Since the Mythbusters threads generally don't run too long, anyone mind if we just use this as a combined thread for the whole season?
Works for me, I'd PM one of the TV/M mods to rename the thread something more generic. "Mythbusters Discussion Thread" or something.
The Fire v. Ice myth was an interesting one to test but not surprised at the results. Though this is one I'd like to see them "ramp up" in a revisit. The problem I see even with the water Adam's device is still pretty much shooting a gas, the flame-thrower is throwing something with "substance" to it either the liquid fuel or the plasma of the fire, what's more is it's being constantly fed
by the tank and the fire is always keeping the fuel lit as it exits the nozzle. It's like trying to stop a freight train moving at 80 mph with a puff of air.
They'd need a pretty supersized and well-thought out "fire extinguisher" to re-create the (obviously CGI) effect of the viral video. Probably an extinguisher powered by LN2 or something because still with the device Adam built that "worked' it was pretty pathetic.
On the Jr. team's efforts, I'm sort of surprised they didn't go with a robotic/RC rig to create the circular dust storm. Such a rig would eliminate the human element and wouldn't be as restricted by speed, etc. They could've essentially built a merry-go-round with the cars locked into a turn and operated remotely and have them drive at high-speed to generate a lot of dust. Stop. Have Kari get into one of the cars and then see if Grant could guess which one when the dust settles. (No need to do the "guess which car driving off in what direction aspect.)
I wish they'd addressed how the illusion in the video was created, but otherwise, a decent test and result, if a bit simple. (I also wonder -- if making a flamethrower is so illegal, how did the video makers get away with it?)
I don't see why the illusion would need to be addressed, it's the loss of the "magic" in movie making. It was obviously CGI.
As for the legality thing, my understanding is that flame-throwers aren't strictly illegal -at least not a Federal level- but were illegal under California law.