MythBusters (2003) s15e03 Episode Script
The A-Team Special
1 [ gavel bangs .]
I find the defendants Guilty! [ "the a-team theme" plays .]
In 2002, a crack science duo was sent to prison For a crime they didn't commit.
These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade To the san francisco underground.
Today, masked with their new identities, They survive as soldiers of science.
If you have a problem, If no one else can help, And if you can find them, Maybe you can hire the mythbusters.
[ laughs .]
you ready for the a-team special? I was born ready, fool.
Outstanding.
[ rock music plays .]
-- Captions by vitac -- Captions paid for by discovery communications Jamie, did you ever watch that show, "the a-team"? Sure.
All right.
Which character from "the a-team" Do you think I most closely resemble? Which one was that guy that keeps ending up In the mental institution? Murdock.
That's murdock.
That's the one.
[ inhales deeply .]
all right.
Well, we have an entire episode devoted to The '80s cult classic "the a-team.
" What's on the docket? Well, later, we will be trying to disable a car With a manhole courtesy of a sewer explosion.
But first up, We have what is really a classic "a-team" trope.
See, in almost every episode, the guys are stranded somewhere, And they have to build a weapon With only the materials they have at their disposal, right? Right.
Okay, so in this one, The a-team is stranded in a lumberyard.
The bad guys are on their way back, And the a-team builds a cannon out of a log That shoots 2x4s With a controlled propane explosion To defeat the bad guys.
Sounds dubious.
Well, I think we should test it out, And if it doesn't work, maybe you and I could do better.
Maybe.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
Adam: [ grunts .]
Don't touch me.
Okay.
Uh, so, shall we gather All the materials we saw in the clip? Are you gonna keep that thing in your mouth the whole time? As long as I can stand it.
[ sighs .]
all right.
SoSolenoids.
That looks almost exactly the same.
On the show, the a-team guys built their wood cannon In a general-purpose shop that was attached to a lumberyard.
Now, they had a log, And they drilled a hole down the middle of it To make a cannon barrel.
Beautiful.
They're using half-2x4s as ammo, And we did see a tank of propane.
So that appears to be the propellant.
That's what we've got to work with.
So we're gonna use that equipment to build Our wood cannon.
Awesome.
Narrator: Having cross-referenced the clip, The guys collate all of the a-team's cannon components Ammo for bad guys.
Before adam rolls out the barrel, literally.
There I am.
Now, in the clip, They drill the hole in the log using a drill bit like this, Called an auger bit.
It's gonna take a while.
But, frankly, We could not find one in the size that we needed.
We're using a different kind of drill bit called a forstner bit.
[ drill whirring .]
One of my single favorite drill bits of all time.
Adam uses the forstner.
[ drill whirs .]
I feel like the villain in some kind of movie.
But even so, it's a tough task.
I know.
It seems strange to me, too, To keep having to sharpen this bit When all I'm doing is drilling into wood.
But the fact is that the molecules that make up wood Are incredibly dulling to metal blades, So you got to sharpen it all the time.
In fact, it takes 40 minutes of hard labor [ grunting .]
Before adam's barrel is fully bored.
There I go.
Now that's a hole.
So next, it's over to jamie [ laughs .]
Who inserts a hose to fill the barrel with propane Look at that.
Perfect fit.
Before prepping the cannon's ignition system.
Jamie: So how are we gonna Ignite the propane in our cannon? Well, the easiest way is with a spark, And the easiest way for us to get one of those Is just to plug a couple wires into the wall socket.
But that's only gonna make a small spark, And we need a big one for reliable ignition Of the propane.
And for that, we're gonna use our favorite device For generating large sparks, and that's the neon transformer.
And there it is.
And once wired in, Their cannon is the perfect copycat.
It's got a 40-inch-long log barrel, Propane as fuel, a sparking ignition system, And planks as projectiles.
Plus, the whole thing's mounted on a forklift, Just like "the a-team.
" But the question is, will it work? All right.
[ knocks plank on cannon .]
Loading the device.
There we go.
Okay.
Device is loaded.
For test one Jamie: 1-1,000, 2-1,000, 3-1,000.
They're giving it some gas -- five seconds' worth of propane.
Ignition in 3, 2, 1.
Go.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Give it another five seconds.
Putting a cigar in Just makes everything you say sound a little more Authoritative.
Get those trucks out of there! Move those people over there! I'll put those oranges in my summer house.
Stuff like that.
Jamie: 3, 2, 1.
Nothing.
Nothing? Well, that's weird.
I would expect at least something.
Figuring the sparker may have failed, Adam goes in for a closer look.
Okay.
Sparking now.
[ flame pops .]
Whoa! That actually blew my hand.
Hmm.
So there was enough residual gas.
That tells me we need very, very, very little gas.
Okay.
All right, we started out by adding way, way, Way too much propane to this.
Now, you might think, "oh, the more propane, the better," But it's not that way.
Propane isn't flammable in and of itself.
It's flammable when it's mixed with air or oxygen.
And you have to get the correct mix, or stoichiometry, In order to to get that ignition or that pop That's actually gonna send this out towards the bad guys.
So for test two, The guys use just one second of gas.
And Jamie: 3, 2, 1.
Fire.
Hey! That was a pop! It was.
Ammo did not move Even the tiniest bit, not even remotely.
Well, there was fire in the hole, But so far, a viable weapon, this ain't.
I got to say, it's not looking so good.
I mean, we've replicated Everything that we saw in the clip, And we are getting ignition.
It's just not as energetic as it showed in the clip.
We're gonna have to do something else.
With the guys stumped Hmm.
This a-team is gonna need a plan "b.
" [ "the a-team theme" plays .]
So, forklift fire is all about improvised weaponry Taking out the bad guys, But the a-team were also very adept at making their escape, And that is the next thing we're gonna tackle.
Go on.
In one of my favorite escapes, They take a bundle of dynamite and put it in a sewer, Just under a manhole cover.
Then, they wait until the bad guy's driving over That manhole cover.
They detonate the dynamite.
Boom! The manhole cover takes the car completely out.
So the car is a write-off, but the dudes inside are okay? Exactly.
No one ever gets hurt by the a-team.
Well, explosive escapes.
I like it.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
The myth is that by placing the dynamite Just inside the drain, The a-team could evade the villains Without injuring them.
But is that really possible? This is perfect! So there's a plan, right? Of course there's a plan! [ laughs .]
For some reason, urban areas don't like it When you use explosives in their sewers.
So in lieu of that, We've come to our favorite place in california, Where we can blow large things up And even dig holes in the ground -- Ione, california.
Thanks to its remote location, Ione is the perfect place for some manhole mayhem.
But the digging will come later? Now, obviously, since the a-team Placed their sticks of dynamite inside the sewer, We are going to do the exact same thing.
Perfect! Nice ride.
But it raises the question, Why would they go to the trouble? I mean, what's the difference between it on the ground And in the sewer? And this leads to the a-team's m.
O.
, Which is they don't ever want to kill the bad guys.
They just want to neutralize them as a threat.
So in order to test whether or not Their method is truly nonlethal, We're going to need a control -- That is nine sticks of dynamite, just like the clip, Placed on the ground, With this car placed right on top of it.
Find out what happens to the driver of the car When we blow that up.
My prediction, it's not gonna be pretty.
So with the car from the clip, The guys are green-lighting a control test.
What's next? Buster.
Will a dynamite detonation outside a sewer [ laughs .]
Cause casualties where an internal one would not? We want to find out Whether our driver would have survived this blast, And if so, whether he was injured or not and how badly.
To do that, we're gonna be putting sensors on his head There we go.
On his waist, and near his feet.
And these sensors can record events Down to the microsecond, Which will tell us exactly what went on.
Buster may be wired in the hot seat Just remember, little buddy, This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it hurts me.
But he's not the only data device.
Now, another reason The a-team might have placed their explosives Inside the manhole cover is to protect Any innocent bystanders standing around.
And that is a reasonable assumption That we would like to test, And that's what these figures are for.
We've placed these two ½-inch plywood cutouts At 15 feet and 10 feet from the blast To see how much damage they've sustained In the control versus the actual experiment.
And, of course, on mythbusters, "innocent bystander" is just another term For "shrapnel catcher.
" With the plan coming together [ chuckles .]
it's okay, little buddy.
Next up is the explosive.
For accuracy, We're using nine sticks of nitroglycerine-based dynamite, Because that's what they used on "the a-team.
" Now, this is the first time we've used it, Because it's relatively unstable.
It's shock-sensitive, and that's bad.
So we're gonna take every precaution, And we're gonna be safe.
And, speaking of being safe, that cigar -- it's fake.
Yes.
Made of chocolate! The guys are going that extra mile Say when.
To make sure that everything matches the clip Adam: Stop.
With two exceptions.
First, the control test has no sewer.
And second Also in the clip, the car is moving, And we are not doing that for two very good reasons.
Number one, it doesn't make any difference to the physics.
But, two, and most importantly, We want to be able to compare our control blast Against the blast when we dig the sewer And put the dynamite in there.
And in order to compare those two exactly, We need the dynamite in the same spot on both blasts.
And in order to guarantee that, Well, we're just not moving the car.
That is our plan.
All right, sir.
You ready? I'm ready.
Okay.
You mind if I take the first plunge? Knock yourself out.
[ laughs .]
All right.
Here we go.
This is a-team dynamite test, the control.
[ laughs .]
I've always wanted to do this.
In 3, 2, 1.
Narrator: In the mythbusters a-team special [ cow moos .]
These things taste terrible.
The guys were wired up to a countdown In 3, 2, 1.
That just got cut.
What happened to our countdown? We'll get right back to it, I promise.
I just wanted to remind everybody That what we are testing Is how lethal nine sticks of dynamite Detonated on the ground under a car Are to both the driver of that car And the innocent bystanders on the street.
That is our control test.
Now back to our regularly scheduled countdown.
This is a-team dynamite test, the control.
In 3, 2, 1.
[ laughs .]
I'm no munitions expert, But I don't think that car is gonna be there When the smoke clears.
When the dust eventually settles, The car hasn't disappeared.
But it's not exactly in one piece.
How are you doing there, little buddy? [ laughs .]
oh, man.
He actually looks almost completely intact.
Oh, wait a second.
Hey, adam, check this out.
Adam: Oh! That's a hole clean through to the underside of the car.
I am now going to go out on a limb And predict that buster didn't survive that, But only the numbers will tell us for sure.
It didn't look good for buster.
[ explosion .]
But what does the data say? It looks pretty bad in here, huh? Like hell on earth.
But get this -- Buster actually survived that blast.
I know! Don't get me wrong, He is not walking away from this blast.
No, no, no.
He's legless below the knees, he has permanent hearing damage, If not almost total hearing loss, and permanent lung damage.
He is not walking away, but he's not dead either.
Although buster may live to see another day, His injuries are way too awful for "the a-team.
" And he's not alone.
Upon careful looking again and again at this, high-speed, I'm noticing that the blast pressure wave, Which normally would be coming upward and outward In a symmetrical bubble, is not doing that.
Instead, it's starting out as two bubbles That are coming out underneath and to the side of the car, Spreading out the energy coming off of this blast to the side.
That energy to the side Spells bad news for the bystanders.
At this point, you might be wondering How our bystanders have been holding up, And I can tell you.
Our bystanders withstood a pressure wave of 90 psi -- 90.
That's lethal.
They were dead.
With death and destruction from shock wave and shrapnel, The control blast was catastrophic.
But will going underground, as per the a-team's technique, Really make a difference? Back at the shop, Adam and jamie's a-team cannon 3, 2, 1.
Has so far flunked.
But adam knows why.
What makes something leave something, Like ammo leaving a barrel, is pressure behind the ammo.
What we've got Is ammo where pressure can't build up Because there's almost as much space around the ammo As there is ammo.
That means the gas can get right by it.
This is the correct-sized hole from the clip And the correct-size ammo from the clip, But I don't think we're gonna get anything out of this.
I think we need to build a little bit of a barrier Behind this to create some corked pressure in there.
So adam's altering the a-team's design There we go.
To up the pressure.
Now.
See that? Much less space.
But will this now tight-fitting torpedo Go ballistic? Firing in 3, 2, 1.
Yeah! [ laughs .]
Boy, I'm glad I wasn't standing in front of that thing.
[ laughs .]
It's another flat-out failure That bears no resemblance to the clip.
So to give the myth another lifeline, here's jamie.
Along with propane, they had a tank of oxygen, Just like this one here.
Now, oxygen is an aggressive oxidizer That I'm betting would make A far more energetic sort of a burn.
So while we didn't see them use it, Just for due diligence, we're gonna try it.
Like adam before him, jamie's going off-script.
[ sniffs .]
Smells like oxygen.
No, it doesn't.
It doesn't smell like anything.
As this time, He adds pure oxygen to his propane party.
No.
And back goes the fuel line.
3, 2, 1.
Oops.
Jamie: Wow.
Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
I mean, I knew the introduction of pure oxygen in there Would make a more energetic reaction, But I didn't think it was gonna blow up the whole barrel.
I mean, that was kind of scary.
But it does make me think That if I dial back the oxygen to just the right amount, I should be able to find a sweet spot That shoots that wooden ammo out as pretty as you please.
Narrator: So, with some running repairs on their log Better than new.
And some Better-late-than-never safety shields There we go.
That makes me feel safer.
It's all systems go To find out if there is a propane and oxygen mixture That will fire their projectile, but won't destroy their cannon.
Okay, I'm fueling.
3, 2, 1.
Adam: Hey! It moved about a foot.
For each test So, going to four seconds.
The guys are altering The relative amounts of the two gases.
Firing in 3, 2, 1.
We got it out! Whoo-hoo! Give me a high five.
But after some early encouragement 3, 2, 1.
It's not long before a familiar pattern emerges.
This one's for the money.
Firing in 3, 2, 1.
[ chuckles .]
That was by far the most vigorous bang yet, And our projectile didn't move at all.
Indeed -- after two dozen concentration combinations, Including a repeat of jamie's big bang 3, 2, 1.
It's clear that no gas mixture has the pushing power To weaponize their wood.
Our plan was good, great even.
We methodically experimented with different air/fuel mixtures Of propane and air, And then we added pure oxygen.
We added a barrel block to the back of our projectiles.
We got breached cannons.
We got loud cracks.
We got bangs.
We got fire.
Still, one thing we did not get Was any projectiles Leaving the barrel and traveling towards their opponents.
[ explosion .]
We have scientifically busted this device completely.
But here's the thing.
I have to imagine That if you put jamie and I in an abandoned lumberyard, That we would be able to come up with something That was effective.
Let's call it.
Yeah.
Let's figure out another way to hurl wood at our opponents.
Adam: Welcome back.
Here's the scene.
The a-team is stranded in a lumberyard.
The bad guys have gone away, but they'll be back in an hour.
Now, instead of wanting to escape or run away, The a-team builds an elaborate device To punish the bad guys when they return.
Now, jamie and I have already tested the method That they used in the show.
3, 2, 1.
And it totally didn't work.
[ laughs .]
Adam: But we've stranded ourselves in a lumberyard, And we are going to attempt to build our own device To punish the "bad guys" when they return.
Should be a pretty good show.
Narrator: The goal is simple.
With one hour on the clock, Can adam and jamie, using only the stuff they find, Build a weapon that can take out the bad guys by firing planks As projectiles? Well, first up, they need a plan.
So, shooting these as ammo.
Yeah, I had some thoughts About an easier and more reliable way of doing this.
I'm thinking something like a pitching machine Where we get wheels spinning, And we just feed our ammo into the wheel, And it kicks it out.
We got one on the -- There's a trailer over there.
The trailer is beautiful.
And so somehow, we spin that out, right? That's gonna be terrifying if we get that up to a nice speed.
What do you think? Should we use a motor off of, like, the compressor? Well, I saw this wrench over here.
[ laughs .]
Dude! [ laughs .]
I think these suckers go like 5,000 rpm or something scary, Which, you know [chuckles.]
I mean -- [ chuckles .]
when you smile, it makes me nervous.
[ laughs .]
all right.
So, I guess the first thing is to make sure that That thing can actually power that wheel at a speed we like.
Then, we'll figure out a way To make that structure aimable and shootable.
Yeah.
All right.
I love this plan.
Let's do it.
It's a promising plan That gets better when the torque wrench Does fit the wheel hub.
But will it spin it up to speed? Okay, you ready? I'm ready.
Go for it.
[ torque wrench whirring .]
Yeah! And that's just the start they were hoping for.
[ laughs .]
I don't know how fast that was going, but -- That seems -- I'm gonna call that fast enough.
Being able to spin their wheel of misfortune fast Is vital to launching their lumber.
[ saw buzzing .]
But will the rest of the plan come together so smoothly? In theory, this is like a pitching machine, But remember, we're doing this with lumber.
We're using various tools That were not made for this kind of thing.
And there are a lot of moving parts here.
That's a lot of stuff that we have to integrate If it's gonna actually work smoothly, Which is the whole point of this.
While jamie gets on with integrating the flywheel That ought to do it.
Adam's taking aim at the ammo Where he's trying to outgun the a-team By going semiauto.
[ chuckles maniacally .]
this is gonna be awesome.
I absolutely love and adore working like this -- Seat of the pants, on the fly, Figuring stuff out with what's in front of you.
The solutions you come up with Are weirdly elegant when those conditions arise.
Yeah, baby! Want to know how this works? The wheels sits right about here, Spinning very crazy fast in that direction.
This ammo box sits right about here.
When jamie pulls the trigger -- That's this lever -- It feeds a piece of wood out until that piece of wood Contacts the spinning wheel.
The moment it does, The wheel grabs that piece of wood and hurls it [ plank clatters .]
At one of our bad guys.
Then, jamie pulls this back -- You see all the ammo drops down -- And he's ready for another one.
Bang! I think we could fire like 15 shots In maybe 5 or 6 seconds with this thing.
Rat-tat-tat-tat tat-tat-tat.
Like adam "hannibal" savage, "howling mad" hyneman is also making progress.
There we go.
He's aligned the wheel with the torque wrench [ laughs .]
And added some safety shielding.
Angular momentum is enough at certain speeds To actually make this tire explode.
That's why I built this structure this way, So as I'm behind it, firing it, I'll be protected by stuff in the event This actually takes off.
This is gonna work killer.
[ laughing .]
I hope so.
With the bad guys less than 20 minutes away, There's no rest for the wicked.
Adam: After building the firing mechanism, The next task for me is to build the aiming mechanism.
And this is nontrivial, Because it's quite easy just to take a spinning disk And feed a piece of wood into it.
It's another thing entirely To be able to aim that both side to side and up and down.
That's great.
I kind of have to build essentially a wooden swing With a pivot in the middle of it To hold this entire like 60-, 70-pound device That we're building.
This should work beautifully.
As a sidenote, I'd like to point out That we're putting all this together With some really quite basic tools Love making stuff like this! You know, wood saws, some drills, And screws and glue.
[ laughs .]
Basically, we're using far less than what they showed In the actual "a-team" episode.
With time running out That's it.
Okay.
The mythbusters attach the wheel to the aimer Looking pretty good.
[ laughs .]
Then the magazine to the wheel.
Dude, it's almost perfectly balanced.
[ laughs .]
Almost like we knew what we were doing.
Almost like we knew what we were doing.
And before the bad guys arrive, They can fire off one quick test.
[ torque wrench whirring .]
It's terrifying to stand here! Firing! 3, 2, 1! That's what I'm talking about! Hey! I hit the camera.
That is awesome.
Adam: Our machine is working beautifully.
It's a wonder to behold.
It is terrifying to be behind.
When it starts out, the wheel is slightly unbalanced.
It's going like -- daka-daka-daka-daka-daka! [mimics wrench revving.]
and it goes zz-zzt-mmoh And it settles in.
And then you pull the lever and lever, and, bang! The piece of wood shoots out like 60 feet! I hit a camera.
It was beautiful.
3, 2, 1! Shooting at over 50 miles an hour [ laughs .]
that is awesome.
Their forklift firer is the real deal.
But next, the ultimate test.
Will it take down the bad guys before it's too late? Narrator: Adam and jamie escaped from a maximum-security stockade To an abandoned quarry This is perfect! Where their aboveground control caused carnage.
Adam: He's legless below the knees, And if he didn't get help soon, He could even drown in his own blood.
All that's left for us to do now is to dig a sewer [laughs.]
and try it again.
Yep.
To put the a-team's m.
O.
To the test, Next, the guys need a city sewer Nothing like digging a good trench.
To see if the same blast, But just barely underground, Will be injury-free for all.
Next, we put trench plates across here.
Yeah, you're, uh, spot-on.
And we'll completely cover this Except for where our manhole is gonna be, And, boom, you got a sewer.
Believe it or not, This is actually the first time That we've ever used a trench plate for a trench.
[ laughs .]
This kind of operation, it looks like fun, and it is.
It is also incredibly dangerous.
Any one of these plates could shift just a half-inch And take off one of jamie's fingers without even noticing.
Tilt up.
That's it! And it is this kind of operation that the two of us excel at In working with each other, Because in order to do it safely, You not only have to move carefully, but you really -- It's best if the two people doing it's thoughts Are identical.
Like a well-oiled machine.
And frankly, when jamie and I are doing something like this, Our brains are running on totally parallel tracks, And it's a sheer pleasure to do it.
That looks beautiful.
Yeah.
It's fabulous.
[ grunts .]
I love it when a plan comes together.
Oh, shut up.
With the trench plates in place, The guys next man up their manhole.
Hello! And after a quick sewer survey Aw, yeah! It looks great down here, man, like a real sewer.
And it's nice and cool.
We should have lunch down there.
That's a fabulous idea.
The great backfill can begin And that right there -- that's a man in the zone.
As jamie buries most, But not all, of their sewer system.
Adam: At this point in the episode, You've probably entertained a few thoughts, Among them things like, "wow, jamie's pretty good with the excavator.
I wonder if he had help.
" Yes, he did.
But among your comments might be, "why are you guys Leaving one hole under your sewer system open?" And it involves replicating the circumstances of the myth.
See, we're testing an explosion of dynamite In a sewer system, keyword "system.
" Sewers are part of a long set of catacombs Running underneath the city.
There's a lot of places for the expanding gases Of the explosion to go, And that is why we're leaving ours open.
Narrator: With one end open, One end closed, And the top soon to be sealed shut That'd do it.
Their drain in a day is done.
That just leaves the rest of the experiment, Starting with driver and car.
Who drives with their legs crossed? Only buster.
[ laughs .]
Next come the all important pcb sensors.
Adam: We're using these sensors To determine whether or not buster lives or dies In these explosive tests, But it's worth talking a little bit about how they work, Because it's pretty cool.
Inside this sensor is a type of crystal called piezo.
When you flex it or press on it, It generates a tiny amount of electricity That is very consistent.
You can expose it to a blast pressure wave.
It will generate a little amount of electricity That we can equate to the amount of pressure it received.
That directly tells us Whether or not buster could live or die.
Excuse me, buster.
[ groans .]
Pardon me, excuse me.
Thank you.
Pardon me, pardon me.
Oh! Thank you, sir.
Oh! Thanks for the ride.
[ groans .]
[ sighs .]
I'll call you when it's time to pick me up.
After that comes the dynamite, Positioned millimeters below the manhole At the very uppermost point of their drain.
So, this is exactly what we see them do in the clip -- Nine sticks of dynamite off to the side a bit With the manhole cover on top of it.
All right.
Here we go.
3, 2, 1.
The final piece of the puzzle Is to position the car exactly as it was In the control test.
Keep coming.
And a little more.
Perfect.
All that leaves is a prediction.
Now, my impression is that the sewer is gonna allow Some of the blast pressure to escape down into that cavity.
But, then, on the other hand, we have that manhole cover, Which is most likely gonna turn into fragments, Because it's cast-iron, and that's brittle.
And that may well hold onto the energy somewhat And direct it upward into the car.
Where that puts buster? It's anybody's guess.
That's what we're gonna find out.
Are you ready? Yeah.
All right.
I'm gonna hook it up.
There's one.
There's two.
[ cranking .]
[ laughs .]
Count it down.
All right.
Explosives in the manhole cover In 3, 2, 1.
That did it.
Wow! That was awesome! When the dust settles this time, It's clear that the car hasn't been torn apart.
Adam: We have yet to crunch the data.
We have yet to look at high-speed.
But on the face of what I witnessed And what I can see here [ laughs .]
That held together better than I thought I would, That's for sure.
I feel like that was a fantastic comparative set of explosions.
The second explosion, the dynamite in the sewer, Just as we saw on "the a-team," Dented the oil pan of this car, But did not break through.
It looks like it didn't actually penetrate, though.
Wow! My prediction post-explosion, pre-data crunch Is that our dude is totally fine.
But we got to check all that stuff out first.
Yep, while initial impressions are good, It's all down to the data.
Jamie: I've analyzed the data from the sewer-based explosion, And it's pretty interesting, Because the prior blast exposed buster to 26 p.
S.
I.
This time, with the sewer, he only experienced 9 p.
S.
I.
That's less than half.
And that means that, As opposed to ending up in the hospital With some serious injuries, This time, he would have walked away.
A little unhappy and with some bruises, But he would have walked away.
So buster's only bruised.
How about the bystanders? Last time, a lethal 90 p.
S.
I.
This time? 11 p.
S.
I.
That's right! Isn't that cool?! Not only is the blast survivable for the guy inside the car, It's also for the bystanders by the side of the road.
I'm no doctor, But you might want to have that shoulder looked at.
It's kind of weird.
It's an astounding result.
Simply by placing the dynamite millimeters below their manhole, The shock wave takes out the car and the car alone.
This is really cool.
95% of the time, What you see in movies and television Has no bearing on actual physics.
So it is very funny to me To delve into a cheesy 1980s action show That I totally grew up on And find that their physics are sound.
That is, putting dynamite inside a manhole Is a fine way of making a nonlethal explosion That will take out a car.
So, how do you want to call this one? Well, I think the a-team's plan was an excellent plan.
The difference between the aboveground blast And the sewer blast is patently obvious.
That is a survivable explosion.
This one, less so.
I'd say it's plausible.
Isn't that thing kind of getting disgusting by now? It's totally disgusting.
It's like chewing on a little tobacco-soaked sock.
It's gross.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
All right.
Let's get out of here.
Where to, colonel? Back to the lumberyard! Yeah! [ laughs .]
Firing! 3, 2, 1! Adam: Now, if jamie and I are going to embark On building our own log shooter, We should really test it against some bad guys, don't you think? Good enough.
So I want to make a bad guy That pops up like one of those ducks at the amusement park.
[ gunshots, duck quacks .]
And I'm gonna cut it out of this foam board.
Absolutely badass.
That guy is gonna be our first bad guy.
Let's try it out.
That's its stable state.
Whoop! Pshoo! Pshoo! [ exhales sharply .]
I think that'll work.
Narrator: In an abandoned lumberyard, It's time to play ball.
[ laughs maniacally .]
Because the mythbusters' air-powered pitching machine 3, 2, 1! Is firing on all cylinders.
That is awesome.
Isn't it? Whoo! [ laughs .]
Well, our cannon is ready, and by our best estimates, This thing ought to fire these chunks of wood At something between 50 and 75 miles per hour.
That is significant and dangerous.
And I want to point out That this is a purely improvised build by me and jamie, So all of this design was here on-site, a sheer pleasure.
This is a classic "mythbusters" build.
Narrator: Like the a-team, The guys improvised their weapon in just one hour.
But will it be able to hurt the henchmen? Last one.
Locked and loaded.
Time to find out.
What exactly are we testing? Well, in the clip, The guys spend about 1 minute and 10 seconds Firing their wood weapon at the bad guys to drive them off.
Hit it! Yep.
Let's do it.
For us, Given that we busted the tree cannon approach entirely, We intend to test out our own firing mechanism, Both in terms of accuracy, quickness to fire, And the time it takes to take out the bad guys.
Outside the double doors, there are seven bad guys, Each ready to pop up just where they did in the a-team's scene.
It's showtime! But can jamie take them down in just 70 seconds? It's a perfect start [ laughs .]
As jamie takes out pop-ups one and two With shots straight to the head.
Yeah! [ laughs .]
And from there, well, let's roll an "a-team" montage.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
Jamie: Yeah! [ laughs .]
Yeah! [ laughs .]
Oh! So close! Oh! Yes! One more! Looks like you got one last one! Yeah! Whoo-hoo! [ laughs .]
[ laughs .]
one minute, five seconds.
That was awesome! I love it when a plan comes together! [ jamie laughs .]
We had our targets rigged so that when I hit one, Another one would pop up in its place.
I was able to get them one after the other Until I had to get the farthest guy out.
The thing is, The further the range, The more that these sticks start to tumble And do unpredictable things.
But even though it took every stick of ammo I had Adam: Yeah! In the end, I got every single guy.
The rig worked like a charm.
Yeah! [ laughs .]
Our task was pretty straightforward -- Replicate a clip from "the a-team" "mythbusters" style.
Same ammo, completely new construction.
We used a spinning wheel this time and an air wrench.
Yeah! And guess what? It worked magnificently.
It worked exactly like we saw in the clip.
It was awesome.
Firing at 60 miles an hour with near perfect pitch, Their rig was the real deal.
[ laughs .]
And, having scratch-built it in under an hour Using junk lying around the lumberyard, You might say that the mythbusters Have out a-team'd the a-team.
Hey, a-team, If you need our help again, you know where to find us.
I find the defendants Guilty! [ "the a-team theme" plays .]
In 2002, a crack science duo was sent to prison For a crime they didn't commit.
These men promptly escaped from a maximum-security stockade To the san francisco underground.
Today, masked with their new identities, They survive as soldiers of science.
If you have a problem, If no one else can help, And if you can find them, Maybe you can hire the mythbusters.
[ laughs .]
you ready for the a-team special? I was born ready, fool.
Outstanding.
[ rock music plays .]
-- Captions by vitac -- Captions paid for by discovery communications Jamie, did you ever watch that show, "the a-team"? Sure.
All right.
Which character from "the a-team" Do you think I most closely resemble? Which one was that guy that keeps ending up In the mental institution? Murdock.
That's murdock.
That's the one.
[ inhales deeply .]
all right.
Well, we have an entire episode devoted to The '80s cult classic "the a-team.
" What's on the docket? Well, later, we will be trying to disable a car With a manhole courtesy of a sewer explosion.
But first up, We have what is really a classic "a-team" trope.
See, in almost every episode, the guys are stranded somewhere, And they have to build a weapon With only the materials they have at their disposal, right? Right.
Okay, so in this one, The a-team is stranded in a lumberyard.
The bad guys are on their way back, And the a-team builds a cannon out of a log That shoots 2x4s With a controlled propane explosion To defeat the bad guys.
Sounds dubious.
Well, I think we should test it out, And if it doesn't work, maybe you and I could do better.
Maybe.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
Adam: [ grunts .]
Don't touch me.
Okay.
Uh, so, shall we gather All the materials we saw in the clip? Are you gonna keep that thing in your mouth the whole time? As long as I can stand it.
[ sighs .]
all right.
SoSolenoids.
That looks almost exactly the same.
On the show, the a-team guys built their wood cannon In a general-purpose shop that was attached to a lumberyard.
Now, they had a log, And they drilled a hole down the middle of it To make a cannon barrel.
Beautiful.
They're using half-2x4s as ammo, And we did see a tank of propane.
So that appears to be the propellant.
That's what we've got to work with.
So we're gonna use that equipment to build Our wood cannon.
Awesome.
Narrator: Having cross-referenced the clip, The guys collate all of the a-team's cannon components Ammo for bad guys.
Before adam rolls out the barrel, literally.
There I am.
Now, in the clip, They drill the hole in the log using a drill bit like this, Called an auger bit.
It's gonna take a while.
But, frankly, We could not find one in the size that we needed.
We're using a different kind of drill bit called a forstner bit.
[ drill whirring .]
One of my single favorite drill bits of all time.
Adam uses the forstner.
[ drill whirs .]
I feel like the villain in some kind of movie.
But even so, it's a tough task.
I know.
It seems strange to me, too, To keep having to sharpen this bit When all I'm doing is drilling into wood.
But the fact is that the molecules that make up wood Are incredibly dulling to metal blades, So you got to sharpen it all the time.
In fact, it takes 40 minutes of hard labor [ grunting .]
Before adam's barrel is fully bored.
There I go.
Now that's a hole.
So next, it's over to jamie [ laughs .]
Who inserts a hose to fill the barrel with propane Look at that.
Perfect fit.
Before prepping the cannon's ignition system.
Jamie: So how are we gonna Ignite the propane in our cannon? Well, the easiest way is with a spark, And the easiest way for us to get one of those Is just to plug a couple wires into the wall socket.
But that's only gonna make a small spark, And we need a big one for reliable ignition Of the propane.
And for that, we're gonna use our favorite device For generating large sparks, and that's the neon transformer.
And there it is.
And once wired in, Their cannon is the perfect copycat.
It's got a 40-inch-long log barrel, Propane as fuel, a sparking ignition system, And planks as projectiles.
Plus, the whole thing's mounted on a forklift, Just like "the a-team.
" But the question is, will it work? All right.
[ knocks plank on cannon .]
Loading the device.
There we go.
Okay.
Device is loaded.
For test one Jamie: 1-1,000, 2-1,000, 3-1,000.
They're giving it some gas -- five seconds' worth of propane.
Ignition in 3, 2, 1.
Go.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Give it another five seconds.
Putting a cigar in Just makes everything you say sound a little more Authoritative.
Get those trucks out of there! Move those people over there! I'll put those oranges in my summer house.
Stuff like that.
Jamie: 3, 2, 1.
Nothing.
Nothing? Well, that's weird.
I would expect at least something.
Figuring the sparker may have failed, Adam goes in for a closer look.
Okay.
Sparking now.
[ flame pops .]
Whoa! That actually blew my hand.
Hmm.
So there was enough residual gas.
That tells me we need very, very, very little gas.
Okay.
All right, we started out by adding way, way, Way too much propane to this.
Now, you might think, "oh, the more propane, the better," But it's not that way.
Propane isn't flammable in and of itself.
It's flammable when it's mixed with air or oxygen.
And you have to get the correct mix, or stoichiometry, In order to to get that ignition or that pop That's actually gonna send this out towards the bad guys.
So for test two, The guys use just one second of gas.
And Jamie: 3, 2, 1.
Fire.
Hey! That was a pop! It was.
Ammo did not move Even the tiniest bit, not even remotely.
Well, there was fire in the hole, But so far, a viable weapon, this ain't.
I got to say, it's not looking so good.
I mean, we've replicated Everything that we saw in the clip, And we are getting ignition.
It's just not as energetic as it showed in the clip.
We're gonna have to do something else.
With the guys stumped Hmm.
This a-team is gonna need a plan "b.
" [ "the a-team theme" plays .]
So, forklift fire is all about improvised weaponry Taking out the bad guys, But the a-team were also very adept at making their escape, And that is the next thing we're gonna tackle.
Go on.
In one of my favorite escapes, They take a bundle of dynamite and put it in a sewer, Just under a manhole cover.
Then, they wait until the bad guy's driving over That manhole cover.
They detonate the dynamite.
Boom! The manhole cover takes the car completely out.
So the car is a write-off, but the dudes inside are okay? Exactly.
No one ever gets hurt by the a-team.
Well, explosive escapes.
I like it.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
The myth is that by placing the dynamite Just inside the drain, The a-team could evade the villains Without injuring them.
But is that really possible? This is perfect! So there's a plan, right? Of course there's a plan! [ laughs .]
For some reason, urban areas don't like it When you use explosives in their sewers.
So in lieu of that, We've come to our favorite place in california, Where we can blow large things up And even dig holes in the ground -- Ione, california.
Thanks to its remote location, Ione is the perfect place for some manhole mayhem.
But the digging will come later? Now, obviously, since the a-team Placed their sticks of dynamite inside the sewer, We are going to do the exact same thing.
Perfect! Nice ride.
But it raises the question, Why would they go to the trouble? I mean, what's the difference between it on the ground And in the sewer? And this leads to the a-team's m.
O.
, Which is they don't ever want to kill the bad guys.
They just want to neutralize them as a threat.
So in order to test whether or not Their method is truly nonlethal, We're going to need a control -- That is nine sticks of dynamite, just like the clip, Placed on the ground, With this car placed right on top of it.
Find out what happens to the driver of the car When we blow that up.
My prediction, it's not gonna be pretty.
So with the car from the clip, The guys are green-lighting a control test.
What's next? Buster.
Will a dynamite detonation outside a sewer [ laughs .]
Cause casualties where an internal one would not? We want to find out Whether our driver would have survived this blast, And if so, whether he was injured or not and how badly.
To do that, we're gonna be putting sensors on his head There we go.
On his waist, and near his feet.
And these sensors can record events Down to the microsecond, Which will tell us exactly what went on.
Buster may be wired in the hot seat Just remember, little buddy, This is gonna hurt you a lot more than it hurts me.
But he's not the only data device.
Now, another reason The a-team might have placed their explosives Inside the manhole cover is to protect Any innocent bystanders standing around.
And that is a reasonable assumption That we would like to test, And that's what these figures are for.
We've placed these two ½-inch plywood cutouts At 15 feet and 10 feet from the blast To see how much damage they've sustained In the control versus the actual experiment.
And, of course, on mythbusters, "innocent bystander" is just another term For "shrapnel catcher.
" With the plan coming together [ chuckles .]
it's okay, little buddy.
Next up is the explosive.
For accuracy, We're using nine sticks of nitroglycerine-based dynamite, Because that's what they used on "the a-team.
" Now, this is the first time we've used it, Because it's relatively unstable.
It's shock-sensitive, and that's bad.
So we're gonna take every precaution, And we're gonna be safe.
And, speaking of being safe, that cigar -- it's fake.
Yes.
Made of chocolate! The guys are going that extra mile Say when.
To make sure that everything matches the clip Adam: Stop.
With two exceptions.
First, the control test has no sewer.
And second Also in the clip, the car is moving, And we are not doing that for two very good reasons.
Number one, it doesn't make any difference to the physics.
But, two, and most importantly, We want to be able to compare our control blast Against the blast when we dig the sewer And put the dynamite in there.
And in order to compare those two exactly, We need the dynamite in the same spot on both blasts.
And in order to guarantee that, Well, we're just not moving the car.
That is our plan.
All right, sir.
You ready? I'm ready.
Okay.
You mind if I take the first plunge? Knock yourself out.
[ laughs .]
All right.
Here we go.
This is a-team dynamite test, the control.
[ laughs .]
I've always wanted to do this.
In 3, 2, 1.
Narrator: In the mythbusters a-team special [ cow moos .]
These things taste terrible.
The guys were wired up to a countdown In 3, 2, 1.
That just got cut.
What happened to our countdown? We'll get right back to it, I promise.
I just wanted to remind everybody That what we are testing Is how lethal nine sticks of dynamite Detonated on the ground under a car Are to both the driver of that car And the innocent bystanders on the street.
That is our control test.
Now back to our regularly scheduled countdown.
This is a-team dynamite test, the control.
In 3, 2, 1.
[ laughs .]
I'm no munitions expert, But I don't think that car is gonna be there When the smoke clears.
When the dust eventually settles, The car hasn't disappeared.
But it's not exactly in one piece.
How are you doing there, little buddy? [ laughs .]
oh, man.
He actually looks almost completely intact.
Oh, wait a second.
Hey, adam, check this out.
Adam: Oh! That's a hole clean through to the underside of the car.
I am now going to go out on a limb And predict that buster didn't survive that, But only the numbers will tell us for sure.
It didn't look good for buster.
[ explosion .]
But what does the data say? It looks pretty bad in here, huh? Like hell on earth.
But get this -- Buster actually survived that blast.
I know! Don't get me wrong, He is not walking away from this blast.
No, no, no.
He's legless below the knees, he has permanent hearing damage, If not almost total hearing loss, and permanent lung damage.
He is not walking away, but he's not dead either.
Although buster may live to see another day, His injuries are way too awful for "the a-team.
" And he's not alone.
Upon careful looking again and again at this, high-speed, I'm noticing that the blast pressure wave, Which normally would be coming upward and outward In a symmetrical bubble, is not doing that.
Instead, it's starting out as two bubbles That are coming out underneath and to the side of the car, Spreading out the energy coming off of this blast to the side.
That energy to the side Spells bad news for the bystanders.
At this point, you might be wondering How our bystanders have been holding up, And I can tell you.
Our bystanders withstood a pressure wave of 90 psi -- 90.
That's lethal.
They were dead.
With death and destruction from shock wave and shrapnel, The control blast was catastrophic.
But will going underground, as per the a-team's technique, Really make a difference? Back at the shop, Adam and jamie's a-team cannon 3, 2, 1.
Has so far flunked.
But adam knows why.
What makes something leave something, Like ammo leaving a barrel, is pressure behind the ammo.
What we've got Is ammo where pressure can't build up Because there's almost as much space around the ammo As there is ammo.
That means the gas can get right by it.
This is the correct-sized hole from the clip And the correct-size ammo from the clip, But I don't think we're gonna get anything out of this.
I think we need to build a little bit of a barrier Behind this to create some corked pressure in there.
So adam's altering the a-team's design There we go.
To up the pressure.
Now.
See that? Much less space.
But will this now tight-fitting torpedo Go ballistic? Firing in 3, 2, 1.
Yeah! [ laughs .]
Boy, I'm glad I wasn't standing in front of that thing.
[ laughs .]
It's another flat-out failure That bears no resemblance to the clip.
So to give the myth another lifeline, here's jamie.
Along with propane, they had a tank of oxygen, Just like this one here.
Now, oxygen is an aggressive oxidizer That I'm betting would make A far more energetic sort of a burn.
So while we didn't see them use it, Just for due diligence, we're gonna try it.
Like adam before him, jamie's going off-script.
[ sniffs .]
Smells like oxygen.
No, it doesn't.
It doesn't smell like anything.
As this time, He adds pure oxygen to his propane party.
No.
And back goes the fuel line.
3, 2, 1.
Oops.
Jamie: Wow.
Well, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind.
I mean, I knew the introduction of pure oxygen in there Would make a more energetic reaction, But I didn't think it was gonna blow up the whole barrel.
I mean, that was kind of scary.
But it does make me think That if I dial back the oxygen to just the right amount, I should be able to find a sweet spot That shoots that wooden ammo out as pretty as you please.
Narrator: So, with some running repairs on their log Better than new.
And some Better-late-than-never safety shields There we go.
That makes me feel safer.
It's all systems go To find out if there is a propane and oxygen mixture That will fire their projectile, but won't destroy their cannon.
Okay, I'm fueling.
3, 2, 1.
Adam: Hey! It moved about a foot.
For each test So, going to four seconds.
The guys are altering The relative amounts of the two gases.
Firing in 3, 2, 1.
We got it out! Whoo-hoo! Give me a high five.
But after some early encouragement 3, 2, 1.
It's not long before a familiar pattern emerges.
This one's for the money.
Firing in 3, 2, 1.
[ chuckles .]
That was by far the most vigorous bang yet, And our projectile didn't move at all.
Indeed -- after two dozen concentration combinations, Including a repeat of jamie's big bang 3, 2, 1.
It's clear that no gas mixture has the pushing power To weaponize their wood.
Our plan was good, great even.
We methodically experimented with different air/fuel mixtures Of propane and air, And then we added pure oxygen.
We added a barrel block to the back of our projectiles.
We got breached cannons.
We got loud cracks.
We got bangs.
We got fire.
Still, one thing we did not get Was any projectiles Leaving the barrel and traveling towards their opponents.
[ explosion .]
We have scientifically busted this device completely.
But here's the thing.
I have to imagine That if you put jamie and I in an abandoned lumberyard, That we would be able to come up with something That was effective.
Let's call it.
Yeah.
Let's figure out another way to hurl wood at our opponents.
Adam: Welcome back.
Here's the scene.
The a-team is stranded in a lumberyard.
The bad guys have gone away, but they'll be back in an hour.
Now, instead of wanting to escape or run away, The a-team builds an elaborate device To punish the bad guys when they return.
Now, jamie and I have already tested the method That they used in the show.
3, 2, 1.
And it totally didn't work.
[ laughs .]
Adam: But we've stranded ourselves in a lumberyard, And we are going to attempt to build our own device To punish the "bad guys" when they return.
Should be a pretty good show.
Narrator: The goal is simple.
With one hour on the clock, Can adam and jamie, using only the stuff they find, Build a weapon that can take out the bad guys by firing planks As projectiles? Well, first up, they need a plan.
So, shooting these as ammo.
Yeah, I had some thoughts About an easier and more reliable way of doing this.
I'm thinking something like a pitching machine Where we get wheels spinning, And we just feed our ammo into the wheel, And it kicks it out.
We got one on the -- There's a trailer over there.
The trailer is beautiful.
And so somehow, we spin that out, right? That's gonna be terrifying if we get that up to a nice speed.
What do you think? Should we use a motor off of, like, the compressor? Well, I saw this wrench over here.
[ laughs .]
Dude! [ laughs .]
I think these suckers go like 5,000 rpm or something scary, Which, you know [chuckles.]
I mean -- [ chuckles .]
when you smile, it makes me nervous.
[ laughs .]
all right.
So, I guess the first thing is to make sure that That thing can actually power that wheel at a speed we like.
Then, we'll figure out a way To make that structure aimable and shootable.
Yeah.
All right.
I love this plan.
Let's do it.
It's a promising plan That gets better when the torque wrench Does fit the wheel hub.
But will it spin it up to speed? Okay, you ready? I'm ready.
Go for it.
[ torque wrench whirring .]
Yeah! And that's just the start they were hoping for.
[ laughs .]
I don't know how fast that was going, but -- That seems -- I'm gonna call that fast enough.
Being able to spin their wheel of misfortune fast Is vital to launching their lumber.
[ saw buzzing .]
But will the rest of the plan come together so smoothly? In theory, this is like a pitching machine, But remember, we're doing this with lumber.
We're using various tools That were not made for this kind of thing.
And there are a lot of moving parts here.
That's a lot of stuff that we have to integrate If it's gonna actually work smoothly, Which is the whole point of this.
While jamie gets on with integrating the flywheel That ought to do it.
Adam's taking aim at the ammo Where he's trying to outgun the a-team By going semiauto.
[ chuckles maniacally .]
this is gonna be awesome.
I absolutely love and adore working like this -- Seat of the pants, on the fly, Figuring stuff out with what's in front of you.
The solutions you come up with Are weirdly elegant when those conditions arise.
Yeah, baby! Want to know how this works? The wheels sits right about here, Spinning very crazy fast in that direction.
This ammo box sits right about here.
When jamie pulls the trigger -- That's this lever -- It feeds a piece of wood out until that piece of wood Contacts the spinning wheel.
The moment it does, The wheel grabs that piece of wood and hurls it [ plank clatters .]
At one of our bad guys.
Then, jamie pulls this back -- You see all the ammo drops down -- And he's ready for another one.
Bang! I think we could fire like 15 shots In maybe 5 or 6 seconds with this thing.
Rat-tat-tat-tat tat-tat-tat.
Like adam "hannibal" savage, "howling mad" hyneman is also making progress.
There we go.
He's aligned the wheel with the torque wrench [ laughs .]
And added some safety shielding.
Angular momentum is enough at certain speeds To actually make this tire explode.
That's why I built this structure this way, So as I'm behind it, firing it, I'll be protected by stuff in the event This actually takes off.
This is gonna work killer.
[ laughing .]
I hope so.
With the bad guys less than 20 minutes away, There's no rest for the wicked.
Adam: After building the firing mechanism, The next task for me is to build the aiming mechanism.
And this is nontrivial, Because it's quite easy just to take a spinning disk And feed a piece of wood into it.
It's another thing entirely To be able to aim that both side to side and up and down.
That's great.
I kind of have to build essentially a wooden swing With a pivot in the middle of it To hold this entire like 60-, 70-pound device That we're building.
This should work beautifully.
As a sidenote, I'd like to point out That we're putting all this together With some really quite basic tools Love making stuff like this! You know, wood saws, some drills, And screws and glue.
[ laughs .]
Basically, we're using far less than what they showed In the actual "a-team" episode.
With time running out That's it.
Okay.
The mythbusters attach the wheel to the aimer Looking pretty good.
[ laughs .]
Then the magazine to the wheel.
Dude, it's almost perfectly balanced.
[ laughs .]
Almost like we knew what we were doing.
Almost like we knew what we were doing.
And before the bad guys arrive, They can fire off one quick test.
[ torque wrench whirring .]
It's terrifying to stand here! Firing! 3, 2, 1! That's what I'm talking about! Hey! I hit the camera.
That is awesome.
Adam: Our machine is working beautifully.
It's a wonder to behold.
It is terrifying to be behind.
When it starts out, the wheel is slightly unbalanced.
It's going like -- daka-daka-daka-daka-daka! [mimics wrench revving.]
and it goes zz-zzt-mmoh And it settles in.
And then you pull the lever and lever, and, bang! The piece of wood shoots out like 60 feet! I hit a camera.
It was beautiful.
3, 2, 1! Shooting at over 50 miles an hour [ laughs .]
that is awesome.
Their forklift firer is the real deal.
But next, the ultimate test.
Will it take down the bad guys before it's too late? Narrator: Adam and jamie escaped from a maximum-security stockade To an abandoned quarry This is perfect! Where their aboveground control caused carnage.
Adam: He's legless below the knees, And if he didn't get help soon, He could even drown in his own blood.
All that's left for us to do now is to dig a sewer [laughs.]
and try it again.
Yep.
To put the a-team's m.
O.
To the test, Next, the guys need a city sewer Nothing like digging a good trench.
To see if the same blast, But just barely underground, Will be injury-free for all.
Next, we put trench plates across here.
Yeah, you're, uh, spot-on.
And we'll completely cover this Except for where our manhole is gonna be, And, boom, you got a sewer.
Believe it or not, This is actually the first time That we've ever used a trench plate for a trench.
[ laughs .]
This kind of operation, it looks like fun, and it is.
It is also incredibly dangerous.
Any one of these plates could shift just a half-inch And take off one of jamie's fingers without even noticing.
Tilt up.
That's it! And it is this kind of operation that the two of us excel at In working with each other, Because in order to do it safely, You not only have to move carefully, but you really -- It's best if the two people doing it's thoughts Are identical.
Like a well-oiled machine.
And frankly, when jamie and I are doing something like this, Our brains are running on totally parallel tracks, And it's a sheer pleasure to do it.
That looks beautiful.
Yeah.
It's fabulous.
[ grunts .]
I love it when a plan comes together.
Oh, shut up.
With the trench plates in place, The guys next man up their manhole.
Hello! And after a quick sewer survey Aw, yeah! It looks great down here, man, like a real sewer.
And it's nice and cool.
We should have lunch down there.
That's a fabulous idea.
The great backfill can begin And that right there -- that's a man in the zone.
As jamie buries most, But not all, of their sewer system.
Adam: At this point in the episode, You've probably entertained a few thoughts, Among them things like, "wow, jamie's pretty good with the excavator.
I wonder if he had help.
" Yes, he did.
But among your comments might be, "why are you guys Leaving one hole under your sewer system open?" And it involves replicating the circumstances of the myth.
See, we're testing an explosion of dynamite In a sewer system, keyword "system.
" Sewers are part of a long set of catacombs Running underneath the city.
There's a lot of places for the expanding gases Of the explosion to go, And that is why we're leaving ours open.
Narrator: With one end open, One end closed, And the top soon to be sealed shut That'd do it.
Their drain in a day is done.
That just leaves the rest of the experiment, Starting with driver and car.
Who drives with their legs crossed? Only buster.
[ laughs .]
Next come the all important pcb sensors.
Adam: We're using these sensors To determine whether or not buster lives or dies In these explosive tests, But it's worth talking a little bit about how they work, Because it's pretty cool.
Inside this sensor is a type of crystal called piezo.
When you flex it or press on it, It generates a tiny amount of electricity That is very consistent.
You can expose it to a blast pressure wave.
It will generate a little amount of electricity That we can equate to the amount of pressure it received.
That directly tells us Whether or not buster could live or die.
Excuse me, buster.
[ groans .]
Pardon me, excuse me.
Thank you.
Pardon me, pardon me.
Oh! Thank you, sir.
Oh! Thanks for the ride.
[ groans .]
[ sighs .]
I'll call you when it's time to pick me up.
After that comes the dynamite, Positioned millimeters below the manhole At the very uppermost point of their drain.
So, this is exactly what we see them do in the clip -- Nine sticks of dynamite off to the side a bit With the manhole cover on top of it.
All right.
Here we go.
3, 2, 1.
The final piece of the puzzle Is to position the car exactly as it was In the control test.
Keep coming.
And a little more.
Perfect.
All that leaves is a prediction.
Now, my impression is that the sewer is gonna allow Some of the blast pressure to escape down into that cavity.
But, then, on the other hand, we have that manhole cover, Which is most likely gonna turn into fragments, Because it's cast-iron, and that's brittle.
And that may well hold onto the energy somewhat And direct it upward into the car.
Where that puts buster? It's anybody's guess.
That's what we're gonna find out.
Are you ready? Yeah.
All right.
I'm gonna hook it up.
There's one.
There's two.
[ cranking .]
[ laughs .]
Count it down.
All right.
Explosives in the manhole cover In 3, 2, 1.
That did it.
Wow! That was awesome! When the dust settles this time, It's clear that the car hasn't been torn apart.
Adam: We have yet to crunch the data.
We have yet to look at high-speed.
But on the face of what I witnessed And what I can see here [ laughs .]
That held together better than I thought I would, That's for sure.
I feel like that was a fantastic comparative set of explosions.
The second explosion, the dynamite in the sewer, Just as we saw on "the a-team," Dented the oil pan of this car, But did not break through.
It looks like it didn't actually penetrate, though.
Wow! My prediction post-explosion, pre-data crunch Is that our dude is totally fine.
But we got to check all that stuff out first.
Yep, while initial impressions are good, It's all down to the data.
Jamie: I've analyzed the data from the sewer-based explosion, And it's pretty interesting, Because the prior blast exposed buster to 26 p.
S.
I.
This time, with the sewer, he only experienced 9 p.
S.
I.
That's less than half.
And that means that, As opposed to ending up in the hospital With some serious injuries, This time, he would have walked away.
A little unhappy and with some bruises, But he would have walked away.
So buster's only bruised.
How about the bystanders? Last time, a lethal 90 p.
S.
I.
This time? 11 p.
S.
I.
That's right! Isn't that cool?! Not only is the blast survivable for the guy inside the car, It's also for the bystanders by the side of the road.
I'm no doctor, But you might want to have that shoulder looked at.
It's kind of weird.
It's an astounding result.
Simply by placing the dynamite millimeters below their manhole, The shock wave takes out the car and the car alone.
This is really cool.
95% of the time, What you see in movies and television Has no bearing on actual physics.
So it is very funny to me To delve into a cheesy 1980s action show That I totally grew up on And find that their physics are sound.
That is, putting dynamite inside a manhole Is a fine way of making a nonlethal explosion That will take out a car.
So, how do you want to call this one? Well, I think the a-team's plan was an excellent plan.
The difference between the aboveground blast And the sewer blast is patently obvious.
That is a survivable explosion.
This one, less so.
I'd say it's plausible.
Isn't that thing kind of getting disgusting by now? It's totally disgusting.
It's like chewing on a little tobacco-soaked sock.
It's gross.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
All right.
Let's get out of here.
Where to, colonel? Back to the lumberyard! Yeah! [ laughs .]
Firing! 3, 2, 1! Adam: Now, if jamie and I are going to embark On building our own log shooter, We should really test it against some bad guys, don't you think? Good enough.
So I want to make a bad guy That pops up like one of those ducks at the amusement park.
[ gunshots, duck quacks .]
And I'm gonna cut it out of this foam board.
Absolutely badass.
That guy is gonna be our first bad guy.
Let's try it out.
That's its stable state.
Whoop! Pshoo! Pshoo! [ exhales sharply .]
I think that'll work.
Narrator: In an abandoned lumberyard, It's time to play ball.
[ laughs maniacally .]
Because the mythbusters' air-powered pitching machine 3, 2, 1! Is firing on all cylinders.
That is awesome.
Isn't it? Whoo! [ laughs .]
Well, our cannon is ready, and by our best estimates, This thing ought to fire these chunks of wood At something between 50 and 75 miles per hour.
That is significant and dangerous.
And I want to point out That this is a purely improvised build by me and jamie, So all of this design was here on-site, a sheer pleasure.
This is a classic "mythbusters" build.
Narrator: Like the a-team, The guys improvised their weapon in just one hour.
But will it be able to hurt the henchmen? Last one.
Locked and loaded.
Time to find out.
What exactly are we testing? Well, in the clip, The guys spend about 1 minute and 10 seconds Firing their wood weapon at the bad guys to drive them off.
Hit it! Yep.
Let's do it.
For us, Given that we busted the tree cannon approach entirely, We intend to test out our own firing mechanism, Both in terms of accuracy, quickness to fire, And the time it takes to take out the bad guys.
Outside the double doors, there are seven bad guys, Each ready to pop up just where they did in the a-team's scene.
It's showtime! But can jamie take them down in just 70 seconds? It's a perfect start [ laughs .]
As jamie takes out pop-ups one and two With shots straight to the head.
Yeah! [ laughs .]
And from there, well, let's roll an "a-team" montage.
[ "the a-team theme" plays .]
Jamie: Yeah! [ laughs .]
Yeah! [ laughs .]
Oh! So close! Oh! Yes! One more! Looks like you got one last one! Yeah! Whoo-hoo! [ laughs .]
[ laughs .]
one minute, five seconds.
That was awesome! I love it when a plan comes together! [ jamie laughs .]
We had our targets rigged so that when I hit one, Another one would pop up in its place.
I was able to get them one after the other Until I had to get the farthest guy out.
The thing is, The further the range, The more that these sticks start to tumble And do unpredictable things.
But even though it took every stick of ammo I had Adam: Yeah! In the end, I got every single guy.
The rig worked like a charm.
Yeah! [ laughs .]
Our task was pretty straightforward -- Replicate a clip from "the a-team" "mythbusters" style.
Same ammo, completely new construction.
We used a spinning wheel this time and an air wrench.
Yeah! And guess what? It worked magnificently.
It worked exactly like we saw in the clip.
It was awesome.
Firing at 60 miles an hour with near perfect pitch, Their rig was the real deal.
[ laughs .]
And, having scratch-built it in under an hour Using junk lying around the lumberyard, You might say that the mythbusters Have out a-team'd the a-team.
Hey, a-team, If you need our help again, you know where to find us.