History JustForFun / TropesExaminedByTheMythBusters

** Moon Footprint- Conspiracy theorists claim that Buzz Aldrin could not have left such a clear imprint of his boot without the lunar dust being wet (and thus clumping together better), which would obviously be impossible on a body without liquid water. The Build Team obtained artificial moon dust and a vacuum chamber, with which they were able to prove their hypothesis that moon dust sticks together more than Earth sand due to vacuum cementing and its irregular shape.

* KatanasAreJustBetter: Several myths about the almost supernatural superiority of the katana, especially against modern weapons, were shown to be completely false.

* WhipItGood: Several whip tropes were tested in the context of ''Franchise/IndianaJones'', and all turned out plausible or better: a person can be disarmed by being whipped in the hand (though the whip expert advised that aiming for the face is more effective), and a whip can be used to swing across a chasm if it gets a good enough grip. The myth that a whip crack is fast enough to break the sound barrier was outright Confirmed--in fact, this is ''why'' a whip has an audible crack (the tip produces a small sonic boom as it passes the speed of sound; on that scale, the sonic boom registers as a "crack" to the human ear).

** ''Film/RaidersOfTheLostArk'': Several scenes from the opening sequence were tested, with a focus on [[WhipItGood the whip stunts]]:

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*** After running out of normal cannonballs, the characters improvise and start firing anything they can spare (while the [=MythBusters=] were testing the real-life practice more than this specific movie, they did use movie footage of shooting silverware to demonstrate) - Busted for the silverware as shown in the movie, which scattered and deformed; bottles of rum and a SeadogPegLeg similarly shattered and blew apart rather than at the target. Steak knives packed into a sabot and nails did decent damage and were ruled Plausible. But a good sturdy length of chain outdid all the others, nearly tearing the target in half. The last two are confirmed as used historically, nails and other debris put in a canister and was called "langrage", just like Gibbs calls it in the movie and chains were shockingly called "chain shot" and were used against sails and rigging.

* BuxomIsBetter: Working as a barista, Kari earned 30-40% more tips from ''both'' genders when she wore extra-large fake breasts, as compared with both her normal bust and when she bound them (incidentally, both smaller sizes brought in ''exactly'' the same amount).

* AlcoholIsGasoline: The team tested this in "Moonshiner Myths". They concluded that it is possible for a short while, however, only with extremely high concentrations of ethanol (192 proof); likewise, burning ethanol isn't as efficient or good for the engine as regular fuel.

* "Better to end with a bang" (a bigger ending is a better ending; not related to our OutWithABang trope): To test this, Jamie and Adam each set something up to end the episode with; Adam took the "bang" by blowing up a moped while Jamie opted for a slow burn by having thermite cut an SUV in half. Adam preferred the bang but Jamie preferred the burn, so they left it up to the audience and set up a viewer poll on the website; Wiki/TheOtherWiki reports that the results were about three to two in favor of the bang, making it Confirmed.

** Fox uses a gun that can fold in half to shoot around corners - Confirmed. The tech for a folding gun exists; no testing needed.

* LatexPerfection: The mask itself, at a distance, but the illusion is broken when the person talks, of course. In addition, it requires a diversion to work. People familiar with the impersonated could [[UncannyValley notice something]] ("wax statue" or "stung by bee") at a much greater distance.

** ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'': Obi-Wan's claim of "IHaveTheHighGround" during the final battle, and [[GeoEffects the implied boast that it makes him unassailable]] - Busted. After many mock sword fights on an incline, the win ratio between high ground and low ground was about even.

* BananaPeel: At least the slapstick movie version, in which you're guaranteed to fall. Jamie was running while blindfolded across banana peels and didn't slip. (Of course they then [[UpToEleven ramped things up]] enough to get both the guys [[RuleOfFunny landing on their butts]].)

* CrashCourseLanding: Both Adam and Jamie pulled it off in a full-scale flight simulator, with help from an expert but without help from the simulated commercial airliner's autopilot, even though they both crashed when they tried it without help. Note that the only reason this is 'Plausible' rather than 'Confirmed' is that there's A) no recorded instance of it ever happening and B) talking someone into a safe landing is not part of ''anyone's'' training.

* ''Film/{{RED}}'': In a standoff where the hero has a pistol and the villain has a rocket launcher, both shoot at once; the hero's bullet hits the villain's RPG and detonates it, killing her - Busted. A bullet can detonate an armed RPG, but [=RPGs=] are armed by inertia and it wouldn't have happened yet at that short distance. Even if it were faulty and armed prematurely, it's much more likely to kill the hero instead of the villain thanks to the rocket directing its blast forward.

* SaintBernardRescue: For one, Saint Bernard rescuers of this type don't exist.[[note]]The original St. Bernard rescue dogs were trained to find victims, lie on them to keep them warm, and bark so the human rescuers could find them, Jaime notes that even sitting next to the large, fluffy dog in the test freezer is doing better at making him feel warm than the brandy.[[/note]] Two, drinking alcohol while your life is in danger from exposure to cold is a really, ''REALLY'' bad idea. This is because while it does make you feel warmer, for a brief time, it does so by allowing blood to flow to the extremities more easily, thereby warming up your arms and legs at the cost of lowering your core body heat faster. Thus, your fingers and toes will warm up for a bit, but you're going to freeze a lot faster in the end. Alcohol also acts as a soporific: falling asleep when you're exposed to the elements & hypothermic virtually guarantees you'll never wake up. In fact, lowering blood flow to the arms and legs is exactly what your body does in the cold, because they act as radiators, bleeding off heat. In extreme circumstances, sacrificing a few fingers or toes to frostbite is better than freezing to death, and alcohol undoes this procedure. That said, alcohol can be legitimately administered ''after'' a rescue once the victim is near a heat source, specifically to promote blood flow to the extremities to prevent or reduce frostbite. (Not tested is an edge case, such as in ''Literature/ToBuildAFire'' by Creator/JackLondon, where some added warmth to extremities may allow one to perform a life-saving task, such as building a fire.)

* SaintBernardRescue: For one, Saint Bernard rescuers of this type don't exist.[[note]]The original St. Bernard rescue dogs were trained to find victims, lie on them to keep them warm, and bark so the human rescuers could find them, Jaime notes that even sitting next to the large, fluffy dog in the test freezer is doing better at making him feel warm than the brandy.[[/note]] Two, drinking alcohol while your life is in danger from exposure to cold is a really, ''REALLY'' bad idea. This is because while it does make you feel warmer, for a brief time, it does so by allowing blood to flow to the extremities more easily, thereby warming up your arms and legs at the cost of lowering your core body heat faster. Thus, your fingers and toes will warm up for a bit, but you're going to freeze a lot faster in the end. In fact, lowering blood flow to the arms and legs is exactly what your body does in the cold, because they act as radiators, bleeding off heat. In extreme circumstances, sacrificing a few fingers or toes to frostbite is better than freezing to death, and alcohol undoes this procedure. That said, alcohol can be legitimately administered ''after'' a rescue once the victim is near a heat source, specifically to promote blood flow to the extremities to prevent or reduce frostbite. (Not tested is an edge case, such as in ''Literature/ToBuildAFire'' by Creator/JackLondon, where some added warmth to extremities may allow one to perform a life-saving task, such as building a fire.)

* BedsheetLadder: While actually climbing it is not that easy, a makeshift ladder of standard prison bedsheets is strong enough to work. Oddly enough, they also tested whether toilet paper or [[RapunzelHair human hair]] could be used instead, and both of those proved plausible (albeit requiring impractically large quantities of the materials).

* ArrowsOnFire: They can set a car on fire if shot into the gas tank. Not ''easily'', but it can be done.

*** After running out of normal cannonballs, the characters improvise and start firing anything they can spare (while the [=MythBusters=] were testing the real-life practice more than this specific movie, they did use movie footage of shooting silverware to demonstrate) - Busted for the silverware as shown in the movie, which scattered and deformed; bottles of rum and a SeadogPegLeg similarly shattered and blew apart rather than at the target. Steak knives packed into a sabot and nails did decent damage and were ruled Plausible. But a good sturdy length of chain outdid all the others, nearly tearing the target in half.

* GasCylinderRocket: The busters tested and confirmed that a gas cylinder with sufficient pressure could smash its way through a concrete wall with force, but it actually slid on the floor instead of taking off and flying.
** They did get a flying gas cylinder in the ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' special, though, when testing the climactic scene of the movie.

** Another one is if C4 can blow up if put into a microwave. It can, but only if it has a blasting cap in it. Additionally, they proved that burning C4 doesn't make it go off. Also, dropping an anvil, stomping it, and shooting it with any bullet they tried didn't make it blow, even ''while'' it was burning. For the final try, they ignited thermite right on top of C4. ''That'' didn't work.

** Another example would be the claim that a binary explosive used in special effects work can be set off in a car wreck. (Busted, it's far too stable to be set off that way ... and ''that'' assumes anyone's dumb enough to transport the stuff already mixed.)

* PopTheTires: Tested twice.

** When they looked at various spy-movie gadgets, tires that drove over solid {{Caltrops}} deflated very slowly. Although the spikes did puncture the tires, they also served as plugs that slowed the deflation. Jamie's [[SpikedWheels tire-slashing rig]] worked better, but Adam was still able to maintain control of the target car. A later test with hollow caltrops gave air an escape route and completely wrecked the tires in a matter of minutes.

* BombproofAppliance: Multiple tests of this trope provided a variety of results.

** Another episode tested a filing cabinet, a fish tank, a bed, and a garbage truck. The filing cabinet significantly reduced the blast radius but, again, created flying metal shrapnel that was just as lethal. The other three didn't reduce the radius by very much but did noticeably redirect the force of the explosion in one direction (straight up for the bed, out the wide walls of the fish tank, and directly behind the garbage truck). As the Mythbusters explained at the end of the episode, stuffing a bomb into a closed space will just make a large grenade, but putting it in something that can funnel the blast in one direction means you can hide in another direction and remain safe.

* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: Multiple tests for multiple myths.

** The urban myth regarding the Russian SKS rifle going off due to a loud stereo was Busted; however, the SKS's free-floating firing pin did present a genuine danger, which the [=MythBusters=] proved by placing the four rifles near an explosive--one of the guns ''did'' go off of its own accord.

* HollywoodSilencer: A silencer does reduce the noise of a gunshot, but does not produce the classic "thwip" movie sound. The average silencer only reduces the noise of a gunshot by about twenty decibels, but that still leaves the noise around 120-130 decibels. The real purpose of a silencer is to mask the noise of a gunshot, making it harder to know where it's coming from, and/or to make anyone who hears it think the noise is something else, like a door being slammed shut.

* StunGuns: The conductive-water "aqua-zap" failed miserably.

* WalkingArmory: To test out the common usage of this trope in FPS games (''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' was specifically called out), the team made an obstacle and shooting course and loaded them up on various mock-up weaponry weighing various amounts. Adam and Jamie both did respectably well by discarding weapons as they found new ones, but by the end of the tests where they were actively keeping every weapon on their person, they were winded. They had a professional MMA fighter come in and he did significantly better at both tests, earning the myth a plausible status as long as the person is in good shape.

* ChainsawGood: In the revisit of the Gun vs. Axe ZombieApocalypse scenario, Adam decided to throw a chainsaw into the mix to see how it compared. After rigging up a replica that wouldn't hurt the volunteers, they found that it performed far better than either the axe or gun and was the only weapon that allowed its user to survive the zombie horde.