Grant, Tory and Kari take on some well known Vodka Myths! Does Vodka really take the stink out of feet and other tidbits!

Talk About them here!

MythMod

I think the fired up bullets are already busted first of all when you fre a bullet up the earth spins underneath it, and second is WIND!so there is no way bullet can wall back at you.

The myth about bullets being fired up being able to kill did not account for a few things that would prove that it is confirmed. Bullets are stabilized by the rifling in the barrel so a bullet would not fall sideways. The bullet being stabilized by its spin would have a higher terminal velocity than 150 fps as the frontal area causing the aerodynamic drag would be reduced greatly over the sideways non-spinning orientation. They have a parabolic trajectory even if fired at 90 degrees to the earths surface. As stated in a previous post the earth rotates underneath the bullet so no matter how short the time of flight, the chances of the bullet returning to the exact same spot would depend on the aimpoint being adjusted so the earth rotates into the ballistic trajectory. I'm sure all of the physics of the ballistic trajectory of a bullet could be analyzed to determine exactly when the friction of the air caused the bullet to cease rotation at which point it would adopt an unstable ballistic trajectory, however I do not believe at this point there would be sufficient time for the air in the atmosphere to overcome the inertia of the bullet and slow it down to a speed where it would be non-lethal. This is not based on scientific research, but my study of ballistics in my current job.

The only issue I have with the Vodka/bandaid glue myth is that they used two different bandaids for the test. They should have put the same style on the 'Control' leg as the 'Vodka' leg.

In Bullets fired up, why didnt you try using metal detectors out in the desert, this way you wouldnt have the possibility of walking over them.

As far as bullets fired up. I've been hit by them! I was qualifing one year after an ice storm. Ice sheeted the ground, and the backstop of the pistol range to a depth of 1-2". When we fired the bullets were deflected up, and hit all around us! We were only wearing baseball caps! I was hit on the head, and shoulder. No damage was done, except a little sting, not even a bruise. When we checked we could find bullets melted into the ice all around the pistol range. Many of my fellow officers complained about the bullets hitting them and distracting them while they were trying to hit the target, trying to explain low scores. This also happened on the rifle range, but the rounds hit way behind the shooting stations. The rifles used were M16A1s
Teefru

Tonights experiment, shooting the bullet strait up in the air...the experiment in the desert didn't meet up with the results discussed in the hospital, where bullets did kill, and I think I may know why. Using the figure 2939 ft/s, (which may be slightly too high) from http://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/MariaPereyra.shtml, you can calculate the minimum angle you would have to shoot the bullet to not only meet the terminal velocity in the y direction (up and down), but meet the terminal velocity in the x direction as well, which I'll assume from the show to be 150 ft/s. The velocity the bullet comes down at should be a combination (using the pythagorean theorem) of both the x velocity and the y velocity. So, instead of just the y velocity assumed to hit the ground at 150 ft/sec, you can combine the velocities in both the x and y direction to get a maximum possible velocity it could hit the ground: 212 ft/sec

Velocity in the x direction squared + Velocity in the y direction squared = total velocity it could hit the ground with.
or:
(Vx^2+Vy^2=Vtotal^2) = 212 ft/sec

This added velocity could account for the needed force to break the pig skull and experimental confirm the result. To achieve these velocities, you would have to fire a gun at as little as 3 degrees from the vertical to achieve both terminal velocities, and hit your 212 ft/sec maximum.

Admittedly, my physics may not be completely sound...fluid mechanics has never been my specialty, so some of my assumption about terminal velocity in the x and y direction, but if you can break it down like this, with a small angle of fire, you may be able to get that extra velocity needed to confirm this myth.

Frankly I am not sure why they bothered with this one since it is not a myth. It has already been researched and as well, there are a number of documented deaths and injuries from falling bullets.

Myth Busters also came to the conclusion that the bullets fell sideways and according to Julian S. Hatcher, a U.S. Army ordnance expert, "a .30 caliber bullet weighing .021 pounds. Using a special rig, the testers shot the bullet straight into the air. It came down bottom (not point) first at what was later computed to be about 300 feet per second." See the report by Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope at:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a950414b.html

The dead pig may make a good subject for decay of the human body in forensics tests, but as a firearms target, it in no way is the same as a living, breathing human. For starters, I have never seen the Myth Busters measure the thickness of the skin and skull to compare with that of the human. When the Army used pigs to see what kind of wounds bullets would make, they shot live pigs (under anesthesia). Dead ones don't work as well.

The supposed myth already had been confirmed by ordnance and medical experts and the Myth Busters failures were from their lack of expertise in this type of testing.

Lastly, from the Journal of Trauma, December 1994, the King/Drew Medical Center in Los Angeles reports treating 118 patients between 1985 and 1992 for falling bullet injuries around New Year's Eve or the Fourth of July and there were 38 fatalities. I don't have newer stats, but now there are laws against shooting in the air and the numbers should be lower.

about the bullets myth well i dont know the science behind it coz the guys proved it not lethal but i can tell u guys that i saw it happening in LEBANON so many times and the last one happened in june 2005 after the elections some people were firing up their AK47 in celebration in beirut suburb and a fallin bullet seriously injured a swimin coach in achrafieh about 5 km away in a health club , and the fallin bullet went through the glass and then hit him in the head and he was injured and bleedin badly he stayed one week in hospital and had an operation to remove the bullet from his head...and i can go on and on about similar incidents but i think i just wanna say that this is not a myth and even if they couldnt prove it to be lethal it did happen alot and alot of people in lebanon died becoz of it over the years since it is kinda a tradition over then to fire guns in celebration...i hope somone is readin so far,,,,thank u, grear show!

This is not so much about the Vodka myth as about the poison oak myth associated with it. The family home remedy for poison oak, poison ivy, athlete's foot et all is bleach. Take a bath in bleach for poison oak, get the whole effected area covered in bleach and the rash will go away within 24 hours. The same goes for poison ivy, and athlete's foot.

The bleach is deluted to the point where the water it is in is pungent, about 5 or six cups in a bathtub full of water. It gets rid of all poison oak, ivy and athlete's foot.

I just wanted to say to those that are talking about the earth rotating underneath a bullet when u fire it straight up. The bullet is already traveling with the earths rotation speed when u fire it from the gun since the gun and the bullet (and you) are on the earths surface.

I will say that bullets fired straight up may have lost enough of their velocity to not be lethal because of the direct pull of gravity in the opposite direction of travel on them but i say it would be almost impossible for any person using their arm(s) to fire a bullet exactly straight up. I would be interested to know the window of degrees off of being exactly straight up would cause the bullet to maintain a higher velocity trajectory and come down with the head or point first because it seems like it would be small enough that no person firing a few shots using the arm(s) and hands to fire(especially with the recoil) hit the window that would cause every bullet to come down without lethal velocity. Also in all the cases of bullets being fired into the air where someone got killed, i wonder how many of them just fired one bullet into the air?

Does anyone know of a way to contact either Adam or Jamie? I am very disappointed with something that happened in this episode and need to let them know.

When Adam was approached on the Poison Oak/Vodka myth, he put a rubber glove over his head and was "panicking" by breathing in and out. We have 2 very impressionable children who were watching this with us. Both my husband and I turned to them immediately, and said, "Don't EVER do that." I enjoy this show, but that was totally unacceptable.

Sincerely,
M. Hollis
mghollis38@msn.com

There always has to be someone complaining about something. If your worried about your kids being "very impressionable" then you better throw away all of your televisions, computers, and video games. Make sure when your flipping through the channels looking for the disney channel and your kids happen to see a shootout, someone murdering someone, or driving a car make sure you tell them not to do EVER do that. LOL! Go complain somewhere else.

First off, I would have complained somewhere else if I could have found even one e-mail link. Second off, as someone who attended the funeral of a boy who suffocated because he had a bag over his head, Adam putting a rubber glove over his head was incrediably stupid.

I didn't complain about the bullets or the vodka or the poison oak. I am asking if someone has an e-mail address that I can contact someone in charge and address this issue with them. I didn't want to put this here, but without a proper contact form, I was forced too.

Thank you for your concern.

M. Hollis

i think that a bullet could not fall on you. the odds are are like 1 to 1000000. there are many variables involved. there is wind the earth moving is in concern but not so much. they did not test this myth very well at all the also please whatch your language there are kids who enjoy science who don't want to here bad language enough. we don't need more trying to be gangster bad cusing kids there are to many already.

it's obvious that the bullets are fatal.I mean what if you were at a party and someone shot lots of bullets into the air one of them is bound to hit somebody!

hey sharksareme at least they bleep it out if kids dont hear it they wont say it

the round was placed in the middle of the oven causing the shell and bullet to both fire in opposite directions but when placed in the gun, only the bullet had an opening to move through. the shell was stopped by the gun itself. place the round up against the back of the oven to prevent the shell from moving as far backwards and the bullet could give a different result. who knows, maybe the man tried to hide his ammunition in the back of the oven to keep someone from finding it even if they did look in there.

by the way everyone: if you are against something they are doing because it scares your deprived little children, DONT LET YOUR DEPRIVED LITTLE CHILDREN WATCH THE SHOW!!!