Sea Sickness – Kill, or Cure? Some people get seasick. I don’t (generally), though I notice that I do so more these days than I have historically. Those that do get sick generally don’t do so at the same time or in the same way as others who do, making it a bit difficult to troubleshoot, much less treat, the seasickness. Never fear, the Mythbusters are on the scene! In this myth, the team is going to test a variety of cures.
First up, the pharmaceutical cure, which works, but has the effect of leaving those who take it a bit loopy (Kari‘s word, not mine). So looking for something else, the team tries two varieties of wristbands, a placebo (vitamin B12, in place of the pharmaceutical) and a ginger pill.
The only one that seemed that it may work was the ginger pill – though Grant seemed fine with the placebo, so all of his results are suspect. Next time I’m headed seaward, I’ll stop to pick some up, just in case. You can never tell. Busted.
Tailgate Up or Down? We’ve all seen those guys who drive around with the tailgate of their trucks laid down – or removed entirely – because they think it helps with gas mileage, right? Does it really? It turns out that the people who design trucks just might know what they’re talking about, as Adam and Jamie fill up identical trucks and start driving – 300 miles out and 300 miles back.
One truck had the gate down, one with the gate up. The one with the gate down ran out of gas first. Hmm. So they built a model that showed it better, and it seems that those engineers know what they’re doing. Leave the gate up, because you just might get better gas mileage. Or leave it down and pretend you know what you’re doing – but you’ll likely pay more at the pump. Busted.
Finger in a Barrel. Meanwhile, we’ve all seen the cartoons where an enterprising character places something in the end of a shotgun to prevent it from shooting, only to have the gun explode in the shooter’s face, ruining the gun, along with the face of said shooter. Why not see if that could happen? Sounds like a challenge!
Using the ever-popular ballistics gel, along with a barrel full of mud and even a steel spike, the team succeeded in making the barrel explode, but in a testament to today’s gun makers, none seemed to do the least bit of harm to the shooter of the gun when it exploded. And the ballistics gel hand that did the plugging? Well, it didn’t fare too well either, so don’t do that. Busted.
