1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,720 Remember, don't try this at home. 2 00:00:03,720 --> 00:00:05,720 We're what you call experts. 3 00:00:05,720 --> 00:00:13,000 In this episode of Mythbusters, 4 00:00:13,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Adam and Jamie take a pot shot at one of the craziest myths around. 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:25,400 That was the scariest thing I've ever done on this show. 6 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:29,000 Is the American border being breached by daredevil slingshotters? 7 00:00:29,000 --> 00:00:31,000 You're int! You're int! 8 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:32,000 I'm pleased! 9 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:37,000 And can the team bust the world record for hurling a human projectile? 10 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:40,000 Three, two, one! 11 00:00:40,000 --> 00:00:43,000 Who are the Mythbusters? 12 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Am I missing an eyebrow? 13 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:47,000 Adam Savage 14 00:00:47,000 --> 00:00:50,000 I reject the reality and substitute my own. 15 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:51,000 Jamie Heineman 16 00:00:51,000 --> 00:00:52,000 Fuck, damn you. 17 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,000 I wouldn't say Jamie's an evil genius. 18 00:00:55,000 --> 00:00:59,000 Between them more than 30 years special effects experience, 19 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:01,000 When will the fun ever stop? 20 00:01:01,000 --> 00:01:05,000 They don't just tell the myths, they put them to the test. 21 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:19,000 What the hell is a border slingshot? 22 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Well, we have a new myth involving people that are wanting to illegally enter the country. 23 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:28,000 And they've apparently developed a gigantic slingshot, 24 00:01:28,000 --> 00:01:32,000 capable of launching them 200 yards over the top of a fence. 25 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:36,000 And supposedly it's accurate enough to land them in a mattress on the other side. 26 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Well, I've heard they're not only doing this with individuals, 27 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:44,000 but they're offering a family package where they can shoot up to four people 28 00:01:44,000 --> 00:01:47,000 over that fence and onto that tiny little mattress. 29 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:50,000 Well, here's a couple who will probably get a big bang out of their work. 30 00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:56,000 The myth has its roots in the long and scary history of human cannonballs. 31 00:01:56,000 --> 00:02:00,000 They go hurtling with terrific speed through the open space. 32 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Ever since the 1870s, people have been firing themselves on ballistic trajectories. 33 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:10,000 But could you really cross the border like this? 34 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,000 So what is our plan? 35 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:16,000 Well, the first thing we have to do, I guess, is replicate a big slingshot. 36 00:02:16,000 --> 00:02:23,000 And it's going to have to be something that is capable of launching, say, a 185-pound person 200 yards. 37 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,000 That's a big-ass slingshot. 38 00:02:25,000 --> 00:02:27,000 Yeah, at least one person. 39 00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:30,000 Well, in order so that we don't build something massive and get it wrong, 40 00:02:30,000 --> 00:02:35,000 I really think we should start with some small-scale testing of all the various materials we could use, 41 00:02:35,000 --> 00:02:39,000 use specific lengths of that, shoot different objects of different weights, 42 00:02:39,000 --> 00:02:45,000 and come up with, hopefully, an equation that will tell us what's the best thing to use for a full-size slingshot. 43 00:02:45,000 --> 00:02:49,000 Well, you know, with a big build like this, it's always best to start with a small scale. 44 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:51,000 It ought to tell us something. 45 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:58,000 So armed with a small as beautiful philosophy, Adam and Jamie ease into this myth. 46 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:04,000 Targets, more targets, with a store-bought slingshot challenge. 47 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:06,000 I know how much you love competition. 48 00:03:06,000 --> 00:03:13,000 Shall we do a little slingshot challenge, see if I can hit the blue jays out of the apple trees like you did back in the 20s? 49 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:14,000 Yeah, sure, why not? 50 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:19,000 What's a five points, four points, three points, two points? 51 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:20,000 Okay. 52 00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:21,000 You feeling lucky, buddy? 53 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Nope. 54 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:23,000 You feeling lucky? 55 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:29,000 They'll calculate velocity using the high-speed camera. 56 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:33,000 These slingshots aren't toys, so don't try this at home. 57 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:35,000 These are like bullets. 58 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:36,000 They will hurt. 59 00:03:36,000 --> 00:03:37,000 They will kill. 60 00:03:37,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Well, it'll hurt to dig them out of your leg. 61 00:03:41,000 --> 00:03:42,000 That was pretty good. 62 00:03:42,000 --> 00:03:44,000 I wasn't even aiming for bullseye. 63 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:49,000 Zero points for Mr. Heineman. 64 00:03:49,000 --> 00:03:51,000 I had two bulls eyes in a row earlier. 65 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:54,000 I had two bulls eyes in a row earlier. 66 00:03:56,000 --> 00:03:57,000 Four. 67 00:03:57,000 --> 00:03:58,000 Four pointer. 68 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:01,000 Hey, five pointer. 69 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,000 In your face, man. 70 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:07,000 Adam's not used to winning Mythbusters competitions. 71 00:04:07,000 --> 00:04:10,000 But for once, he's right on target. 72 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:14,000 Nope, not even close. 73 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:15,000 Woo! 74 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,000 Another pointless competition brought to you by Mythbusters. 75 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:23,000 That looked like a lot of fun, but how about the science? 76 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:29,000 Their steel shot reached speeds of up to 85 miles per hour. 77 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:34,000 At competition level, slingshots can achieve twice that, 78 00:04:34,000 --> 00:04:37,000 so there's plenty of room for improvement. 79 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:41,000 We now want to look at a whole variety of different materials, 80 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:46,000 elastics, shot cords, bungee cords, rubbers, etc. 81 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:51,000 And see if one of those gives a better velocity or a better contraction, 82 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:56,000 and we'll learn a lot more about what actually gives us the ideal slingshot. 83 00:04:56,000 --> 00:04:59,000 They're scaling things up a notch by turning the scissor lift 84 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:02,000 into a medium-range slingshot. 85 00:05:02,000 --> 00:05:05,000 It's important for this thing to be fairly rigid, 86 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:08,000 because we're going to be looking very closely at the speeds and dynamics 87 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:10,000 of what are going on. 88 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:16,000 If the platform moves, that's a variable that will give us, you know, false results. 89 00:05:17,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Adam decides to make the test missile weigh exactly one kilo, 90 00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:25,000 metric being the international scientific unit of measurement. 91 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:31,000 That hull took about 50 grams out of it, so two more hulls ought to do just the ticket. 92 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:35,000 A one kilo weight will make it easier to analyze their results 93 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:38,000 when they carry out their test firings. 94 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:45,000 Hey! How about that? Exactly a kilo. 95 00:05:45,000 --> 00:05:48,000 With an array of test firings planned, 96 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:52,000 Adam paints the projectile to guard against lead poisoning, 97 00:05:52,000 --> 00:05:54,000 because that's bad. 98 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:57,000 Fabric and velvet, velvet stripes, white, white, yellow, orange. 99 00:05:57,000 --> 00:05:59,000 Do you see leather? 100 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:02,000 He's looking for material to make a firing pouch. 101 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:06,000 One perfectly good pair of gloves. 102 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:09,000 No Jamie in sight? Sort it. 103 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:12,000 A quick snip. 104 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:14,000 A couple of stitches. 105 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:16,000 A pair of grommets. 106 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:18,000 And Jamie's none the wiser. 107 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:20,000 It looks like it shouldn't grab a hold of it. 108 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:21,000 Yeah. 109 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:25,000 A delivery to M5 turns out to be a box full of budgie. 110 00:06:25,000 --> 00:06:28,000 This is the commercial stuff. 111 00:06:28,000 --> 00:06:29,000 Right. 112 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,000 And that's the military stuff. 113 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:35,000 For the same size, this has my money. 114 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:38,000 With a whole day of testing ahead, 115 00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:41,000 Adam's unhappy with the rig. 116 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:43,000 You can do all the firing now. 117 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:46,000 That scares the sh** out of me. 118 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:48,000 I mean, you're running it over a hard point. 119 00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:51,000 I mean, you could humor me and soften that with the angled grinder 120 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:54,000 and stuff like that, but running it through such a hard point 121 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:56,000 makes me too happy. 122 00:06:56,000 --> 00:07:00,000 Jamie softens the edges and strengthens the yoke 123 00:07:00,000 --> 00:07:02,000 by welding on a pair of support struts. 124 00:07:02,000 --> 00:07:06,000 And before the day is done, the rig's done too. 125 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:08,000 Whoa. 126 00:07:08,000 --> 00:07:09,000 Dude. 127 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:14,000 So it's out to M5's lot to see if the scissor lift slingshot 128 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:16,000 will cut the mustard. 129 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:20,000 Well, we're just sort of dialing our system in right now. 130 00:07:20,000 --> 00:07:23,000 We've got the scissor lift set up to be the yoke of our slingshot. 131 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:28,000 We've got some military grade bungee here and our one kilo ball. 132 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:33,000 And I hope we don't hit that blue van all the way at the end of the parking lot. 133 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:37,000 I suspect we'll hit somewhere about halfway between here and there. 134 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:42,000 After the break, the sling along gets underway 135 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,000 as the myth busters search for the right cork. 136 00:07:45,000 --> 00:07:48,000 That's what we call a home run. 137 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:52,000 And Adam reveals Jamie has a thing for thongs. 138 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:54,000 And Jamie heads out into the jungle. 139 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,000 This is often all he wears. 140 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:14,000 In the myth of border slingshot, 141 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:19,000 Adam and Jamie prepare their scissor lift rig for a day of test firing. 142 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,000 They're trying to work out what it would take to launch a human 143 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:28,000 200 yards across the U.S. frontier. 144 00:08:28,000 --> 00:08:30,000 In Oxfordshire, Great Britain, 145 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:33,000 the mad dogs and Englishmen of the dangerous sports club 146 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:38,000 built a medieval trebuchet to toss adrenaline junkies 147 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:42,000 180 feet at speeds of up to 40 miles per hour. 148 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:47,000 In the year 2000, the unfortunate Stella Young took the ride. 149 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:52,000 She hit the safety net, then the ground, and then the headlines. 150 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:54,000 Stella escaped with a broken pelvis. 151 00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:00,000 Two years later, a 19-year-old man missed the net completely and died. 152 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:05,000 Before the myth busters work their way up to a human-sized slingshot, 153 00:09:05,000 --> 00:09:09,000 they're going to carry out extensive testing on small things. 154 00:09:09,000 --> 00:09:13,000 They're going to carry out extensive testing on small projectiles 155 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:15,000 using five different types of rubber. 156 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:18,000 Jamie heads out into the jungle. This is often all he wears. 157 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:24,000 First up, a one-meter length of military bungee and a one-kilo projectile. 158 00:09:24,000 --> 00:09:29,000 The ruler is at 45 degrees to the scissor lift for the best firing angle. 159 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:30,000 Can I do the first one? 160 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:31,000 Sure. 161 00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:33,000 Mark this off at the maximum stretch. 162 00:09:33,000 --> 00:09:37,000 Jamie marks the release point so that when they scale up to full size, 163 00:09:37,000 --> 00:09:40,000 they'll know how much pullback space they'll need. 164 00:09:40,000 --> 00:09:43,000 In three, two, one. 165 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:52,000 Jamie's standing exactly where it landed. 166 00:09:52,000 --> 00:09:54,000 He can see it hit right here. 167 00:09:54,000 --> 00:10:01,000 Test number one, military bungee propelled our one kilogram weight, about 67 feet. 168 00:10:01,000 --> 00:10:04,000 So the next one up is the stranded shock cord. 169 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:07,000 This stuff is apparently super, super expensive. 170 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:11,000 First, they measure the tension and pullback distance. 171 00:10:11,000 --> 00:10:14,000 Three, two, one. 172 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:18,000 Forty-three feet. 173 00:10:18,000 --> 00:10:22,000 That's a full 24 feet less than the military bungee. 174 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:25,000 Next up, solid shock cord. 175 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:28,000 In three, two, one. 176 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:33,000 385. 177 00:10:33,000 --> 00:10:35,000 I suspect we started with the best. 178 00:10:35,000 --> 00:10:37,000 I'm curious to see what the surgical rubber does, 179 00:10:37,000 --> 00:10:41,000 because I have a suspicion that might be the best, but I don't really know. 180 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:45,000 Not having handled military grade bungee cord before. 181 00:10:45,000 --> 00:10:48,000 Not in a long time. Not since Denang, right? 182 00:10:48,000 --> 00:10:54,000 Last, but if Jamie's right, not least, quarter inch surgical tubing. 183 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,000 It's more elastic than the other material, so they have to raise the scissor lift 184 00:10:58,000 --> 00:11:00,000 to get a 45 degree angle. 185 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:03,000 You want to just hold it and I'll fire it, and we'll see where it goes. 186 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:04,000 Yeah, exactly. 187 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:05,000 Okay, there's the ball. 188 00:11:05,000 --> 00:11:07,000 The ball's up there, of course. 189 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,000 What else would it be? 190 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:15,000 The pullback is 14 feet, double the distance of the other contenders. 191 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:18,000 The tension measures 37 pounds. 192 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:23,000 And three, two, one. 193 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:25,000 Where did that go? 194 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:27,000 It's someplace in the grass. 195 00:11:27,000 --> 00:11:30,000 Really? I didn't think that was going to work that well. 196 00:11:30,000 --> 00:11:35,000 The high speed footage records a velocity of almost 100 feet per second. 197 00:11:35,000 --> 00:11:42,000 Over double the speed of the shock cords, and 33% faster than the military bungee. 198 00:11:42,000 --> 00:11:44,000 Hey, Jamie. 199 00:11:44,000 --> 00:11:47,000 It went over the truck and it hit the wall. 200 00:11:47,000 --> 00:11:49,000 I think we have our answer. 201 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:51,000 Part of it. 202 00:11:51,000 --> 00:11:56,000 The surgical rubber delivered double the distance of the next best, the military bungee. 203 00:11:56,000 --> 00:11:58,000 Well, I think we've got some really good data so far. 204 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:00,000 What has it told us? 205 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:05,000 Well, it told us that surgical rubber tubing is our best bet, way out from one of the other rubber. 206 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:08,000 What do you think? Are we ready to go full scale yet? 207 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:11,000 Eh, I'm not so sure we should go right to full scale. 208 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:13,000 This is a lot of material we're talking about. 209 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:17,000 I'd like to do one more interim test just to make sure all our figures are dialed in. 210 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,000 Yeah, this is a big deal. That'd be the safest thing. 211 00:12:19,000 --> 00:12:20,000 Yeah. 212 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:21,000 Okay. 213 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:29,000 Before they commit themselves, they need to fill in some gaps in their knowledge of the properties of surgical rubber. 214 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:32,000 There's a few factors we still don't know about it. 215 00:12:32,000 --> 00:12:35,000 We don't know what its maximum pull strength is. 216 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:36,000 It's breaking strength. 217 00:12:36,000 --> 00:12:39,000 We don't know how long that will be. 218 00:12:39,000 --> 00:12:41,000 So, we're at a 10 foot length. 219 00:12:41,000 --> 00:12:45,000 We don't know whether it'll pull to 40, 60, 70 feet. 220 00:12:45,000 --> 00:12:52,000 So, they set up a straino meter, which involves a measuring strip, a scale, a forklift, 221 00:12:52,000 --> 00:12:55,000 and a 10 foot length of one inch surgical tubing. 222 00:12:55,000 --> 00:12:57,000 Okay, you ready? 223 00:13:01,000 --> 00:13:02,000 50 pounds. 224 00:13:02,000 --> 00:13:04,000 Okay, he's at 40 feet. 225 00:13:04,000 --> 00:13:06,000 We're at 70 pounds. 226 00:13:06,000 --> 00:13:08,000 Yeah, we're at 50 feet. 227 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:10,000 We're at 100 pounds. 228 00:13:10,000 --> 00:13:12,000 Okay, now you're in the danger zone. 229 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:18,000 Did you see what it was? 230 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,000 Looks like on this one, we got to about 150 pounds. 231 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:28,000 The 10 foot length of rubber snapped at 60 feet, a ratio of 6 to 1. 232 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,000 It's pretty chunked up. 233 00:13:30,000 --> 00:13:33,000 I mean, it definitely spikes right there after a 5 to 1 pull. 234 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:34,000 Yeah. 235 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:37,000 That's like 5 to 1 is its maximum ability. 236 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:43,000 Which means 50 feet is the safe pullback limit for a 10 foot length of surgical rubber. 237 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:47,000 Now, they need to know just one more crucial number. 238 00:13:47,000 --> 00:13:51,000 Well, this might look like one of the lost scene stones from The Lord of the Rings. 239 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:58,000 In fact, it's an 8 pound bowling ball, and this is part of our next scaling up of the boarder slingshot. 240 00:13:58,000 --> 00:14:06,000 When I'm done with this, it's going to weigh just about 8 kilos, which is roughly 1 tenth of Buster's final weight. 241 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:09,000 And that will give them the magic figure they need. 242 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:15,000 A successful bowling ball flight will let them scale up for the big one by a factor of 10. 243 00:14:15,000 --> 00:14:19,000 What we're going to do with this is we're going to take it out to an unsuspecting football field, 244 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:23,000 rig up our surgical tubing and our other stuff to the goal posts, 245 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:29,000 turning them into an excessively large slingshot, and we're going to embed this probably in the next town. 246 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:33,000 First, Adam must increase the weight of the bowling ball. 247 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:35,000 Look at this thing made of. 248 00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:37,000 Here comes trouble. 249 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:41,000 It's the world's biggest basketball. 250 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,000 And that's the end of that experiment. 251 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Well, there's your problem. 252 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:55,000 I did something I didn't think was humanly possible. 253 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:59,000 I broke a big chunk out of our bowling ball. 254 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,000 Is it still going to fire? 255 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:04,000 Oh, it's still going to fire. All it needs to be is round and heavy. 256 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:12,000 Well, also, you know, damaging your floors. 257 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,000 Adam lives and Adam learns. 258 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,000 I'm going to continue the destruction of this thing. 259 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:20,000 Let's face it, it's what he does best. 260 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:22,000 Okay, that was easy. 261 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:28,000 I'm okay. 262 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:31,000 It's got a creamy nougat center. 263 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:36,000 He drills a hole and fills it with lead. 264 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:38,000 Perfect, 17.6. 265 00:15:38,000 --> 00:15:44,000 In other words, 8 kilos, 10 death balls, and you've got yourself one buster. 266 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:46,000 Coming up. 267 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:50,000 Three, two, one. 268 00:15:50,000 --> 00:15:55,000 The mythbusters scatter like skittles as the death ball lives up to its name. 269 00:15:55,000 --> 00:15:58,000 Shockingly, that didn't work. 270 00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:02,000 And making a man-sized slingshot is no mean feat. 271 00:16:02,000 --> 00:16:05,000 Unfortunately, humans are big, heavy things. 272 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:18,000 The myth of the border slingshot takes Adam and Jamie to the football fields of Ensignal High. 273 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:20,000 Stop. 274 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,000 Nicely done. 275 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:29,000 They're testing the myth that illegal immigrants are launching themselves into the U.S. by giant slingshots. 276 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:36,000 But first, they want to cut things down to size by tossing a bowling ball exactly one-tenth of Buster's weight. 277 00:16:36,000 --> 00:16:40,000 The school's goalposts are already made slingshot-yoke. 278 00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:43,000 Hey, Adam, I had kind of an idea. 279 00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:49,000 Since this is flexible, what if we put some guy wires or guy ropes on it? 280 00:16:49,000 --> 00:16:51,000 I think that's absolutely what we should do. 281 00:16:51,000 --> 00:16:56,000 Like good mythbusters, they've brought enough rope to lasso a small country. 282 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Adam ties the guy wires off to a couple of cars, then measures out the firing range. 283 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:08,000 I'm marking out 50-foot increments of how far our target should go, and it's looking pretty unreasonable. 284 00:17:08,000 --> 00:17:13,000 I don't think we'll even get the bowling ball more than 150 feet, if that. 285 00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:17,000 And by the time he reaches 450 feet, he's even less optimistic. 286 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:25,000 The myth is that these people slingshotting themselves over the border are traveling another 150 feet that way. 287 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:28,000 300 yards, that's 600 feet. Look, look what's out there. 288 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:32,000 I don't think so. 289 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:37,000 One, two, three, two, one, let's go! 290 00:17:39,000 --> 00:17:47,000 To get an idea of just how far that is, here's human cannonball David Smith Jr. cannonballing 170 feet. 291 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:54,000 It's a spectacular flight, but it's not even one-third of the distance claimed in the border slingshot myth. 292 00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:57,000 It's one heck of a long shot. 293 00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:06,000 Just to make sure that the goal posts can take the strain, they decide to kick things off with a lesser weight. 294 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,000 One inch surgical tubing with a two-kilo ball. 295 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:12,000 Ten feet on each side. 296 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:17,000 And three, two, one. 297 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:24,000 The slingshot becomes a boomerang. 298 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:37,000 That was the scariest thing I've ever done on this show. That was terrifying. 299 00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:40,000 Terror. It's hilarious. 300 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:44,000 So what went wrong? 301 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:46,000 The hazards of giant slingshot making. 302 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:53,000 Jamie added a little extra chain to his ball basket so we could hopefully keep the balls in and not have them fall out. 303 00:18:53,000 --> 00:18:59,000 And that extra piece of chain seems to have held it in because that ball went up and it came right back down. 304 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:03,000 That was scary. 305 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:06,000 One near-death experience per myth is about enough. 306 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:08,000 Is this a recipe for disaster or what? 307 00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:16,000 So they decide to relaunch with an automatic firing mechanism, complete with safety pin and remote triggering device. 308 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:22,000 Okay, so this is the two-kilo ball with ten feet of one inch surgical tubing. Second try. 309 00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:25,000 Three, two, one. 310 00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,000 We have liftoff. 311 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:29,000 Damn. 312 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,000 I'll be darned that one a lot farther than I thought it would. 313 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:37,000 Well, I can see where it landed. 314 00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:39,000 Two hundred and five feet. 315 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:42,000 So what's next? Do we go up to the four-kilo? 316 00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:45,000 I think it's time to double up the bungee and go for the bowling ball. 317 00:19:45,000 --> 00:19:49,000 For quick release, they weave a makeshift basket out of line. 318 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:50,000 Look at that. 319 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:52,000 Huh? Huh? 320 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000 What a masterpiece. 321 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000 We're working on table doilies next. 322 00:19:56,000 --> 00:19:59,000 So once more into the breach. 323 00:19:59,000 --> 00:20:03,000 And three, two, one. 324 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:04,000 Whoa. 325 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:05,000 Whoa. 326 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:06,000 All right. 327 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,000 That would be bad. 328 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:15,000 The Boomerang's back. 329 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:18,000 And this time it's taken out the goalcams. 330 00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,000 Shockingly, that didn't work. 331 00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:28,000 I can't imagine why. 332 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:34,000 The crew comes to the rescue with a camera bag that could have been custom made for slingshotting. 333 00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:37,000 The goalposts, on the other hand, clearly weren't. 334 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:39,000 And they're bent out of shape. 335 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:45,000 With the slingshot on its last legs, can they get the launch they need to complete the testing? 336 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:46,000 All right. 337 00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:50,000 Ready in three, two, one. 338 00:20:55,000 --> 00:20:57,000 Well, Adam, I'd say that worked pretty well. 339 00:20:57,000 --> 00:20:58,000 I think it did. 340 00:20:58,000 --> 00:21:01,000 Right at the last success. 341 00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:04,000 Jamie, that's 77 feet. 342 00:21:04,000 --> 00:21:11,000 For the first time, we're starting to get some activity with this projectile that is like what we'll expect to see with a full-sized human. 343 00:21:11,000 --> 00:21:16,000 We launched an eight kilogram projectile around 70 feet or so. 344 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:19,000 And that's about a tenth of a human. 345 00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:22,000 We need to be able to launch it farther than 70 feet. 346 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:25,000 But at least we're starting to get into that world. 347 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:34,000 Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting kind of tired of all this test firing of these projectiles. 348 00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,000 I think we've crunched the numbers enough. 349 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:37,000 It's time to build the real thing. 350 00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:45,000 You know, from just a cost standpoint, let alone a physics standpoint, tossing him 200 yards, I think, is completely ridiculous. 351 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:50,000 We're talking something like 12,000 pounds of pulling force to throw him that distance. 352 00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:56,000 I reckon we ought to shoot for the world record for a human cannonball, which is about 200 feet. 353 00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:03,000 By my math, that would give us about 40 bands of one inch surgical tubing, 10 feet long, 20 on each side, 354 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:07,000 about a final pulling force of 4,000 pounds, which seems easily doable. 355 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,000 The plan for the final rig is elegantly simple. 356 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:15,000 Two radio towers will form the V-shaped yoke. 357 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,000 An array of guy wires will hold them in place. 358 00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:24,000 And the sling itself will comprise 40 10-foot lengths of one inch surgical tubing. 359 00:22:24,000 --> 00:22:26,000 Seems straightforward enough. 360 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:29,000 Time to build the world's biggest slingshot. 361 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,000 Two, three, four, five, six. 362 00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:37,000 First, the radio towers, which they've purchased for just $700, must be assembled. 363 00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:42,000 Meanwhile, Jamie is busy building a man-sized firing sling. 364 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,000 I guess I'm about the same size as Buster, so this seems about right to me. 365 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,000 We don't want to make it too small. 366 00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:53,000 The whole contraption must be light, but extremely strong. 367 00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:57,000 Unfortunately, humans are big, heavy things, usually. 368 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:05,000 And so when you're using them as projectiles, it takes a lot of energy, and it's actually a heck of a lot of work. 369 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:12,000 Luckily, Jamie's strict recycling policy saves MythMusters a cool five bucks in canvas. 370 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:14,000 Pretty bloody close. 371 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:22,000 The canvas is mainly to keep these cords neat, because things tend to get tangled and hooked. 372 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:26,000 So it's not going to be structural, you're just going to glue it on. 373 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:31,000 Meanwhile, Adam's fulfilling the fooling around clause in his contract. 374 00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:39,000 Oh, my guts fell off! Oh, my guts all fell off! 375 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,000 This is what you look like after sex tuppled bypass surgery. 376 00:23:44,000 --> 00:23:50,000 I haven't done anything sad already. 377 00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:57,000 And with that out of his system, they tie up the build by attaching the lengths of surgical rubber to the sling. 378 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:02,000 Tomorrow is the day of reckoning for these border-busting dummies. 379 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:04,000 Up next... 380 00:24:04,000 --> 00:24:06,000 Out in the sun, making a big slingshot. 381 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:09,000 Adam and Jamie erect a very big rig. 382 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:12,000 I think what we've got here is a thing. 383 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,000 Looks like a big ass slingshot to me. 384 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:17,000 But does it spell V for victory? 385 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:23,000 Buster's going for a pretty exciting ride tomorrow, I think. 386 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:26,000 Remember, don't try this at home. 387 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:32,000 We're what you call experts. 388 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:38,000 The MythMusters arrive at a waterside wasteland, where they'll erect their giant slingshot 389 00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:44,000 and try to hurl a crash test dummy 200 yards over an imaginary border. 390 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,000 So how far is the 200 yard mark for over the border? 391 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:51,000 Well, you see those white posts that are way off in the distance there? 392 00:24:51,000 --> 00:24:53,000 That is about 200 yards. 393 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000 Wow, there's no way he's going to make it that far. 394 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,000 Well, we can try. 395 00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:02,000 Ladies and gentlemen, this is a magnificent thing. 396 00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:05,000 They've spent three days testing with small-scale rigs, 397 00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:12,000 and they're backing a surgical rubber sling to give them their longest shot. 398 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:19,000 The plan is to erect one Goliath of a Yoke using two radio masts, 399 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:23,000 each one anchored with three guy wires. 400 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:25,000 Yeah. 401 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:33,000 Jamie gets all of his strength from experiments he did with gamma rays back in the 70s. 402 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:40,000 They've hired long-reached gradalls to raise the masts, which are 45 feet long. 403 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:42,000 Just a little bit farther forward. 404 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:45,000 Stop! That's pretty much exactly right. 405 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:48,000 Now the sun is making a big slingshot. 406 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,000 Well, what the hell is this? 407 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:53,000 It's way heck up there. 408 00:25:53,000 --> 00:26:01,000 I have a feeling that we weren't exaggerating when we said this will be the world's largest slingshot. 409 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:03,000 Now for the tricky bit. 410 00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:06,000 Positioning the guy wires so that they support the mast 411 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:10,000 without getting in the way of the slingshot's trajectory. 412 00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:15,000 The only solution is to cross the two guy wires in front of the slingshot. 413 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:19,000 They hope that Buster will fly over the wires and over the border, 414 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:22,000 but there's no guarantee of either. 415 00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:28,000 It's kind of risky, though, because if Buster doesn't go as far or as fast as we think he's going to go, 416 00:26:28,000 --> 00:26:32,000 he's going to land on the guy wires and this whole rig could take a tumble. 417 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:36,000 It's not a perfect solution, but it's the only one they've got, 418 00:26:36,000 --> 00:26:40,000 so they reposition the forward guy wires and check their angles. 419 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000 I think it's beautiful. I think the cross is nice and far away. 420 00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:48,000 The point under the cable is still about 25 feet. We're going to fly at least 25 feet. 421 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,000 Okay, let's do the other one, huh? 422 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:53,000 The first tower was the tricky one. 423 00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:57,000 Now they've got a system in place, they nail the second one with no trouble at all. 424 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:00,000 That's it. 425 00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:02,000 Alright then, last cable. 426 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:09,000 The last cable is tensioned up and there's the giant Y of the world's biggest slingshot yoke. 427 00:27:09,000 --> 00:27:11,000 Wow. 428 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:17,000 Now that it's up, the scale of the border slingshot myth starts to hit home. 429 00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:23,000 A structure like this is not a very mobile structure. 430 00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:27,000 This is not something you could pull up with on a flatbed, launch someone, 431 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,000 and then be gone before the border patrol could catch you. 432 00:27:30,000 --> 00:27:35,000 Even if the border guards somehow failed to notice a major piece of construction 433 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:39,000 taking place on their watch and the immigrants flying overhead, 434 00:27:39,000 --> 00:27:43,000 there's still the issue of the landing on the other side. 435 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:47,000 We may make our best guess as to where this mattress might go, 436 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,000 and I guarantee you we're going to miss it. 437 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:54,000 The guys swing the sling into place and admire their handiwork. 438 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:57,000 I think what we've got here is a thing. 439 00:27:57,000 --> 00:27:59,000 It's like a big ass slingshot to me. 440 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:02,000 There's just one more problem to solve. 441 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:06,000 We'll have to think a little bit about how Buster's going to get held in here. 442 00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:08,000 How to hold him in there. 443 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:10,000 To keep him falling down that way. 444 00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:11,000 Right. 445 00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:12,000 It's something to think about. 446 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:13,000 It's got to let him go. 447 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:14,000 I know. 448 00:28:14,000 --> 00:28:16,000 But you know what I'm talking about. 449 00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:18,000 I know what you're talking about, man. 450 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,000 I'm picking up what you're putting down. 451 00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,000 They'll work out how to seat Buster tomorrow 452 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:27,000 when they attempt the horizontal bungee across the border. 453 00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:31,000 It's been a long day, so watch the verdict. 454 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,000 This is full on. 455 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:36,000 You know, this thing with the radio towers and everything like that. 456 00:28:36,000 --> 00:28:40,000 I think, I don't think anybody else has ever done anything quite like this. 457 00:28:40,000 --> 00:28:43,000 Buster's going for a pretty exciting ride tomorrow, I think. 458 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:44,000 After the break. 459 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:45,000 You're ouch. 460 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:46,000 You're ouch. 461 00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:47,000 I'm crazy. 462 00:28:47,000 --> 00:28:50,000 The build team arrives to stake out the border. 463 00:28:50,000 --> 00:28:53,000 I think that's pretty far to be slinging a human being. 464 00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:58,000 And the sling shot snaps into action with alarming results. 465 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:09,000 I got to establish that this is Canada. 466 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:12,000 So I'm going to throw a Canadian flag up here. 467 00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,000 It's 7 a.m. on the day of the big launch. 468 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:20,000 And the build team arrives to stake out an imaginary U.S.-Canadian border. 469 00:29:20,000 --> 00:29:21,000 Oh, yeah. 470 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:23,000 This will keep them out. 471 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,000 We're at 200 feet. 472 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:26,000 250. 473 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:31,000 According to the myth, giant sling shots are hurling illegal immigrants 474 00:29:31,000 --> 00:29:36,000 200 yards across the border and into the United States. 475 00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:38,000 That's 200 yards. 476 00:29:38,000 --> 00:29:39,000 That's wide as the border. 477 00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:40,000 200 yards. 478 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,000 That's pretty far. 479 00:29:42,000 --> 00:29:45,000 I doubt it's going to make it. 480 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:49,000 I think that's pretty far to be slinging a human being. 481 00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:52,000 200 yards to get over the border. 482 00:29:52,000 --> 00:29:54,000 I think this myth might be slightly absurd. 483 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:57,000 But you know those Canadians, they're kind of crafty. 484 00:29:57,000 --> 00:30:01,000 But are they crafty enough to fly 200 yards and land on a mattress? 485 00:30:01,000 --> 00:30:02,000 ouch. 486 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:04,000 It's one heck of a long shot, eh? 487 00:30:04,000 --> 00:30:05,000 Run, run. 488 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:06,000 You're ouch. 489 00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:07,000 You're ouch. 490 00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:08,000 I'm crazy. 491 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:12,000 The consensus is that the border is beyond reach, dead or alive. 492 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:16,000 So the mythbusters have lowered the bar for today's launch. 493 00:30:16,000 --> 00:30:17,000 All right. 494 00:30:17,000 --> 00:30:21,000 What we got here is the mark for the world record of human cannonball. 495 00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:25,000 I don't think we're even going to come close to this mark. 496 00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:29,000 My feeling is that it probably won't even reach to the first tie-down of the sling shot. 497 00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:35,000 The world record target is 201 feet, set in 2002 by David Smith Sr. 498 00:30:36,000 --> 00:30:38,000 Tari's not holding his breath. 499 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:43,000 The last time we tried a fire buster on it, a ballistic trajectory was with the boom lift catapult. 500 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:46,000 And you know, we thought we were going to get like 200 feet. 501 00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:47,000 We didn't even come close. 502 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:49,000 I think it went like 30 feet. 503 00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:51,000 3, 2, 1. 504 00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:52,000 Run. 505 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:07,000 In fact, the boom lift catapult tossed him a respectable 90 feet. 506 00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:10,000 If you include the 60 feet of boom. 507 00:31:11,000 --> 00:31:16,000 In raccoon rocket, 10 pounds of black powder blasted him 80 feet. 508 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,000 Oh my God. 509 00:31:19,000 --> 00:31:25,000 And in the myth of the Ming dynasty astronaut, well, he just got burnt to a cinder. 510 00:31:26,000 --> 00:31:29,000 Come to think of it, Buster could do with a launch break. 511 00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:34,000 Maybe it's time to give a relative rookie a go. 512 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:36,000 She's a little worse for wear. 513 00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:41,000 When it comes to handling children, Jamie's old school. 514 00:31:42,000 --> 00:31:44,000 The kid only weighs 55 pounds. 515 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:48,000 So if she doesn't launch, the myth is totally busted. 516 00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:55,000 For safety reasons, the dummy will stay stationary while the surgical rubber is stretched upwards 517 00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:58,000 towards the top of the towers using grade A's. 518 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:05,000 For full power, the sling must have 4,000 pounds of tension, a stretch of up to 50 feet. 519 00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:11,000 Any further and the rubber could snap with painful results. 520 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:17,000 Okay, you drivers are going to have to know to control yourself to keep it balanced. 521 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:21,000 If you see it start to ship, you know, compensate. 522 00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:23,000 All right, is that clear? 523 00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,000 Brant and Tori are the pullback pilots. 524 00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,000 All right, I'm pulling the safety pin. 525 00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:31,000 The days of testing and building are over. 526 00:32:31,000 --> 00:32:33,000 This is it. 527 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:36,000 Okay, everybody's in position. 528 00:32:36,000 --> 00:32:38,000 Radles, go ahead and start tensioning over. 529 00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:42,000 The tension mounts towards the 4,000 pound mark. 530 00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:44,000 Okay, you guys are good. 531 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:51,000 At release, the dummy will pull between 6 and 9 G's about as much as a space shuttle astronaut. 532 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000 Wow. 533 00:32:53,000 --> 00:32:56,000 Let Tori catch up a little bit more, Grant. 534 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:59,000 Then, disaster strikes. 535 00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:01,000 Stop, all stop. 536 00:33:01,000 --> 00:33:04,000 Houston, we have a problem. 537 00:33:04,000 --> 00:33:11,000 A guy wire has slipped, but Jamie makes a quick appraisal and decides not to abort. 538 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:15,000 I'm going to suggest that we fire it at this point. 539 00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:19,000 I am firing in three, two, one. 540 00:33:19,000 --> 00:33:21,000 Blast off. 541 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,000 What happened? What was our shift? 542 00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:36,000 While Adam and Jamie investigate the problem, Kary's been measuring the throw. 543 00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:37,000 Jamie? 544 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:38,000 Yes. 545 00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,000 Do you remember my prediction for how far she would fly? 546 00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:42,000 It was 132 feet. 547 00:33:42,000 --> 00:33:43,000 Guess how far she flew? 548 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:44,000 133 feet. 549 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:46,000 132 feet. 550 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:47,000 Ah, well, good guess. 551 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:49,000 The kids have got it. 552 00:33:49,000 --> 00:33:52,000 But how about the slingshot? 553 00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:53,000 I think we can fix the rig. 554 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,000 We've got to retension this main cable that seemed to have stretched a bit. 555 00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000 And we should be good to fire again, not too long from now. 556 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:06,000 They retension the loose cable and decide to take out some additional insurance. 557 00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,000 I am adding a pair of guy wires. 558 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:14,000 To these towers just to add an extra level of support. 559 00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:19,000 Meanwhile, Kary and Grant prepare Suzy the crash test dummy for launch. 560 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:22,000 I mean, clearly she's not had enough yoga. 561 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:26,000 They're working on the theory that she'll fly further in the fetal position. 562 00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:28,000 How's that look? 563 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000 Painful, but that is a ball. 564 00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:38,000 They pretension the sling into the loading position, then place the 130-pound Suzy aboard. 565 00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:39,000 Oh, yeah. 566 00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:40,000 She's in. 567 00:34:40,000 --> 00:34:41,000 She's in. 568 00:34:41,000 --> 00:34:42,000 That's it. 569 00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:46,000 If you've ever flown economy, you know just how Suzy's feeling. 570 00:34:46,000 --> 00:34:50,000 But it's all systems go for a second shot at the world record. 571 00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:52,000 Okay, I'm pulling the pin. 572 00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000 Guys, go ahead and start up. 573 00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:57,000 The Great All slowly stretch up the surgical rubber. 574 00:34:57,000 --> 00:34:59,000 Looking good. 575 00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:01,000 Adam, get ready to fire. 576 00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:02,000 Go ahead. 577 00:35:02,000 --> 00:35:03,000 Watch that. 578 00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:05,000 Okay, I recommend to fire. 579 00:35:05,000 --> 00:35:07,000 Go, Adam. 580 00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:16,000 Five, four, three, two, one. 581 00:35:16,000 --> 00:35:19,000 As Jamie would say, whoops. 582 00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:22,000 Well, that was a familiar result. 583 00:35:22,000 --> 00:35:24,000 So what went wrong this time? 584 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:27,000 What happened is the same thing that happened with our bowling ball. 585 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:32,000 The sling is actually rotating around, holding on to the dummy and slinging it back. 586 00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:35,000 How we solve that, I'm not exactly sure. 587 00:35:35,000 --> 00:35:40,000 We put almost absolute full tension on the rig this last run. 588 00:35:40,000 --> 00:35:44,000 And the dummy looked like she was going pretty awful fast. 589 00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:50,000 I think if we can manage to release her properly, we'll see what this rig is capable of. 590 00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:56,000 Adam thinks that taking up some of the seat slack might help to release the dummy. 591 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,000 You could almost try not around that. 592 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:00,000 Okay. 593 00:36:00,000 --> 00:36:01,000 Yeah. 594 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:02,000 All right. 595 00:36:02,000 --> 00:36:04,000 We'll also try seating her sideways. 596 00:36:04,000 --> 00:36:07,000 Yeah, I see what you're doing, Tori, and I like that. 597 00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:09,000 Okay, so everybody's in position. 598 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:11,000 Go ahead and tension. 599 00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:13,000 Will it be three times a charm? 600 00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:17,000 Okay, Tori, you've got about just a few feet. 601 00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:25,000 That was the blue rope that broke. 602 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:27,000 Susie's having a fight from hell. 603 00:36:27,000 --> 00:36:35,000 The blue rope that was attached to Tori's great-alls snapped before the sling even reached maximum tension. 604 00:36:35,000 --> 00:36:39,000 Well, it looks like our rig kind of broke. 605 00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:47,000 One of our blue ropes that we were tensioning the rig with, we're checking on the braking strength right now. 606 00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:52,000 It broke, so apparently we exceeded its braking strength. 607 00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:59,000 The day is wearing on, and the Mythbusters family of would-be immigrants are still stuck on Canadian soil. 608 00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:10,000 I'm not sure we were ever making our way the full 200 yards into the United States, but really, we can't finish this day without some kind of launch. 609 00:37:10,000 --> 00:37:15,000 Down but never out, the Mythbusters get going on another round of repairs. 610 00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:17,000 In and out, nobody gets hurt. 611 00:37:17,000 --> 00:37:21,000 Susie takes her seat for her third ride. 612 00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:24,000 In about five minutes, I want to be going. 613 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:27,000 Seconds out, round three. 614 00:37:27,000 --> 00:37:30,000 Okay, go ahead and start the tension. 615 00:37:30,000 --> 00:37:35,000 Tensions the word. Another failure now, and this myth's in trouble. 616 00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:39,000 Adam, I want you to do the count quick once we get into position. 617 00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:43,000 Okay, stop, Grant. Fire it will. 618 00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:48,000 I am firing in three, two, one. 619 00:37:51,000 --> 00:38:07,000 We still didn't really get a good launch. At least it wasn't a, like, throwback. 620 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:14,000 The high-speed camera shows that Susie slipped out of her sling, so she didn't receive all the available thrust. 621 00:38:14,000 --> 00:38:18,000 128 feet, I'm afraid she's still a Canadian. 622 00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:21,000 It's all about the motor crossing, that's what it's all about. 623 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:24,000 Coming up. Let's go! 624 00:38:24,000 --> 00:38:29,000 The Mythbusters pull out the stops to fling one final sling. 625 00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:32,000 Okay, go ahead and tension. 626 00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:37,000 Stay tuned as they shoot for a world record with a human projectile. 627 00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,000 Three, two, one. 628 00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:47,000 Did we get into the border? 629 00:38:49,000 --> 00:38:54,000 Time is running out for the Mythbusters. 630 00:38:54,000 --> 00:39:00,000 Engineering problems have beset their super-sized slingshot. 631 00:39:05,000 --> 00:39:12,000 At the US border remains unbreached. There's only enough daylight left for one final launch. 632 00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:17,000 Busters understudy. Rescue Randy takes the hot seat. 633 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:25,000 He's going to be shooting for the world human cannonball record of 201 feet. 634 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:30,000 Jamie's made a last-minute adjustment to the sling arrangement. 635 00:39:30,000 --> 00:39:32,000 Adam's impressed. 636 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:34,000 Lift off! 637 00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:39,000 Jamie, it looks a lot more diabolical now. 638 00:39:39,000 --> 00:39:41,000 I don't know, you might have done it. 639 00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:47,000 Not one to be left out, Adam makes his own modification to the launch seat, so that the dummy sits higher up. 640 00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,000 Is the center of bouncer's about here? I want it to be here. 641 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000 That was that string, this is that string. 642 00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,000 It looks high. 643 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,000 I know it looks high, but he was real low last time. 644 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:03,000 This is a classic Mythbusters scenario. We're just about to do the end thing. 645 00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:09,000 You've made a modification and I'll have made a modification, and we'll both want to take credit if it works. 646 00:40:09,000 --> 00:40:11,000 I've seen it before. 647 00:40:11,000 --> 00:40:13,000 You can take credit, Adam. 648 00:40:14,000 --> 00:40:17,000 Oh, he's a sockman. 649 00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:20,000 The center of balance is pretty much dead in the middle. 650 00:40:20,000 --> 00:40:22,000 I think this one's going to jump. 651 00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,000 How far? 652 00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:26,000 220 feet. 653 00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:28,000 220? 654 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:35,000 The light is fading fast. They hurriedly pretension the sling and make a final pre-flight inspection. 655 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,000 That looks pretty good. 656 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,000 Let's pull the pin and do it. 657 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:41,000 Pin is out. 658 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:44,000 Release cable is clear. 659 00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:46,000 Okay, go ahead and tension. 660 00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:57,000 Grant and Tori slowly advance towards the edge of the dock. 661 00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:06,000 To get the 165 pound dummy past the world record marker, they'll need every inch of the 40 foot stretch. 662 00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:08,000 Grant, stop. 663 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:10,000 Tori, keep going. 664 00:41:10,000 --> 00:41:15,000 When the sling is at maximum tension, 4,000 pounds of pressure is ready to be unleashed. 665 00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:17,000 Okay, stop. 666 00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:19,000 Fire at will. 667 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:21,000 Three, two, one. 668 00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:35,000 Blast off. Now that's a throw. 669 00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:42,000 Did we get into the border? 670 00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:44,000 He passed it. 671 00:41:44,000 --> 00:41:46,000 Wow. He passed it. 672 00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:48,000 He wanted one more. 673 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:50,000 That's measured. 674 00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:52,000 Nice. 675 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:55,000 Miraculously, the dummy is still in one piece. 676 00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,000 You're not going to get the mattress, that's for freaking sure. 677 00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:02,000 That's a hell of a flight. 678 00:42:02,000 --> 00:42:07,000 My money says he would have gone over if we had more time to balance it. 679 00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:10,000 He would have gone over the fence, you mean. 680 00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,000 Yeah. 681 00:42:12,000 --> 00:42:16,000 I would reckon that he would have easily made it over the fence because we lost so much energy to this. 682 00:42:16,000 --> 00:42:18,000 Yeah. 683 00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:25,000 The high speed camera shows that Buster's stunt double still slipped out of the sling, causing him to rotate. 684 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:28,000 But it was still quite a flight. 685 00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,000 You broke the world record for cannonball. 686 00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,000 What was our distance? 687 00:42:36,000 --> 00:42:39,000 Your distance at the first landing was 211 feet. 688 00:42:39,000 --> 00:42:41,000 Huh? 689 00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,000 Well, nicely done. 690 00:42:43,000 --> 00:42:45,000 I'd say that's a good job. 691 00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,000 That's all we can do today. 692 00:42:47,000 --> 00:42:49,000 Let's pack up and go home. 693 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:53,000 They flung their final fling. 694 00:42:53,000 --> 00:42:56,000 It's been a myth-busting marathon. 695 00:42:58,000 --> 00:43:02,000 Which started like this and ended like this. 696 00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:10,000 A world record for a dummy at least. 697 00:43:10,000 --> 00:43:16,000 Not a bad consolation prize, but the myth of the border slingshot is busted.