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On this episode of MythBusters...

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Come on, stay up there.

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It's a wind special.

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Whoa!

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...as the team sparks up an American classic.

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Did Ben Franklin really fly a kite in a storm

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and survive a bolt from the blue?

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Oh!

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Meanwhile, both Adam and Jamie are getting ready...

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Weird.

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What's on pet?

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...to tastefully test some scientific facts about flatulence.

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Roger that. We have flatness contained.

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Ah! Ah! Ah!

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You are the MythBusters.

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Adam Savage.

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Answer all over my head, man.

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And Jamie Heineman.

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Gets me all worked up just looking at it.

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Between them, more than 30 years special effects experience.

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That was heavy.

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Joining them, Grant Imahara.

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Go get him, boy.

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Tori Bellaci.

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Whoa!

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And Carrie Byron.

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That was crazy!

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They don't just tell the myths.

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Ah! Ah!

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They put them to the test.

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First up, a blast from the past

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as Carrie, Grant and Tori test an American legend.

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We got there, little doll?

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No, it's called an action figure.

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And it's Ben Franklin.

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Is this the classic tale where Ben Franklin takes a kite out into a storm, flies it,

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it gets hit by lightning, and a key that he's tied to the end gets charged,

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and he discovers electricity.

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I've heard that in every school room I've ever been in.

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Because I've been in a lot.

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Apparently there's a little bit of controversy surrounding it.

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They think, well, did he actually fly the kite?

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Was he able to get something in the air in a storm?

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Could he have done it without getting killed?

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It sounds really, really dangerous.

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It could be very dangerous.

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Or it could be a lot of fun.

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Fun fact or fiction, Franklin's kite flying bolt from the blue

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is a myth that took the US by storm.

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But did this famous spark in the dark really have a reason?

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So what we've got to do is start out with the kite

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and see if we could build a kite that will fly using period materials

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with Benjamin Franklin's specifications.

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Definitely have to do some small scale testing on conductivity.

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Yes, just to see if the string can actually get that charge all the way down to the key.

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And then another problem I see is finding a storm,

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getting the kite in the storm and having it hit by lightning.

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Without killing all of us.

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Yeah, that seems like it's going to be a challenge.

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Yeah.

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Let's start with building the kites.

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Where they can follow Franklin's recipe,

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because he wrote most of it down,

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the square frame was made of cedar

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and the material was a silk handkerchief.

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On the top of the kite was a lightning rod

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and at the end of the string, the key.

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And lastly, Franklin flew it out of a window

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so that he didn't get dangerously damp.

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Hey Grant, do you want to make the little kite while I make the big kite?

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Sure.

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No one knows the precise size of Franklin's kite,

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but silk hankies of his time were either 10 by 10 inches or 3 foot square.

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So the team is first going to build several of each size to see which flies best.

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Come on, stay up there. Stay up there.

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With the kites coming together,

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the team leaps from preschool to post grad.

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In a quest for the best string.

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The next part of the myth is we have to measure the resistance of the string

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that we're going to use for this.

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And we have here the high resistance meter.

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So I need a one inch sample of each type of string we're going to try.

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They're calculating which of the 18th century twines is the best conductor.

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For a nano semen.

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Because that will have the highest chance of conducting the electrical strike

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from the kite to the key.

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Now check this out.

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There's a difference in conductance between these two pieces of string.

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And in fact, the thicker one has much higher conductance.

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So that's what they're going to use.

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Now with the traditional kite strung up with the authentic hem twine,

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it's time to see which of the two sizes is the high flyer.

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I think she should definitely run with it.

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Okay.

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Go, Carrie Byron.

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Run, Forrest!

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You're almost there!

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Carrie's running like the wind, but for now her big kite can't even get off the ground.

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Can Grant's tiny rival do any better?

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Go!

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Go!

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Go!

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Stability appears to be an issue.

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You don't say.

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Grant's kite is doing more spins than a washing machine.

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And Carrie's has the same problem.

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So Team Tiny ties on a rock for added stability.

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But then the kite turns psycho.

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Hey!

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It's the death kite.

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The kite of punishment.

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Oh!

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I made it all worthwhile.

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Gotta stretch it out a little.

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While Tori massages his rocks from the rock, the others don't get any further.

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I don't think it's supposed to do that.

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If they're hoping to get this myth up and running, they're going to need a second wind.

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Here we go.

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These kites are dangerous.

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Meanwhile, a different wind is brewing for Adam and Jamie.

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Facts about flatulence.

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What kind of facts are there about flatulence?

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This is actually classic Mythbuster territory.

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We're going to investigate all of the things people have ever wanted to know about flatulence.

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Do you mean like when the guy passed so much gas that he suffocated?

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Yep.

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Or does lighting a match dissipate the smell of Chanel number two?

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And then finally, they're foods that make you pass more gas than other foods like beans.

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The Mythbusters have ranked the top ranked myths and none get any bigger than death by flatus.

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So, we got flatus to death.

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This is a myth about a large man living on a diet of beans and cabbage in a small, close room

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who apparently suffocated by inhaling the deadly cloud of gas that hung above him.

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It's a myth from the boughs of the internet.

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But is this story toilet trash or does it have a ring of truth?

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Can flatulence really be fatal?

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You know, in order to get started with this, we have to physically determine the actual size of a flatus

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and what its constituent components are.

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Well, that means we have to come up with some sort of device to actually catch a flatus, right?

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Since the one place you normally see them is in the bathtub,

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I'm thinking of using a rig that uses water and a bathtub to actually capture them.

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So, before the boys can test the death by toxic flatulence myth,

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they first need to learn exactly what gases are found therein.

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So, Adam's building a bath-based flatus catcher.

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Adam's device should trap his trumpet in a tube as it bubbles up through water.

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Once trapped, the awful aroma needs to be extracted.

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And that's where the flatus containment vessel comes in.

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So, what I'm going to do now is hook up my vacuum pump to this and pull a vacuum on this.

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Once I pull a vacuum, I'm going to close it and this thing will be under vacuum.

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And when I hook it up to the flatus catcher, it's going to capture the flatus and then I shut it off.

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Never has such ingenuity been focused at flatulence.

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Oh, hey! The cotton!

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That was great!

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With Adam's trap tuned up and a bubble bath on standby, everything is ready for the main event.

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My dignity and good television.

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They'll never meet.

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At least not on this show.

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But when Adam gets in to give gas, there's a problem.

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Oh, God, it's so cold!

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Oh, dude, that's wrong!

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For some reason, the cold water is making me pucker up.

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The liquid chill is hindering his digestion.

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Try as he might, he just can't deliver the goods.

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I wasted a really good one at like six o'clock this morning.

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It was like two seconds long, like a real...

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kind of thing.

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Wish I had that now.

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Later, more facts about flatulence.

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May have pungent or rotten egg odor.

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But next up, Franklin's kite finally flies.

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Yeah! We did it!

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Did Ben Franklin fly a kite in a thunderstorm,

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get struck by lightning via a key, and survive?

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Not if the Mythbusters kite flying team is anything to go by.

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They've struggled to get a Franklin inspired kite off the ground,

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let alone do so in a thunderstorm.

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But Carrie has a plan B.

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I'm making some changes in the kite design.

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I'm taking advantage of the vagueness of Franklin's kite.

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I'm changing from the square cedar that we had before

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to a more flexible doweling.

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I'm also going to change from a perfect square

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to a more diamond shape,

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which is traditionally what more you would think of a kite as looking like.

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To get this myth airborne,

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Carrie's decided to slightly alter Franklin's kite design.

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She's changing his square shape to a diamond,

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and making the frame of more modern cedar doweling.

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Meanwhile, the boys are focusing on Franklin's kite flying shelter.

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We've got one hour to rip this thing apart and put a new window in.

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The race is on to build our room with a view.

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Okay, the bathroom's done.

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They're recycling a previous Mythbusters experiment.

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They're going to use the same method

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to make the room look like a real room.

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They're going to use the previous Mythbusters experiment

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into Franklin's kite flying HQ.

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I really think the Franklin family is going to love these new additions

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we made to their house.

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With the preparations well underway,

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job well done.

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Nice!

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The team can soon put this myth to the test,

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and there's three key things to find out.

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Test one, can a kite attract a charge

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and conduct it down 18th century string to a key?

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Two, can the key get charged so much

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that it will spark to the kite flyer's finger?

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And three, can that spark be so great

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that the kite flyer flatlines?

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For test one, can the string conduct a charge to the key,

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the team hits the beach.

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They've got their kite flying shelter and Carrie's latest kite.

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It's a new shape, but the silk and the twine

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are based on Franklin's original guidelines.

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Here we are yet again trying to get a kite into the air.

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This is our biggest and our best kite.

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One, two, three.

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Hey!

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Yeah! We did it!

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Now that the kite has got a second win,

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the mythbusting can begin.

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And for this first test, the fact that there's not a thunderstorm in sight

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shouldn't be a problem.

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Even on a dry day like today,

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we should be able to develop a static charge.

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The reason is that the movement of the air,

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the wind across the kite and the string

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should leave a net electrical charge.

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With 500 feet of the good conducting string let out,

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they're maximizing their chance for success.

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Do you want to get in the house and be all ready?

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You can be Ben Franklin, I'll bring it over to you.

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Okay, everything's all ready.

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All right, we're getting 3.8 kV.

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Wow, the core.

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Look at that!

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6 kV.

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We are building!

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Test 1's a success.

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The key's a buzzin'.

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We're up to almost 10 kV.

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With a reading of 10,000 volts,

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the team moves on to test 2.

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Can Carrie get a shock off the key?

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No, no sparks.

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Now that we've gotten it in the air and we've got the

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copper rod at the end,

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do you want to bring it down,

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wet it and let it back up?

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Yeah, I think we should.

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To try to get a spark, the team wets the string

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because water should dramatically increase its conductivity.

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The charge didn't seem to be building very quickly before,

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but it is now.

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All the steady 16, 19 off the scale.

256
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Do you want to try the next test?

257
00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:54,000
Definitely.

258
00:13:55,000 --> 00:13:57,000
Nothing.

259
00:13:57,000 --> 00:14:00,000
The wets string has more than double the voltage,

260
00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:03,000
but it's still not enough to get a spark.

261
00:14:03,000 --> 00:14:07,000
For that, they're going to have to jolt this experiment up.

262
00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:14,000
Can flatulence be fatal?

263
00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,000
To test this smelly saga,

264
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:18,000
the Mythbusters must first learn

265
00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:21,000
what gases make up the average trump.

266
00:14:21,000 --> 00:14:23,000
The FCV.

267
00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:25,000
Adam's built a stink catcher.

268
00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:27,000
Psst, psst.

269
00:14:27,000 --> 00:14:28,000
Closing valve number two.

270
00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:30,000
The dress rehearsal was a breeze.

271
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:33,000
Roger that, we have flatus contained.

272
00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:36,000
Ah, ah, ah, ah.

273
00:14:36,000 --> 00:14:38,000
But for the main event,

274
00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:40,000
he's had performance anxiety.

275
00:14:40,000 --> 00:14:41,000
You got one?

276
00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:43,000
I think so.

277
00:14:43,000 --> 00:14:45,000
Oh, it's a little tiny one.

278
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:47,000
No, nothing.

279
00:14:47,000 --> 00:14:51,000
Waiting for Adam to bubble up is rather unpleasant.

280
00:14:51,000 --> 00:14:55,000
So here's a reassuring announcement about taste.

281
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:01,000
This particular subject is, you know,

282
00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:03,000
it might offend some people if we're not careful.

283
00:15:03,000 --> 00:15:05,000
Well, we have to be very tasteful.

284
00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,000
And, you know, I think we should start by

285
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:12,000
doing this entire segment without ever once using the word f***.

286
00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:14,000
Didn't you just do that?

287
00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:16,000
No, they bleep that right out.

288
00:15:16,000 --> 00:15:19,000
Well, the technical term for it is flatus.

289
00:15:19,000 --> 00:15:21,000
And that's where we should begin.

290
00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:23,000
Back at the bath,

291
00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000
Adam's body has had time to adjust to the cold,

292
00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:29,000
and his numb bum starts bubbling.

293
00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:33,000
Hey, we got one!

294
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:43,000
We got a nice 13 and a half milliliter flatus.

295
00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:47,000
I think this is the first time anyone's ever tried this on television.

296
00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:54,000
The second, third, and fourth times soon follow through.

297
00:15:54,000 --> 00:15:58,000
Then they're logged before the team draws straws

298
00:15:58,000 --> 00:16:01,000
to see who has to take them to the lab.

299
00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:05,000
Yet another one of my very unique missions that Jamie and Adam have sent me on,

300
00:16:05,000 --> 00:16:13,000
I have four specimens of flatus to bring into the UCSF mass spectrometry facility.

301
00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:16,000
They're going to test them and see exactly what's in them.

302
00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,000
Lucky, lucky them.

303
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,000
Well, what we're going to do is take this sample,

304
00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:24,000
and we'll open up the stopcock at the top.

305
00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:28,000
We'll put this syringe in, pull a volume of air out of there,

306
00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:30,000
and then we're going to inject it on here,

307
00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,000
and they will be analyzed to tell what they are.

308
00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:37,000
You know they'll be troubled when it all sounds so simple.

309
00:16:37,000 --> 00:16:40,000
Oh, God!

310
00:16:40,000 --> 00:16:45,000
A quick spray of not so much odocolone as odicolon.

311
00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:46,000
That can't be good for you.

312
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:48,000
Once injected into the machine,

313
00:16:48,000 --> 00:16:54,000
the ingredients of Adam's gastric gas will be broken up according to their mass.

314
00:16:54,000 --> 00:16:57,000
So what are the main constituents of the sample we just took?

315
00:16:57,000 --> 00:17:00,000
So what we're mainly seeing is 28 and 32,

316
00:17:00,000 --> 00:17:02,000
which would be nitrogen and oxygen,

317
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:04,000
which of course is the main constituents of our air.

318
00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:07,000
There's a little bit of 40, which would be argon,

319
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:10,000
which also is a normal constituent of air.

320
00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:13,000
We're seeing some methane and some carbon dioxide.

321
00:17:13,000 --> 00:17:15,000
So it's not just hot air.

322
00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:19,000
There is odorless methane and carbon dioxide.

323
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:21,000
And that's not all.

324
00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:25,000
Adam's air salute also contains hydrogen sulfide

325
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:30,000
and methylmercaptan, the smelly gases of flattis.

326
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:34,000
With the ingredients of Adam's wretched recipe established,

327
00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,000
I hope there's the weirdest thing you have to do today.

328
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:40,000
the team is ready to see if flatulence can be fatal.

329
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:42,000
300,000.

330
00:17:42,000 --> 00:17:45,000
Later, Franklin's kite gets fried.

331
00:17:45,000 --> 00:17:47,000
There's our lightning.

332
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:52,000
And up next, Buster tests death by flattis.

333
00:17:52,000 --> 00:17:55,000
This might be the meanest thing we've ever done to him.

334
00:17:58,000 --> 00:18:02,000
Flattulence. Like it or not, we all do it.

335
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:08,000
But is it ever possible to pass so much gas in one night that it turns deadly?

336
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:15,000
To test this tall tale, Adam and Jamie first need to build a suitably small bedroom.

337
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:18,000
Then they need a test subject.

338
00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:21,000
Yes, the ever-unfortunate Buster.

339
00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:22,000
There we go.

340
00:18:22,000 --> 00:18:27,000
And with the room sealed up, everything's ready for the gas.

341
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:33,000
The analysis of Adam's airstrike showed that most flattis gases are harmless,

342
00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:36,000
but some can be fatal in high doses.

343
00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:41,000
To find the mythical killer, they're going to test each noxious gas in turn,

344
00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,000
starting with carbon dioxide.

345
00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:47,000
The reason we're going to start with CO2 is because of all the constituent gases

346
00:18:47,000 --> 00:18:51,000
that make up your flattis, it's the one we think really has the highest potential

347
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:56,000
to be the most deadly and come out in amounts large enough to actually be plausible.

348
00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:01,000
Regular air does contain carbon dioxide, but there's so little of it,

349
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:05,000
just 0.03% that it's harmless.

350
00:19:05,000 --> 00:19:09,000
But at higher concentrations, it turns nasty.

351
00:19:09,000 --> 00:19:13,000
At concentrations of about 2%, we have cerebral dilation,

352
00:19:13,000 --> 00:19:20,000
we have increased blood pressure, nausea, confusion, some minor side effects like that.

353
00:19:20,000 --> 00:19:24,000
At about 8%, we have nausea and vomiting.

354
00:19:24,000 --> 00:19:28,000
At about 10%, we have death within minutes.

355
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:33,000
And to see if they can get to the magic 10%, they're going to go for broke.

356
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:40,000
The largest flattis, like recorded in the research we have, is 170 milliliters per hour.

357
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:47,000
And given that the largest amount of CO2 in flattis in the study we have is 80%,

358
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:49,000
that's 140 milliliters of flattis.

359
00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,000
This might be the meanest thing we've ever done to him.

360
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,000
Slow but deadly.

361
00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:01,000
But how deadly will this record level of CO2 from flattis really be?

362
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,000
Three, two, one.

363
00:20:06,000 --> 00:20:11,000
Alright, that is one hour's worth of CO2 in flattis production.

364
00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:15,000
Well, we're showing absolutely no change on the meter.

365
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:21,000
The meter is staying at 0.03%, nowhere near the 10% needed for fatality.

366
00:20:21,000 --> 00:20:24,000
Let's add two more hours, that's half the night.

367
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:27,000
If we don't see any change in the reading, we'll add four more hours.

368
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:28,000
Okay.

369
00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:30,000
We'll get to eight hours, full eight hours sleep.

370
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:35,000
With no change in the reading so far, they decided to pull out all the stops

371
00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:38,000
and add a whole night's worth of gas.

372
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:43,000
And that is eight hours worth of flattis.

373
00:20:43,000 --> 00:20:47,000
Of CO2 from flattis entered into Buster's little bedroom.

374
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,000
What does the meter say?

375
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:52,000
Well, we're actually up to 0.06%.

376
00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:56,000
The level's doubled, but it's still way too low to be deadly.

377
00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:01,000
If you want to get to 10%, 2600 hours.

378
00:21:01,000 --> 00:21:06,000
It's 110 days to reach the leaf limit of CO2 in a sealed room

379
00:21:06,000 --> 00:21:09,000
if all you're doing is passing gas.

380
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:15,000
Look, breathing is going to cost much more CO2 production than flattis.

381
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,000
To see whether the man in the myth could have breathed himself to death,

382
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,000
it's out with Buster and in with Jamie.

383
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:28,000
Being sealed up in a small room to go to sleep in may sound relaxing,

384
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,000
but not when the carbon dioxide level is rising.

385
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:34,000
Twenty minutes.

386
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:35,000
Okay.

387
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:36,000
Let's see here.

388
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:37,000
Wow.

389
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:42,000
The CO2 concentration is 0.14.

390
00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:48,000
Already, breathing has produced twice as much CO2 as eight hours worth of flattulence.

391
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:55,000
So in a room this size, exactly how long would it take for death by breathing to occur?

392
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:58,000
We're at 1.28% now.

393
00:21:58,000 --> 00:22:00,000
Wow, you've been in there for four hours.

394
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:06,000
If you extrapolate that out, it takes four hours to get to 1.3%.

395
00:22:06,000 --> 00:22:11,000
I mean, we're talking somewhere around 36 hours to get to 10%.

396
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000
36 hours.

397
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:17,000
Way too long to have killed the sleeping man in the myth.

398
00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,000
So the mythical killer wasn't CO2.

399
00:22:20,000 --> 00:22:26,000
Neither breathing nor flattis can raise the level to a deadly amount in just one night.

400
00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:31,000
Could any other colon components be the culprit?

401
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:39,000
To find out, Adam hits the books to calculate whether any other gluteal gases are even theoretically possible.

402
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:42,000
Like methane, deadly at 2%.

403
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,000
But how long would that take?

404
00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:49,000
441 days.

405
00:22:49,000 --> 00:22:51,000
So, methane's out the window.

406
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,000
What about hydrogen sulfide?

407
00:22:53,000 --> 00:23:03,000
That's 193,220 episodes of flattis, or 22 years of solid gas passing.

408
00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:05,000
That's a commitment.

409
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:09,000
This malodorous myth is busted.

410
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:14,000
Next on MythBusters, did Ben Franklin really discover electricity?

411
00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:16,000
Or was the new punk fashion?

412
00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:23,000
In the Ben Franklin myth, the team has shown that a key tied to a kite string can get charged up.

413
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:27,000
But the famous spark has so far proved elusive.

414
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,000
Listen to me.

415
00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:31,000
So they're going to up the ante.

416
00:23:31,000 --> 00:23:34,000
Take me to your leader.

417
00:23:34,000 --> 00:23:39,000
And Jamie's van der Graf generator should provide the necessary power.

418
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:43,000
It's capable of generating a charge of 100,000 volts.

419
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:46,000
And if this charge strikes the kite...

420
00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,000
That is cool.

421
00:23:50,000 --> 00:23:57,000
It may be powerful enough to travel down the string and then arc from the key to the finger.

422
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:02,000
Well, without going out into a rainstorm to fly our kite, which would be really dangerous,

423
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:06,000
we're actually going to use the van der Graf generator to generate a high voltage.

424
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:16,000
And that would simulate the charge separation that you would find high up in the atmosphere where the clouds are on cloudy, very cloudy or rainy day.

425
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:25,000
It's the next best thing to a thunderstorm and should be much more powerful than their static charge beach test.

426
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:33,000
The team is going to position Kari's kite next to the generator, run 500 feet of traditional twine around the car park,

427
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:38,000
and then wait to see if the charge will jump from the antique key at the end.

428
00:24:38,000 --> 00:24:45,000
I'm just going to move the kite close to the van der Graf so that we can actually get it to discharge onto the kite.

429
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:53,000
If they can get a strike right onto the kite, they should boost their chances of getting an arc from the key.

430
00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:57,000
It's hardly a lightning bolt, but will it be enough?

431
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:02,000
It's very tiny, but...

432
00:25:02,000 --> 00:25:08,000
And you'll miss it, but there is a tiny spark which has a big repercussion.

433
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:14,000
Electricity can be conducted down a kite string to a key and then jumped to a finger.

434
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:23,000
Test two passed, but for test three, if the charge was 10,000 times stronger, could Franklin have survived?

435
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,000
Well, obviously we can't fly a kite out in a storm because it's completely dangerous.

436
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,000
Way too dangerous kids at home do not try that.

437
00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:33,000
So maybe we need a little more of a controlled circumstance.

438
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:38,000
How about the facility the electric company has used it in a phone and a lightning storm?

439
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Well, we're going to have to find a subject to test this stuff on because I'm not going to do it.

440
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,000
And I know you guys aren't going to do it.

441
00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:47,000
Okay, so maybe we're going to build a Ben Franklin.

442
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,000
Okay.

443
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:53,000
Well, I don't want to build a whole ballistics gel body, so maybe we can just do a torso, a couple hands, and a couple feet,

444
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:58,000
and then have a resistor in the middle that would match the conductivity of the human body.

445
00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:03,000
For the final part of the circuit, they're going to build a ballistics gel Ben Franklin.

446
00:26:03,000 --> 00:26:10,000
To see whether he could survive the biggest jolt, the electric company can throw it as kite.

447
00:26:10,000 --> 00:26:12,000
And it's down to Tori to build him.

448
00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:18,000
His head, hands, and feet will be made from that old Mythbusters favorite.

449
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:22,000
Ballistics gel, I love it.

450
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,000
While his skeleton will be made from something a little more solid.

451
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:30,000
What I'm going to use is some PVC pipe, you know, for legs, arms.

452
00:26:30,000 --> 00:26:34,000
This is going to give me my structure to keep him standing up straight.

453
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:39,000
It's also non-conductive because we don't want to change the resistance of the body.

454
00:26:39,000 --> 00:26:47,000
Tori's doing everything he can to ensure that his Franklin body double is as close to human as possible.

455
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:58,000
And once Head Case Ben is all set, the team votes for the Pacific Gas and Electric Test Facility to fly this fable once and for all.

456
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,000
That's a death ray.

457
00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:05,000
People of Earth, submit to me.

458
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:12,000
In this thunderdome, they can generate man-made lightning pulsing with almost a million volts.

459
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:18,000
So the team is going to position the kite next to the power line and wait to strike lucky.

460
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:23,000
Something which outside this test facility is very, very dangerous.

461
00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:38,000
The real problem with flying your kite near a power line is that the kite doesn't have to touch the power line for an arc to occur.

462
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:45,000
And it's a real hazard to anyone who's trying to do anything near a power line.

463
00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:51,000
And never fly a kite with metal on it, or with metal twine.

464
00:27:51,000 --> 00:27:56,000
It's just not sensible, as the team is about to see.

465
00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:00,000
I dastardly scheme. It's coming together.

466
00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:09,000
With Ballistics Gel, Franklin's heart monitor wired up, and the key within touching distance of his finger,

467
00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:16,000
Kari's kite is hauled up to the power line to see if Franklin will live or fry.

468
00:28:16,000 --> 00:28:19,000
Really shocked the crap out of me.

469
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:23,000
Later, Franklin's in for a shock.

470
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:30,000
But next up, Adam waxes lyrical about bean-induced flatulence.

471
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:34,000
7.31 a.m., nice loud brap, followed by two pops.

472
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:42,000
In facts about flatulence, it's time to test an all-time classic.

473
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:53,000
We've all heard it. Beans, beans, good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you produce flatus.

474
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:58,000
Or do you? The mythbusters are going to lift the lid on this stinky story.

475
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:09,000
So Adam, you know a lot of people may not realize that the gas contained in flatus can come from a couple of different sources.

476
00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:16,000
It's true. The first type is actually pretty much like a butt burp. Just as swallowed air can be belched out of your mouth,

477
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,000
it can also make its way all the way through your system and come out the other end.

478
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:25,000
The other way is from the breakdown of food in your gut. There are bacteria, enzymes and acids in there that,

479
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:29,000
when they break down your food during digestion, they create gas as a byproduct.

480
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:33,000
And of course, different types of food would create different quantities of gas, right?

481
00:29:33,000 --> 00:29:38,000
That's what we're testing. And apparently, these bacteria go ballistic for beans.

482
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:47,000
To put this to the test, the team has spent three days recording every gas movement

483
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:57,000
to try to establish their average rate of flatus output on a regular run-of-the-mill diet.

484
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:06,000
And the results are in. On a regular diet, in a normal day, they know that Carrie passes gas three times.

485
00:30:06,000 --> 00:30:12,000
Jay needs six and Adam an impressive ten. So, bring on the beans.

486
00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:18,000
Refried beans. Refried pinto. Refried black beans.

487
00:30:19,000 --> 00:30:25,000
There's a hell of beans, and they're all for Adam, because the others are going to be eating different,

488
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:31,000
supposedly flatus-inducing diets. Jamie's going to be munching nothing but meat.

489
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:34,000
New York steak. That's one meal.

490
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:40,000
While Carrie is on the bubbles, fizzy drinks are another alleged gas producer.

491
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:45,000
And back at the shop, dinner is served.

492
00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:51,000
I figure I'll start this experiment with a nice ribeye steak.

493
00:30:51,000 --> 00:30:54,000
I figure I'll save the New York strip for dinner.

494
00:30:54,000 --> 00:31:00,000
Jamie seems to have the lion's share of the diet, especially when compared to Adam.

495
00:31:01,000 --> 00:31:02,000
Oh.

496
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:10,000
It's not bad. Weird. Not bad.

497
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:17,000
But that's definitely better than Carrie, who's on a 24-hour carbonated liquid menu.

498
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,000
I hope my dentist isn't watching.

499
00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:27,000
Once it's all gone down the hatch, the team goes back to work.

500
00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:33,000
Where they keep recording any gas production.

501
00:31:33,000 --> 00:31:36,000
They all continued their diets at home.

502
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:41,000
But did they sleep soundly, or did things go bump in the night?

503
00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:47,000
All right, kids, it's been 24 hours on the new diet. What were the results?

504
00:31:47,000 --> 00:31:52,000
Well, my meat diet cut my flatulence production by about 50%.

505
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,000
Carrie?

506
00:31:53,000 --> 00:31:54,000
I doubled.

507
00:31:54,000 --> 00:31:57,000
I went from a 2 to a 5 with carbonated beverages.

508
00:31:57,000 --> 00:31:58,000
Right on.

509
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:00,000
With a ton of belching.

510
00:32:00,000 --> 00:32:03,000
Everything that wasn't a belch came out the other end.

511
00:32:03,000 --> 00:32:06,000
I had stunning results on the beans.

512
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:10,000
I had 9 during the day, 11 more late at night and early in the morning.

513
00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:15,000
I didn't even count the ones while I was sleeping, so it was like a 100% increase for me, too.

514
00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:17,000
You're a lucky family.

515
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:19,000
The results are in.

516
00:32:19,000 --> 00:32:22,000
For this crew, at least, meat is busted.

517
00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:27,000
While bubbly beverages and beans are confirmed big time.

518
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,000
So, bring on the final flatulent fact.

519
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:39,000
So, how about the myth that lighting a match after you've passed gas will get rid of the smell?

520
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Well, the question there is, is it eliminating the smelly gases, or is it actually just masking it with the smell of a burnt match?

521
00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:51,000
Matches of long bean the friend of those with stentsy stomachs.

522
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:55,000
Would do they fight the flattice by burning off the smelly gases?

523
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:58,000
Or do they just conceal the deal?

524
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000
To find out, they've got the two smelliest gases that were in Adam's flattice.

525
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,000
Hydrogen sulfide and methylmercaptain.

526
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,000
They have pungent or rotten egg odor.

527
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:17,000
They're going to inject a known concentration of these flammable fumes one by one into Adam's sealed chamber.

528
00:33:17,000 --> 00:33:24,000
I'm just taping it up so that it actually holds the gas we're going to put in. It doesn't let any air in.

529
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:30,000
Then they'll light Jamie's remote controlled match to see if the smelly gas concentration changes.

530
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:35,000
There we go.

531
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:40,000
With a hydrogen sulfide meter in the chamber, it's that gas that they add first.

532
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:48,000
It's stabilized at 76 parts per million. It's been that way for several minutes. There's no circulation going on here.

533
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:50,000
All right, let's do it.

534
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:57,000
With the match lit and fully burnt, has the concentration of hydrogen sulfide changed at all?

535
00:33:58,000 --> 00:34:03,000
Still reading the exact same thing 76 parts per million that it was when we started.

536
00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:09,000
The matches had no effect on the hydrogen sulfide level, so it's time for test two.

537
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,000
Methylmercaptain.

538
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:15,000
That's not the friendly rotten egg smell that smells like propane.

539
00:34:15,000 --> 00:34:17,000
No, it's the right stuff to be sure.

540
00:34:17,000 --> 00:34:18,000
That smells like poo.

541
00:34:18,000 --> 00:34:23,000
Different gas, same result. No change in concentration.

542
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:32,000
The idea that burning a match is actually consuming the smelly gases of flattice turns out to be totally bogus.

543
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:38,000
Meter work fine, our chamber work great. Lit and match didn't notice any drop in the parts per million.

544
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:44,000
So a match doesn't burn off the smell. It just masks it with its own whiff.

545
00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:48,000
But does it conceal both stinky flattice gases equally?

546
00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:53,000
I've rigged a sniff tube onto our chamber. We're going to feed a little more of the smelly gases in there.

547
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:59,000
We're going to light a match and then we're going to bring out an impartial viewer who hasn't been exposed to these stinky things all day.

548
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:06,000
And they're going to waft at the sniff tube and tell us if the smell is worse or better or hasn't changed at all.

549
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:18,000
Well in the first of these sniffing tests, an hours worth of hydrogen sulfide from flattice is injected into the chamber for a lucky researcher, John, to inhale.

550
00:35:19,000 --> 00:35:27,000
I want to do a pre-match lighting smell test. You're going to give us a scale of 1 to 10 and then stand back, light the match.

551
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:32,000
Then you give us a post-match lighting 1 to 10 if you notice any difference at all.

552
00:35:32,000 --> 00:35:36,000
Ok. Alright. So you ready? Pre-match. I'm ready. Step in.

553
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:47,000
You got something? I would give it a 5 or 6. 5.5.

554
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,000
So keep that in your head. Stand back over here. Jamie, let's light the match.

555
00:35:52,000 --> 00:35:55,000
Ok, lighting the match. The nose.

556
00:35:58,000 --> 00:36:03,000
About the same. About the same? Really?

557
00:36:03,000 --> 00:36:09,000
According to the nose, the match has had little masking effect on the hydrogen sulfide.

558
00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:14,000
So what about the other killer component? An hours worth of methylmer captain.

559
00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:23,000
A scale of 1 to 10, this was somewhere around a 4. Ok.

560
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:28,000
So it's a pre-match 4 for the mercaptain, but will this one change?

561
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:38,000
Not as prevalent. It wasn't very intense to begin with. It was about a 4, but I would drop it down to maybe a 2.

562
00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:45,000
Fantastic. That's a bonafide result. It didn't diminish the smell of the hydrogen sulfide, but it did of the methylmer captains.

563
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:49,000
Results, man! That's what it's all about!

564
00:36:50,000 --> 00:36:55,000
Coming right up. 480,000 volts.

565
00:36:55,000 --> 00:36:59,000
Will Franklin survive a bolt from the blue?

566
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:12,000
Storm kite flyers beware. A bolt of lightning can have over 100 million volts of power.

567
00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:16,000
That's way higher than anything humans can replicate.

568
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:21,000
But at the Franklin Thunderdome, the team is going to give the kite its best shot.

569
00:37:21,000 --> 00:37:29,000
We've got a great pain to set up the experiment to Franklin's original specifications in this controlled environment.

570
00:37:29,000 --> 00:37:38,000
Now we're going to test under a variety of conditions, wet string, dry string, and what we're really after is what the effect is on the person who's holding the kite.

571
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:48,000
It's the third and most crucial part of this myth-busting. With a 700,000-volt man-made strike, will Franklin turn to toast?

572
00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:58,000
Well, gelatin Ben is standing by to find out. His kite's flying high, the keys next to his finger, and his heart monitors wired up.

573
00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:03,000
Just 6 milliamps across the heart, and Franklin will fly his lacer.

574
00:38:04,000 --> 00:38:19,000
What I hope's going to happen is that we're going to see something spectacular, that the lightning is going to strike that copper rod, travel down this string, hit the key, arc over to his finger, and then just light him on fire.

575
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:22,000
Okay, out and going hot. Going hot.

576
00:38:22,000 --> 00:38:27,000
We're at 60,000 volts. 60,000 volts.

577
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,000
And for this first test, they're using the dry string.

578
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:35,000
400,000. The voltage is climbing fast.

579
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:42,000
It's like you're kind of terrifying. I'm kind of filled with a little dread here.

580
00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:48,000
Here's our lightning.

581
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:58,000
A special camera called a Corona Cam shows just how much electricity is being slapped onto the kite. It really is in severe shock.

582
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:04,000
But Ben is undeterred. There's no sparking from the key.

583
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:08,000
So it's out with the dry string and in with the wet.

584
00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:15,000
So now we're going to start our second test. So we had to wet the string down, which hopefully will conduct the electricity a little bit better.

585
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:20,000
Remember, it was the wet string that got the tiny spark with the vandergraf.

586
00:39:20,000 --> 00:39:22,000
This should be the main event.

587
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,000
Really?

588
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:24,000
Yeah.

589
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:25,000
This is going to be it, huh?

590
00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:26,000
Bring her up.

591
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:28,000
300,000.

592
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:33,000
As the voltage rises, one big bolt could frazzle Franklin.

593
00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:36,000
But then disaster strikes.

594
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:38,000
Oh, it just burned the string.

595
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:40,000
Oh!

596
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:42,000
Oh!

597
00:39:42,000 --> 00:39:46,000
With the string severed, there's no way for the lightning to reach the key.

598
00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,000
Oh, no!

599
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:51,000
The voltage just increased enough to catch the string on fire.

600
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:53,000
This is not something that I expected, actually.

601
00:39:53,000 --> 00:40:01,000
Slowly building charge up top, singe the string and grad is stumped for a solution until tarry has a brainwave.

602
00:40:01,000 --> 00:40:07,000
What's happening right now is we're pumping voltage through our string and it's catching on fire.

603
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:16,000
Obviously, we just saw, is there a way that we can build a charge at the generator and then raise the kite into it so that it's an instant discharge?

604
00:40:16,000 --> 00:40:21,000
It's an ingenious idea that may just prevent the string from igniting.

605
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:23,000
Okay, going high.

606
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:37,000
With gelatin Franklin standing by and the authentic key in position, the generator's charge is rising fast.

607
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,000
I never get tired of hearing that noise.

608
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:42,000
480,000.

609
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,000
480,000 volts.

610
00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:47,000
Should we send it up?

611
00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,000
Let's send it up.

612
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:51,000
There she goes.

613
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:53,000
Up, up and away.

614
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:59,000
With the kite approaching the danger zone, it's now or never for this mill.

615
00:41:01,000 --> 00:41:03,000
There it goes!

616
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:15,000
They struck gold. The kite is hit repeatedly and the charge does travel down the wet string where it finally jumps from the key to Franklin's finger.

617
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:19,000
But after that shock, does he still have a heart?

618
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:22,000
It looks like you've got enough to kill him.

619
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,000
Yeah, look at that.

620
00:41:24,000 --> 00:41:26,000
Just enough.

621
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,000
Then he'll be dead.

622
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,000
Definitely dead.

623
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:34,000
Grant's heart monitor reading proves that Franklin would have fried.

624
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:40,000
Even this man-made lightning contained ample power to kill this famous kite flyer.

625
00:41:40,000 --> 00:41:46,000
This is only a fraction of what a lightning bolt would be. We're looking at just a tiny, tiny, tiny little lightning bolt here.

626
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:51,000
And we've fried bent out. Could you imagine if it was a real storm and a real lightning bolt?

627
00:41:51,000 --> 00:41:53,000
There'd be no way he'd survive.

628
00:41:53,000 --> 00:41:54,000
He'd be dead.

629
00:41:54,000 --> 00:41:57,000
Smoke straight down the string, straight through his heart.

630
00:41:57,000 --> 00:41:59,000
And we killed a dead president.

631
00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:01,000
He was never president.

632
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:07,000
Wasn't he?

633
00:42:07,000 --> 00:42:09,000
Dead.

634
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:12,000
Dead.

635
00:42:18,000 --> 00:42:26,000
Alright, so when we started this myth, we stated that Ben Franklin, going out flying a kite in a storm, gets hit by lightning. That was the myth.

636
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:31,000
He'd definitely get killed if he flew a kite in a lightning storm. I mean, we've definitely proven that.

637
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:37,000
But, I mean, the experiment itself, that's pretty feasible. I mean, you can get electricity down a kite string.

638
00:42:37,000 --> 00:42:41,000
Not only is it feasible, we did it ourselves and we got a shock off the key.

639
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:46,000
Yeah, and that was on a dry day, not too cloudy, and we were still able to get that.

640
00:42:46,000 --> 00:42:48,000
The experiment itself confirms.

641
00:42:48,000 --> 00:42:49,000
Yeah, it's confirmed.

642
00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,000
But the myth is a story busted.

643
00:42:51,000 --> 00:42:53,000
That was busted.