The only way I can see a 90 degree turn made would be to like weld an iron pole to the car with a catcher. That steel cable looked pretty strong. I'd say a chain but wouldn't be sure if that'd be launchable.
the main thing i can think of about the turn is that the canon is closer to the back, which won't let it turn right, which it showed that the car jumped to the left.
the car needs to be RWD and the cable needs to be attached to the front of the car in order for it to help the front of the car turn and direct it. I think it can still be done, if they did it right.
This message has been edited. Last edited by: mythmod,
Hey guys. I was thinking. I know it looks like Batman has a lot of weight on his car but maybe not? Perhaps the car needs to be lighter. Instead of increasing the strength of the cable, change a different factor. The weight.
the cannon should be nearer to the front than the back because pullin the back of the car one way will make the front go the other way. kind of like backing up a trailer.
I suspect (as an ex-rigger) if you tried something more resilient to snap loading as opposed to static loads, you may have more success. Perhaps a more bungee-like material? Although your joints may be the weak links at that point...
They proved that it is impossible using two different types of rope / cable, and on the second try, called it busted.
Why didn't they keep going? I wish they would have kept going to see exactly how strong a cable was required. Perhaps it would be a steel hook. Maybe it would be several more cables.
Before they can call it busted, they need to see what it would take.
Try using flat helicopter cargo lift cable. I have used them for fourwheeling to yank stuck jeeps out of holes and it held with no problem. The flat cable with the metal ends can hold a lot of weight and take more tension per inch then most round cables.
Too bad the mythbuster don't watch the discovery channel <sic>. They would have learned about the wonders of plasma rope. 1" 12 strand braid 110,000 pound tensile strength, 23 pounds per 100ft or so.
Originally posted by horrormaster: Hey guys. I was thinking. I know it looks like Batman has a lot of weight on his car but maybe not? Perhaps the car needs to be lighter. Instead of increasing the strength of the cable, change a different factor. The weight.
Agreed. Lots of carbon fiber and other lighter elements could make the car much lighter than the Camaro that you were testing.
The other thing that occurred to me was that the line used may not be the strongest thing you could get your hands on. Just recently I learned of a rope that uses artificial spider silk as it's main element. Sorry that I forget the name and manufacturer of this rope, but I know that it's much stronger than a steel cable. It's also more flexible than a steel cable, which may be enough to get the car around the bend.
I agree use a flat nylon web style cable/strap I use these often in offroading and yank on them a lot harder than that corner would and have not had breakage heck 30,000lbs snap strength would be more than enough not to mention it has to be mounted at the front of the car to turn it around the corner
The cable needs to be either right in front of the front wheel or right behind the front wheel. Dur to when the cable gets tensed it is throwing the front of the car into the other direction you want to go.
I've got a problem with the way that the cord was set up. From what I saw they only used a single pass through the grapple. It'd be nice to have a place where the MB's posted actual data for people to read.
Depending on what type of knot was used and how many times it was passed through the grapple loop, the rope could have survived much greater forces before breaking. I.E. an Alpine Butterfly instead of a Loop knot.
Working around big helocopters I know there are ropes and straps with breaking strengths from 15,000 to 40,000lbs. that are used to air lift cargo in military operations. It's funny that with all there connections thay couldent get a better line.
You now I am really disapointed with the mythbusters, what ever hapened to the mythbusters who try try and try again until they succed like in drive shaft pole vault?
They could have most likely done it with the rope they used (or at least the steel cable). The strength of a material is proportional to the strain rate used to stress it. Translation: if you rip something apart fast it will be weaker than if you give it some time to get used to the load. All they need to do to make this myth work is to increase the load on their rope a little slower. For example use a braking drum from a sailing ship to reel out the last 3 ft of the rope or so. That will decrease the strain rate the rope sees and increase the strength the rope will show. Also as other posters have said, using the e.g. plasma cable would not hurt. As for mounting the cannon in a place other than the center of the car: bad idea. They did good on that one. If you mount the cannon off center, the car will slew. Its a fulcrum after all; the only way to keep this balanced is to mount the cannon in the exact center of mass. ~Cheers, J
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