21 myths refuted by the "Destroyers of legends"

"Destroyers of Legends" (original name MythBusters) is an American popular science television program on the Discovery Channel, aired on the Discovery Channel in 2003-2016. The program was hosted by special effects specialists Jamie Heineman and Adam Savage, who used their skills and experience to experimentally test various tales, rumors, urban legends and other creations of popular culture.

This Australian-American show, based on a variety of experiments, for 13 years revealed to the audience the secrets of being in completely different directions – from everyday to quite scientific and even curious. Jamie Heineman and Adam Savage, as well as their team in the future, coped with these tasks with a bang.

Against the background of such productive work, we decided to make a selection of the most interesting myths that may open the veil of secrecy for our readers.

The "Destroyers of Legends" have checked a huge number of shark-related myths. For example, that they can turn the boat over and make a hole in the bottom of the vessel (not confirmed), that they can smell one drop of blood in the whole pool (true only if we are talking about a fish, not a person), that if you pretend to be dead, the shark will not attack (sometimes works), and that sharks have reached the peak of evolutionary development and have remained unchanged for 400 million years (in fact, about 100 million years).

The "Destroyers of Legends" conducted this experiment, and it was crowned with success. But in case you want to repeat it, keep in mind that it is still unsafe. And why?

He answers, although it is difficult to hear him. The echo of a quacking duck is very similar to the original sound. Therefore, it is difficult for a person to determine when the quacking itself ends and the echo from it begins.

The destroyers tried a lot of folk remedies to deceive the car, which determines the presence of alcohol vapors in the driver's breath, and all of them turned out to be ineffective. In addition, do not forget that there is also a blood test.

Checked. It won't work.

Nothing like that. The coin is too small and its density is insufficient for a lethal outcome. The destroyers even tried to shoot a coin up with a rifle, and it still didn't fall fast enough to kill someone.

Pure myth.

An explosion during refueling can occur due to a large amount of flammable vapors in the air and an electrostatic charge — but the phone has nothing to do with it. Static discharge can occur when you get into the car or, conversely, get out of it.

The most skilled thrower of playing cards in the team of the Destroyers of Legends was able to achieve a flight speed of 40 km / h. Such a card did not cause any damage to the skin. Then they invented a machine that threw out cards at a speed of 250 km/h, but this speed was also not enough to cut through human skin.

This myth was born thanks to cinema and our imagination. The density of real quicksand is higher than the density of water. And the higher the density, the easier it is to stay on the surface. So you will just "float" on the surface and that's it.

Only in cartoons, unfortunately. The rate of fall, if it decreases, is quite insignificant.

It seems logical, but in fact it is almost impossible to choose the right moment. But even if you succeeded, the speed of the elevator's fall is so high that you would immediately crash on the roof of the cabin.

Complete nonsense.

Not true. During the experiment, the Destroyers' car from the addition of sugar went even better than before.

Urban legend

This claim has not been completely refuted. And that it was confirmed, too, it is impossible to say.

The fact is that fecal bacteria were indeed found in all the tested samples, including the control ones. However, their number in all cases was too small to pose a danger. Experts have confirmed that it is almost impossible to completely get rid of such bacteria.

It's not true, during the experiment, the team of Destroyers trained the fish to bypass the obstacle under water and even after a month the fish remembered about it.

In fact, it doesn't matter if the food has been on the floor for five seconds or five minutes — the amount of muck on the food will be the same in both cases.

Those who believe that Neil Armstrong has never been to the moon cite a number of arguments that have been refuted by the Destroyers: that one of Armstrong's photographs should not be visible (not true, the lighting on the Moon is not the same as on Earth), that a flag in an airless space cannot fly (maybe), that an astronaut's footprint would not remain on the surface (not true), and that a video could be made on Earth by simply asking an astronaut to jump and rewinding the film in slow motion (funny, but wrong).

The destroyers managed to establish the following:

It takes as much energy to turn on the light as it burns in less than a second when the light is on (except for fluorescent lamps, which take enough energy to turn on the light for 23 seconds). Moreover: turning on and off the light has almost no effect on the life of the bulb itself. So it is much more economical to turn off the light, even if you leave the room for a few minutes.

Only in the movies. During the experiment, the tester failed to extract enough air from the punctured tire.