconds.
- Let's move back. - All right.
With that first data point finally in the bag,
the team reset for the second shot.
The next distance we'll be firing from
is 500 yards... 1,500 feet,
10 olympic swimming pools, approximately, end to end,
or the distance of your average restraining order.
Narrator: And Dead-Eye Dave,
once he's assumed the position, focuses...
That's it.
...and hits the bull's-eye again.
Beautiful. We got a reading.
- Love it. - 597 milliseconds.
So it's onwards and backwards,
as the team sets up for the third and final shot...
Nice thing is the box gets lighter the longer you walk.
[ Jamie laughs ]
...this time from a massive distance of 1,200 yards.
Adam: The final distance we'll be shooting from is 1,200 yards...
roughly an 8-minute walk, a kilometer,
to those of you in every other part of the world
besides the United States.
And when I look at the target from here,
I think, "what target"?
Narrator: But if anyone can make this shot, it's sniper Dave.
Sniping is actually pretty complicated.
Your modern sniper shows up
with a spotter and a computer to get the job done.
He's got to compensate for several different things.
Gravity.
If our shooter is 1,200 feet away,
to hit here, he's actually got to aim at a point
directly above, 30 feet in the air.
- Okay. Time of flight. - 1,200 yards.
The wind.
If the wind's blowing this way,
then our shooter is gonna have to aim
to this side of the target to compensate.
Figure 6/10 left.
Now, he's gonna be looking at things like flags,
if they're there, or even the grass or mirages
to get a clue as to what's going on.
I'm picking up some surface mirage
running right to left about halfway down the range.
Drag.
Now, this is about air density, and our shooter is gonna be
looking at barometer, at altitude, at temperature,
to determine how dense the air is
and be able to compensate for it.
Liwanag: Kev, I got a light boil.
Hold center and send it.
Now, all these things are a lot for a sniper to keep in mind
when he's taking a shot.
It's quite a feat, when you think about it.
[ gunshot ]
Narrator: Never in doubt,
Dave threads the eye of the proverbial needle,
and just as important...
Ha! Beautiful! We got a reading.
1.791 seconds to target.
Jamie: Excellent.
All right. Let's draw a graph.
Now that we've got our numbers,
it's time to plot them on a graph.
Let's start with the "x" axis... 12 increments of 100 yards each.
The "y" axis, going up and down,
that's time, from zero to two seconds,
in 1/4-second increments.
Then we draw a grid and plot out our bullet times.
The first bullet, from 200 yards,
took 231 milliseconds to reach its target.
The second bullet, from 500 yards, took 597 milliseconds.
The third bullet, from 1,200 yards,
took 1,790 milliseconds to reach its target.
We then draw a line between these three points and see...
Oh!... it's perfectly straight.
That means we can take any distance
and plot the amount of time
it would take the bullet to get there.
Or, conversely, we could choose a time
and figure out how far away you'd have to shoot
for the bullet to take that length of time.
Isn't graphing lovely?
Narrator: The day started badly.
[bleep]
But thanks to Dave and his spotter,
they've got the numbers they need to kick-start this myth.
Adam: Well, we got our figures.
We now know how long it'll take the bullet
to reach its target from any distance we choose.
Well, now we need to know
how quickly we can jump out of the way, huh?
Human-reaction tests it is. Let's do it.
Adam: I can't believe he can hit that target from here.
Jamie: Hit the target? I can't even see it.
Narrator: All incompressible materials are equal,
but so far, some are more equal than others.
When Buster is dropped feet first,
water has nothing like the impact of pavement.
The angle of entry means the water is easily displaced.
Grant: Yeah, so, that's half of what we got on pavement
at three times the height.
Narrator: But what if that was changed to a belly flop?
Time to hog-tie him.
Will the additional surface area
save this scientific saga from sinking?
Grant: So, in case you're wondering ...and I'm pretty sure you are...
dropping Buster on his face repeatedly just doesn't get old.
All right, this is Buster's belly flop
into pavement from 25 feet.
In 3, 2, 1...
Oh!
- Ow! - Oh, ho, ho, ho!
Narrator: That looked painful.
And without his legs breaking his fall,
the "G" load was much higher than the feet-first test.
Tory: So, we just dropped Buster chest first on the pavement.
We got 286 G's.
Now what we're gonna do is do the same thing on water,
and my feeling is we're gonna see very similar results,
and I think anybody who's ever
jumped off a diving board and done a belly flop
will understand what I'm talking about.
This is gonna hurt. In 3, 2, 1...
- Oh! - Oh! Oh!
I give that dive a 9.
Grant: Okay, so, belly-flopping,
Buster on pavement at 25 feet was 290 G's.
And on water, it was 115.
And what that means is, sure,
water is not as hard as pavement,
but it was a lot closer
than when we dropped Buster feet first.
So, surface area is important.
The more surface area you have,
the harder it is to displace the water.
Now, what if Buster was moving a lot faster?
Then we might see the difference
between the water and the pavement decrease again.
Let's see.
Narrator: So, the team thinks speed is the key,
and to get Buster moving faster, they need to take him higher.
Tory: This is dropping Buster from 50 feet
in the belly-flop position over water.
Here we go.
In 3, 2, 1...
Kari: Oh!
- Oh! - Oh! Oh!
Look at the wave that's coming out.
So, dropping Buster from 50 feet
actually peeled the skin off of his side.
It was such an impact that all of us, I think, felt it.
Grant: So it looks like, on water at 50 feet,
the belly flop is giving us 220 G's.
Narrator: Now for the all-important comparison.
Will the 50-foot pavement plummet
be any closer to water than the 25-foot test?
Take it up. 50 feet.
50 feet.
He might not survive this, you know?
Kari: Yeah, 25 looked like it hurt.
3, 2, 1.
Ugh.
Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!
Hey, he's still in one piece.
Tell me you didn't feel that.
That one made me throw up.
I am so glad it was him and not me.
[ Grant laughs ]
Grant: All right. Let's find out how he did.
Narrator: That was intense.
In fact, it was so intense, the meter maxed out,
meaning Buster pulled a "G" load of 500-plus.
Kari: Oh, my God. That's a hard hit.
Narrator: Buster is bruised and battered.
But with the meter unable to register the force of the fall,
where does that leave the myth?
So, we've maxed out our meter.
That means that we can't compare numbers to the 25-foot drop.
Now, it's possible as you go higher
that water could become more like pavement.
We just can't test it here, right now, with this meter.
Grant: So that means we have to do two things.
First, we have to find a more mythbustery way
to compare the fall onto water versus the fall on concrete.
And second, once we've done that,
we have to perform more experiments,
but this time at a much greater height.
So high, in fact, that we reach terminal velocity.
Narrator: Coming up...
Adam: So, I turned into one of the three stooges.
...Adam and Jamie time their bullet-dodging reactions.
- We got some good numbers from our sniper. - What's next?
I think the moment has come
to time another element of this story.
- Human reaction time? - Exactly.
If you had to dodge a bullet,
just how quickly could you get out of its way?
I think I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee.
[ laughs ] See, he's gonna get a cup of coffee.
It's gonna make him really hyper,
and he's gonna get out of the way really fast.
Narrator: So, they've got the numbers for flight time,
and in their attempt to deconstruct this myth
without actually shooting at each other...
It works.
...the next piece of data is how long it will take
to react and move out of the way.
Adam: This test is all about measuring a human being's reaction time.
This is our human being.
His task... to get himself out of the path of a bullet
described by the "X" on his chest
and the bull's-eye behind him.
His signal to move, that the "shot" has been fired,
will be given by this digital camera flash,
remotely triggered by me from back there.
All of this will be captured...
by our lovely digital high-speed camera, which,
when we review the footage of Jamie's "dodging a bullet",
will allow us to time
exactly how many milliseconds it took him to do it.
All right. Are you ready, Jamie?
Human-reaction-time speed test
At some random point in the very near future.
[ camera shutter clicks ]
Nice.
Narrator: Jamie's fast.
His hoosier reflexes are honed to an almost superhero speed.
Nice work there, cowboy.
You want to man the remote flash while I try a couple?
Okay.
Adam, on the other hand,
makes up for his slow reactions with his lack of grace.
Now to assess the results.
Here's mine.
So, I turned into one of the three stooges.
[ both laughing ]
But the Hyneman legend continues to grow.
[ Adam laughing ]
Oh! Dude!
Check his bad self out.
He's a bullet-dodging hoosier.
Despite Jamie practicing and honing his "matrix"-style sway
with an artful economy of motion,
it turns out that both Jamie and Adam clocked very similar times.
They're both clear of the target in around 500 milliseconds.
But just for the record...
and this is the figure they'll take forward...
Jamie takes the gold
with a personal best of 490 milliseconds.
Jamie: With practice, I was able to get my reaction time down
to about 1/8 of a second,
and I was able to clear the bull's-eye
in less than 1/2 a second.
Now, this is a best-case scenario,
but that's actually what we want here,
because we want to see what is possible
in terms of how close a sniper could be
and you would still, in theory, be able to dodge his bullet.
Narrator: And for that distance, it's back to Adam and his graph.
All right, editors, help me out here
and put the original graph back on the screen.
Time on the "y" axis, distance on the "x."
Now, if I draw a line from 490 milliseconds out to our plot
and check out the corresponding distance, it's 400 yards.
That is the theoretical distance
at which you could possibly dodge a bullet,
but only if you could see the muzzle flash from that distance.
That's what we're about to find out.
Narrator: And that means a return to the range
for a test where the eyes have it.
Adam: The question is, how far away can you see the rifle firing?
Now, note, you cannot rely on sound
because the bullet travels
four times faster than the speed of sound.
You'll get hit by it long before you hear it.
This has to be a visual cue.
Narrator: A visual cue and a simple plan.
Adam and Jamie will stand downrange
and look for the muzzle flash
as sniper Dave shoots at a nearby target.
[ australian accent ] A little motivation for our sniper.
Narrator: But rest assured, for safety,
Dave will be firing blanks.
This is the real thing, and this is a blank,
but this isn't just any blank.
This is a theatrical blank that we've selected
specifically because what comes out of it
looks exactly the same as what comes out of the real McCoy.
Narrator: And first up,
they're facing the firing squad from 100 yards.
[ gunshot ]
- I saw it. - I saw it.
Okay, Dave, let's move back to 150.
- Cool. - Roger. Moving.
Narrator: At 100 yards, the flash is as clear as a bell,
and that's also true of 150.
[ gunshot ]
- Saw it. - I saw it.
But 200 yards is a different story.
Okay, Dave, 200 yards. Fire at will.
[ gunshot ]
I didn't see that. Let's have him do that again.
Dave, let's have one more go.
[ gunshot ]
Did you see it?
I'd say that's at the borderline.
Well, if you got the eagle eyes, let's push another 25 yards.
And at 225 yards,
even eagle-eyed Jamie fails to focus on the flash.
[ gunshot ]
No, I don't have it.
- No. 200 yards is our threshold. - Yeah.
With our blank rounds matched to a sniper's round,
our ability to see the rifle firing is 200 yards.
If you look at that on our graph...
Yeah, it's not quite enough time for us to get out of the way.
Narrator: Remember, based on the bullet travel time
coupled with the human reaction time,
400 yards was the minimum distance needed to dodge.
But at just half that distance,
you can't even see the muzzle flash.
I don't have it.
Luckily, Adam has a plan.
Adam: Not all blanks are created equal,
and on "MythBusters", we always like to find out,
what is the best-possible-case scenario?
In Hollywood, for instance, a blank for that rifle
includes a lot more fire coming out of the tip,
'cause that's more visual for the movies.
So, that's what we're going to do.
We're going to start from this distance
with a full Hollywood flaming blank
and see how far we can see that rifle firing with one of these.
Narrator: In other words, for the time being, at least,
it's out with reality and in with Hollywood.
And the difference is like night and day.
Okay, Dave, 225. Fire at will.
[ gunshot ]
Oh, I saw that.
I totally saw that.
- Let's go to 400. - Okay.
The Hollywood round is the gift that keeps on giving
because it's visible at 400, 800...
I totally saw that.
I did. I saw it.
...and even 1,200 yards.
[ gunshot ]
I saw that.
Totally saw it. Wait...
[ gunshot ] ...and I heard it.
[ both laugh ]
That's plenty of time to get out of the way.
Adam's right.
Dodging the Hollywood round sounds like child's play,
but the real-world round is altogether more challenging.
Next on "MythBusters"...
This pig doesn't want to fly.
...the team preps
for a terminal-velocity pork belly flop.
- I know what to call it. - What?
- A pork chopper! - Oh!
So, the increased surface area of the belly flop
is looking promising, but we need to go higher and faster.
How high and fast are you thinking?
Ooh, what about terminal velocity...
600 feet from a helicopter?
That'd do it.
But we're gonna have to figure out
a different way to measure these falls,
because Buster's in pieces and the meter's maxing out.
What about pigs? We could compare bone breakage.
Seriously?
[ air whistling ]
Grant: So, to test whether falling onto water
is the same as falling onto pavement,
we've come to Shadow Cliffs regional park.
Now, so far, in the feet-first position,
they're not very similar at all.
But in the belly-flop position, they're actually quite similar.
The only problem is that our accelerometer,
our measuring device, has maxed out at only 50 feet.
Kari: Oh, my God, that's a hard hit.
And that's why we're here.
Because this time, we're going to drop our items
from a much greater height.
So high, in fact, that they get to terminal velocity.
The reason we want terminal velocity
is the objects will never be going faster than that
and therefore never have a greater impact than that.
Narrator: So, to give the myth the best chance of working,
the team will be comparing a 600-feet fall
onto pavement and water.
[ as Schwarzenegger ] Come on! Let's go! Get to the chopper!
But how exactly will they compare the two?
Tory: All right, so, we maxed out our accelerometers,
but we still need to figure out a way to measure the impact
when falling on pavement and on water.
So, we can't use a human,
'cause, obviously, that's gonna kill somebody,
so we decided to go with a pig.
Ugh.
Kari: To collect comparative data, we're going to X-ray the pigs,
but then we're gonna have an orthopedic surgeon
analyze those X-rays, see how many bones are broken,
and what kind of damage happened when it hit the pavement,
and we'll find out if water is as hard as pavement...
...and what I had for lunch.
Narrator: It's gruesome, but with no way of measuring
the force of the fall electronically,
a comparison of the physical damage incurred
will perfectly illustrate the difference between water...
[ retches ] ...and pavement.
Okay. I think he's ready. Let's get the bag.
But the squeamish amongst you can rest assured
the pigs will always be concealed in sealed bags,
even when it comes time to assess the damage,
because that will be done with a portable X-ray.
This X-ray is cool technology. How fast does it work?
Well, from the moment we push the button
till the moment we're seeing the X-ray is about 5 seconds.
So, is this the weirdest thing you've ever done with it?
It's like a pig sleeping bag.
I'd have to say it is.
All right. Bag that pig.
Nice.
Grant: So, we're using this specially designed
military-grade plastic bag with welded seams.
It's designed so that when you suck the air out,
it will minimize the possibility of rupturing the bag,
thus preventing further gruesomeness.
Narrator: Essential to the validity of the result
is the requirement that both pigs fall at the same speed.
Cue a cute little stabilizing chute.
Grant: So, now that we have our two identical pigs
in two identical bags... one for pavement and one for water...
it's time to attach the chute.
Now, why do we need a chute?
Well, terminal velocity
depends on the orientation that the object falls.
Since we want to keep our pig in belly-flop position,
we're attaching this stabilization chute,
which will provide just enough drag to keep it like this
without affecting terminal velocity.
First up... pavement.
This pig doesn't want to fly.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure if you were gonna push me
out of a helicopter, I wouldn't cooperate, either.
All right.
So, the pig is in the helicopter.
Operation "Pork Drop" is ready to commence.
Oh, God, I'm not looking forward to this.
Okay. We'll be on the ground.
Good luck.
Heads up.
- I know what to call it. - What?
- A pork chopper! - Oh!
Narrator: Operation "Pork Drop" is all set to commence.
At the target altitude of 600 feet,
Tory will help our porcine fall guy into free fall
by kicking him out of the chopper.
Tory: You guys ready?
Just so you know, if that bag breaks,
I'm going to vomit all over you.
[ sighs ] That sucks. This is my weekend shirt.
[ laughs ]
Okay, Tory, we are in position, and we are ready.
All right. Here we go.
Narrator: Coming up on "MythBusters",
Jamie is staring down the barrel.
Adam: The distance I'll be shooting at Jamie from...
[laughs] I love that sentence... is 400 yards.
Now, on one hand, we've got our ideal number.
Based on our human-reaction-time tests
and our bullet-flight-time tests,
we know that the minimum theoretical distance
you could dodge a bullet from is 400 yards.
Jamie: Okay.
On the other hand, we've got our maximum distance
you could actually see the sniper's rifle being fired,
which is only 200 yards away.
So, at our theoretical minimum,
you never see the cue to jump out of the way.
Yeah, it's not looking good for the myth.
But we still got to try it.
Absolutely. I mean, who knows?
At 200 yards, staring down the barrel of a sniper's rifle,
perhaps your adrenaline kicks in and you become super-fast.
It's worth a shot.
But you do realize we can't actually
shoot each other with real bullets.
Aha! I've got a plan for that. Check it out.
Here is our sniper, and here is our target.
The sniper fires a blank round,
and when he pulls his trigger, he clicks a switch.
That switch sets a timer timing for the precise length of time
- that bullet would fly through the air. - Yeah?
At the exact millisecond it's supposed to hit the target,
the timer signals a paintball gun to fire a paintball at you.
It's an ouch, but it's not deadly.
So, from 200 yards,
the flight time we're looking at is 231 milliseconds.
Exactly.
With death off the menu, the guys run away to the runway,
where Jamie starts setting up with the gun.
And 200 yards downrange, Adam gets to work on the target.
There it is. "X" marks the spot.
Then comes the complicated bit... timers...
wires...
Nice.
...paintball guns...
Isn't that cool?
- ...and remote triggers. - Beauty.
Now, since we can't use real bullets for this test,
but we've gathered the information that tells us
the exact bullet flight time for any distance we choose...
Perfect.
...we are going to imitate
the bullet's flight electronically.
Here's how.
When this gun fires a blank, a wire I've mounted on the trigger
is gonna close the circuit...
...which starts this timer timing.
It will count down for the precise length of time
the bullet should be flying through the air,
and at the instant it is supposed to hit its target,
it will tell this paintball gun
to fire a round directly into Jamie's chest.
Now, will he be able to get out in time?
- I think I might. - No, not yet.
That's what we're about to find out.
Narrator: But first there's the obligatory costume change...
Jamie into something that will clearly show the paintball,
and Adam into something of his own choosing.
Where is that guy?
Adam?
Adam!
Here I am.
- Are you done screwing around? - Yeah.
- Let's get to work. - Okay.
Jamie might be able to dodge a bullet,
but can he dance like this?
Narrator: In their respective outfits,
the guys assume their positions 200 yards apart.
And, remember, 200 yards was the maximum distance
from which the guys could see a genuine muzzle flash.
The question is, does that leave the caffeine-fueled Hyneman
enough time to dodge out of the way?
All right, Jamie, this one's from 200 yards.
Are you ready?
Okay. Fire at will.
All right.
Jamie, poised to dodge,
waits for Adam to fire the muzzle-flash blank
that will, in turn, trigger the paintball gun
the required 230 milliseconds later.
But when that will be, only Adam knows.
[ gunshot ]
[ Jamie chuckles ]
Did I get you?
Got me. Give me a second.
Although Jamie clearly saw the muzzle flash,
he had barely moved before the time was up
and the paintball was fired into his chest.
Undeterred, Jamie tries a couple more times...
[ laughs evilly ]
...but to no avail.
[ gunshots ]
Damn.
At 200 yards, I could see the flash.
I reacted to it and started moving out of its way,
but I just couldn't do it fast enough.
Narrator: Given that their quickest human-reaction result
was 490 milliseconds...
[ gunshots ]
...trying to dodge a 200-yard round in 230 milliseconds
was always looking like a superhuman feat.
This myth is looking totally busted,
but we've come too far to give up.
We're going to switch to a Hollywood muzzle flash...
- I totally saw that. - I did. I saw it.
...push the gun back to 400 yards,
which gives us 500 milliseconds to get out of the way,
and see if it's theoretically possible to dodge a bullet.
The distance I'll be shooting at Jamie from...
[laughs] ...I love that sentence... is 400 yards.
This is the minimum amount of time
Jamie and his quick reflexes need
to get out of the way in time.
To give him the best chance, I'll be using
a full-flash Hollywood blank,
which is far brighter than the actual sniper round.
I'm set and ready.
- Okay. Fire at will. - Copy that.
[ gunshot ]
He got me.
Narrator: It's not the start Jamie wanted,
but he's not gonna give up without a fight.
Okay, Adam, fire at will.
[ gunshot ]
You got me again.
A very long fight.
With each shot...
...Jamie is making progress as he hones his technique.
That was close.
But he never quite hones it enough.
So, can Adam do any better?
Do you want to try?
You bet I do!
Adam, poised like a panther,
gives Jamie the signal and then...
[ gunshots ]
...gets shot in the chest...
again...
and again...
and again.
Adam: Well, that was interesting.
At 400 yards, we've got 500 milliseconds
to react and get out of the way, which ought to be enough time,
but there's a difference
between the shop test and the real-world test.
In the shop, we had this super-bright flash
right in our face.
In the real world, we've got a tiny dot 1,200 feet away.
It's a lot harder to see.
So, now we're gonna move that dot to 500 yards,
give Jamie even more time to react,
and see if he can deliver the goods.
Narrator: It really is now or never.
There we go.
With 500 yards and 600 milliseconds
to react to the Hollywood blank,
it's time to step up or get the hell out of dodge.
It's time to call into play those...
catlike hoosier reflexes.
[ zip! ]
Fire at will.
[ gunshot ]
I dodged it!
Adam: Whoo!
At last, at 500 yards,
the Hyneman does his best "Matrix" sway,
and the paintball sails clean past.
But given the status of the myth, he's not that impressed.
This test showed that I would've been able to dodge a bullet.
But here's the thing.
We were using Hollywood blanks,
and if we were using real bullets,
I wouldn't have been able to see a thing,
and I would've been dead.
Narrator: Jamie's right.
You may be able to dodge
an unrealistically bright Hollywood round,
but in the real world, well, there's only one conclusion.
So, what's the verdict?
The verdict is it's busted.
There is no way you can dodge a sniper's bullet.
Everything about all their equipment,
including their bullets, is designed for concealment.
There's just no way you could see one fire from far enough away
to give you a remote chance of dodging that thing.
It's busted.
I agree. It's busted.
Let's go.
Jamie: So, you mind pointing that thing the other way?
Next...
Adiós, muchacho.
Narrator: ...pigs fly, pork drops, and belly flops.
Is water really as hard as pavement?
Narrator: To find out if water is as hard as pavement,
Kari, Grant, and Tory have commenced operation "Pork Drop".
Okay, so, here's the plan.
We've already done drops at 25 and 50 feet.
In the feet-first position, the "G" load was very far apart.
But in the belly-flop position, they were much closer.
But just to cover all of our bases,
we're gonna go up to 600 feet,
which will ensure that our pig reaches terminal velocity.
Tory is gonna get in the helicopter.
When he gets to 600 feet,
he's gonna kick the pig out of the door,
and then we scoop it up and count the broken bones.
Tory: Okay, so, we're at our target altitude of 600 feet.
We're hovering directly above the landing zone.
Are you guys ready?
Okay. We're ready.
Okay. Here we go.
Operation "Pork Drop" onto pavement in 3, 2, 1...
The pig is flying.
Well, he's more falling.
Kari: Ohh!
- Oh! - Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!
Narrator: Despite a terminal velocity of 120 miles per hour
and an incredible estimated "G" load of 5,000-plus,
the bag remained intact
and operation "Pork Drop" was a success.
Tory: Now, dropping a pig out of a helicopter
seems pretty straightforward.
That is, unless you have an uncooperative pig.
But once I got him out of the helicopter,
the drag chute opened up, he got into the belly-flop position,
and, most importantly, he was traveling at terminal velocity.
And the best part is, we hit the pavement.
This was a perfect test.
Dude, that was crazy!
Did you hear that splat?
Yeah, and we got a belly flop.
Narrator: And now to get the thankfully sealed contents of the bag...
That looked like it hurt.
...over to the X-ray station...
We need to get this pig into X-ray... stat!
...where the technicians take the shots they need.
But before we assess and compare the injuries,
it's go for the H2O.
Get in there, piggy.
Kari: Okay, for this water test,
we're going to use a pig of the same weight.
We're gonna go to the same height with the helicopter
and drop it to get the same terminal velocity.
God, it's never easy loading a pig into a helicopter.
We're gonna smack down on the water in a belly-flop position
and find out if water is as hard as pavement.
Narrator: It's operation "Pork Drop", phase two...
a-pork-alypse now.
[ duck quacks ]
Tory: So, we are set.
We have our pig in the helicopter.
We're gonna take it up to 600 feet,
push it out of the helicopter, onto water.
Now, so far, we have not seen water behave like pavement,
but we have never dropped anything from this height.
We might see a similarity here, but we won't know for sure
until we pull the pig out of the water, do an X-ray,
and compare the two pigs.
We're all set. You guys ready?
Okay, Tory, we are good to go.
Pork drop number two onto water at terminal velocity.
Adiós, muchacho.
There it goes.
Okay. Stabilizing chute deployed, deployed.
Looking good, looking good!
Belly flop, belly flop, and... oh!
Oh!
Narrator: Splashdown.
And once again, the stabilizing chute worked,
serving up the perfect pork belly flop.
So, it didn't sink.
Now to bring home the bacon and put this myth to bed.
We thought the pig was gonna sink,
so we got a special rescue crew to go out and dive to get him.
[ chuckles ] How's the passenger?
But he's actually floating on the water.
Personally, I don't think they're gonna bring in a pig
that's quite as damaged as that pavement drop,
though it looked like a really hard hit.
Narrator: But there's only one way to tell for sure,
and that's a professional medical assessment of the X-rays
with orthopedic surgeon dr. Halbrecht.
Grant: So, did he make it?
How did our pig do on pavement?
Well, the pig on the pavement did really disastrously.
17 fractures.
Wow.
Here's a femur fracture.
Fracture and dislocation of the spine.
And to top it all off, a decapitation.
Oh!
We got a dislocated head!
So, when we dropped the pig on the concrete,
it made a sound like...
...a giant popping balloon.
Now, we didn't open the bag, but we did X-ray it,
and what we found inside were many, many broken bones
and a pelvis that was so shattered,
it was unrecognizable,
not to mention decapitation.
Narrator: It's an unsurprising litany of lethal injuries...
17 clear and catastrophic fractures.
But the key to this myth is the comparison.
All right, so, how did it compare to the water drop?
The water-drop pig did much better,
although it's still 7 fractures compared to 17.
Six rib fractures and also a neck fracture,
but not as bad as the decapitation.
It couldn't be clearer.
Two pigs of identical weight falling at the same speed,
landing in the same orientation,
have significantly varied injury diagnoses.
Both the quantity and quality of the bone breaks
means there can only be one result.
But that's not the only reason Kari's so happy.
Now, having the clear-cut results
that the pig landing on the pavement... bam!...
was actually a lot harder than falling on water was great.
What was even better,
those bags didn't bust open and I didn't throw up.
Tory: So, it turns out pigs don't fly,
but they do fall, and they land hard.
However, as far as this myth is concerned,
if you're hitting the water at any height,
it's not gonna be as hard as if you're hitting pavement.
So this myth is busted.
Kari: Myth is busted.
I think we're gonna have to call this one busted.
How come we don't have a helicopter
to fly home after every myth?
Sync and corrected by atrn97g www.addic7ed.com