Mythbusters Recap: Concrete Glider
Train Suction. If you stand too close to the tracks, you might get sucked in. Frankly, I always thought that fat yellow line was there to keep you from getting to close to the train and getting smacked by it. The thought of train suction never really crossed my mind. But I'm open to the possibility that maybe I missed something. The build team gets to check this one out, and the first thing that they do is head to the hobby store to buy some supplies for setting up a wind tunnel to see what happens around a train.
The end result is that the smoke indicates that the suction around the train is most severe at the end of the train. The high-speed cameras indicate that at the very end of the train you get some small swirling air pockets, like miniature tornadoes. It looks like this is where the suction is likely to be the worst. To figure out just how much force it will take to knock over a human, they bring out an old favorite - the air cannon from Chicken Gun (shown originally in Chicken Gun, Octopus Egg Pregnancy, Killer Laundry). Then they aim it at Tory (after giving him the appropriate safety gear, of course).
The first blast, at 30psi, created a 24mph gust of wind, but didn't move Tory that much, so Grant bumped it up to 50psi, which created a 46mph gust. That one moved Tory back a few steps, but didn't knock him over. It did shred the paper, however, so the team decided that they would go ahead and proceed with the full-scale test. Now to find someone that will let them try things out with a real train.
Eventually a promising company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, calls, so the team creates a ballistics gel dummy they name Ted and a small stroller next to the tracks. The train flies by at speeds up to 79mph, which tips Ted over and sends the stroller flying. But no suction to be seen. Then the train comes back by in reverse, and Ted doesn't even fall over (the stroller takes off like a shot). The third test sees the train go by in the forward direction again, but it only knocks Ted over. The suction just isn't there. The fat yellow line may be just to keep you from getting hit by a blast of air - it likely doesn't have anything to do with suction. You'll definitely want to keep your stroller out of the way, however. Busted.
Concrete Glider. This myth addresses whether (or not) a functional glider can be built from concrete. I wasn't sure before this started why anyone would want to do this, and watching the build proceed, I'm even less sure. But it was fun to watch. Before the process started, it was determined that the build would be a build-off between Adam and Jamie, to see who could get the best glide ratio over the distance that their glider traveled.
The first step is to see how light they can make concrete, so they mix up a few batches, and it's determined that by replacing the standard rocks in concrete, a lighter result can be obtained. Simply replacing the rocks with something lighter, such as foam, pumice or micro-balloons, can reduce the overall weight by half - without really doing much else. The second step is to try and make a thin layer of concrete, but in doing so that will make it brittle. So they need to figure out what they can spread the concrete over to make it stronger, and it's determined that the cables within the concrete give it the most strength for their needs. Now the building can begin.
Adam heads out to the parking lot and just starts building, while Jamie buys a couple of foam gliders and uses those as models for his tests. At first, it seems like Jamie has the early lead - mostly because Adam appears to be building a rock. Whatever he does doesn't see to glide so much as it drops. But once they get to the actual test phase, a new wrinkle is introduced. The scientist from NASA who is helping them offers some suggestions, and so Adam adds a gondola below his glider, and a zip line above, which gives it a bit more velocity for his "throw". Jamie goes with just throwing his off a high place, with the lack of a zip line.
Somewhat surprisingly, Adam wins by a large margin. I think it's less because of the gondola and more because he had a significant amount of force behind his glider - after all, if you get a couple pounds of concrete moving in one direction, it's likely to keep moving in that direction. Meanwhile, Jamie's glider simply dropped from where he threw it. In either case, I doubt that either of them would be usable again, so the practicality of a concrete glider isn't high. Plausible.

















