JATO Car. The first part of the episode deals with the jet car myth, where some moron is rumored to have strapped a rocket (or rockets) to his car, lit them, jumped up to 300 or so miles per hour, slammed into a mountain, and then just completely obliterated himself. It turns out that it’s not only possible to attach rockets to your car, but a lot of people have done so. They haven’t gone that fast though – usually only about 150 to 180 miles per hour. And there’s no evidence that anyone has actually run into a mountain. That part seems to be strictly myth. Busted.
Pop Rocks and Cola Can Kill You. The fun part of the episode, and in fact the very first myth I saw, was the one that someone (it was rumored to have been Mikey from those Life cereal commercials) ate Pop Rocks, drank some soda, and his stomach exploded. So why not go out, buy a pig’s stomach, and see if they could make it happen? It turns out that it’s really hard to make a stomach explode, but you can make it work. You need a whole lot of carbonation – like a six-pack – a lot of Pop Rocks – and another ingredient, like a bunch of baking soda, to make it happen, and if you do, you’ll be in a whole lot of distress first. It probably won’t occur just from eating some candy and drinking a soda. Busted.
