Mythbusters Recap: Anti-Gravity Device
Christmas Tree Lights. According to this episode, some ten thousand incidents of fire occur around the holidays, though perhaps not all of them can be attributed to lights from the tree. We've all heard that you shouldn't leave the lights on while you're not at home, and many of us have likely heard the old tale of not plugging in more than three strands to a single outlet. Is it true? Time to find out.
The first stop is to get a whole bunch of lights, and there are two basic styles. The miniature lights that are increasingly popular these days (these are the C7 style) and the older, larger C9 style bulbs. After some testing, it's determined that the C9 bulb puts off a whole lot more heat, so that's what will be used for testing. How much more? Enough so that if it's left alone in a tray overnight, it actually melts the plastic along the cabling. That could be bad.
To see how this translates to a tree, a relatively normal amount of lights is put up in the shop and Myth-tern Jess is given overnight duty to make sure nothing happens. Nothing does, but spending the night in the shop probably isn't the best job to do if you're easily creeped out. Next up is to see if a whole lot of lights can make something happen, and surprisingly, nothing really happens there either.
So Adam takes it upon himself to make something happen. He gets a jumble of outlet extenders and extension cords - the kind you're likely to see at your grandparents house - and before you can take it all in there's a loud pop and sure enough, the insulation has shorted out and we have a winner. It looks like the primary problem may not be in the lights themselves, but in the improper connection of the lights to outdated and overloaded circuits.
Still, it's not really the explosion we're looking for, so Adam and Jamie enlist the services of the fire department and set up shop with a kiln-dried tree to see if they can get something. They load the tree down with 2500 lights, and they are still unable to get a fire, but after hooking up a neon light transformer they manage to send it up in flames, and it goes right up. Busted. Though lights alone don't seem to do the trick, if a spark gets things going, it can really go fast if it starts. The big note is: Be careful.
Antigravity. In the latest round of testing things that can be found off the Internet, Grant, Kari and Tory try to figure out if anyone has cracked the code to be able to defeat gravity.
The first up is the amazing anti-gravity top, which actually seems to work remarkably well. Unfortunately it seems that it works via some magnets that keep it hovering off of its base, so that means that it's not truly defeating the force of gravity, just using a different force. Then the focus moves to a different device bought off the Internet, and unlike many other devices, this one actually seems to work as well - at least, better than most things that they get online. Except for one problem. This little device generates thrust, which uses a different force to offset gravity, not truly defeat it.
Not content to be defeated so easily, Tory has one more device to bring to the table. With the help of some scientists and their fancy gravity-measuring device, they retest the other results to make sure they are correct (they are), then they put together a Hamel Generator, designed by a guy who claims to have been abducted by aliens. While the plans amazingly seem to work better than anyone could have predicted (which means, basically, that they work), alas, there is no anti-gravity created here. Busted. Busted. Busted.
Vodka Myths: Jellyfish Sting Relief. One more test of good old vodka, and Kari is up for the challenge. She heads to the aquarium and picks up a lovely jellyfish, which she takes back to the workshop. Tory dons some gloves and drags it over her exposed arms, yielding some lovely red welts. On one arm, they treat it with warm water, a vigorous brushing and a commercial product. On the other arm, vodka and a similar brushing. After a short while, it seems that vodka has done the trick just as well as the commercial product. Confirmed.
It seems that vodka will work in this case. However, since the brushing was done in both cases, I'm thinking that it was the main reason why the treatments were successful. I'd like to see a retest (sorry Kari) that involved just simple warm water along with that brushing. I think just about anything could do it, so long as the brushing was involved, to get the spores out in time.


















Comments
I am interested in experimenting with electromagnetic force and wandering where I can Locate designs on the Hamel Generator.
Posted by: Dave | July 14, 2008 9:53 PM
Hi Dave -
I would start with Google. Plenty of results come up for your reading pleasure!
Posted by: Chad Everett | July 21, 2008 10:46 AM