09x02 - Blue Ice

[bunniefuu]

On this episode of MythBusters...

We expected something
and something happened.

...Adam and Jamie have a movie
myth they were "Bourne" for.

Can a gas leak and a
magazine in a toaster...

I feel a little bit it's not
going to be very happy in here.

...make a room go kaboom?

I love running for safety.

Then...

I'm starting to get a little nervous.

...Carrie, Grant and Tory tackle
the tall tale of blue ice.

That is incredible!

Can the contents of an airplane's
toilet really fall from the sky...

That thing is falling.

...in one frozen chunk?

This is an awesome day.

Who are the MythBusters?

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman.

Am I really that ugly?

Between them, more than 30 years
of special effects experience.

Joining them, Grant Imahara...

My God!

...Kari Byron...

I'm gonna wreck this car.

...and Tory Belleci.

We survived.

They don't just tell the myths,

they put them to the test.

MythBusters 9x02 - Blue Ice
Original air date April 13, 2011

Corrected by atrn97g
www.addic7ed.com

Have you seen the "Bourne's Supremacy"?

I love that movie.

I love the whole Bourne trilogy.

Have you got a myth from
"Supremacy" we can test?

There is a scene where Bourne
broke into an apartment

and he knows the bad guys are coming

so he has to make an escape.

What he does was he breaks the gas line

where it goes into the
stove to let the gas flow.

He grabs a magazine, shoves
it into the toaster,

sets the toaster on and 20 seconds later

when the magazine sets on fire
the whole apartment blows up.

So Bourne makes his escape.

That's like perfect for us to test.

I think I have a pretty good
idea where we should start.

OK, but before you tell me

I actually want to demonstrate how
much I love the Bourne movies.

You know I collect movie props.

This is actually Jason Bourne's red bag

from the "Bourne's Identity" in a
waste basket from the Swiss Bank,

not only that, it's actually
full of all of the props

that were actually in that bag in the film.

All these trinkets and
even the stunt p*stol.

It's made of rubber.

Isn't that cool?

We need to find out whether
a magazine would actually

set on fire when it's put in a toaster.

OK.

There are three ingredients to
this Bourne-style get-away,

the toaster, the magazine
and the natural gas.

And first in the mix are one and two.

How long does it take to toast a magazine?

- You ready?
- I'm ready.

The guys start the clock

using a magazine like the one in the movie,

and the toaster rigged to stay "on".

You know in the movie it was
already on fire at this point.

As it turns out, toasting
a magazine takes a

little longer than the


Three minutes over schedule.

I think we're really close.

In fact it takes over 12 minutes
before they get ignition.

Hey! We got fire. Ta-da!

Remember kids, we're professionals.

So reality's 12 minutes versus

the movie's 25-some-odd seconds.

Hey! We got fire.

What do you think?

Well, what I think is that this
magazine is a worst case scenario,

because... look how thick those pages are.

And magazines are all
different shapes and sizes.

So, you think we should try a whole
bunch of different kinds of magazines

and see if they have different
rates at which they catch on fire.

Exactly.

I love it. Let's do it.

Lots of toasters now.

It's clear the real world magazine

doesn't light up like
its movie counterpart.

So now the MythBusters

are on the trail of a best case scenario.

In order to cover our basis here
and working off the theory that

different type of magazines composed
of different kinds of paper

are going to catch alight
at different rates,

we're about to put a half
dozen of them to the test.

Everything from our original magazine

to something much harder to catch on fire,

comic book, something that would
probably catch on fire in like seconds.

We're gonna put one in
each of these toasters,

start this timer and log how long
each of them takes to catch alight.

What could be more fun?

Well, with the six magazines in place,

let the char grilling challenge commence.

We're experimentally doing something
that should just never ever be done.

I like that.

- Flame.
- Number three, 1 minute, 40 seconds.

This time around it seems the

contenders are a little quicker to toast.



Yep.

Here we go.

Number 4, 3 minutes, 15 seconds.

Ow! Number 1, 3 minutes, 20 seconds.

Let's listen for that sound.

There we go.

There it is.

Four minutes, 36 seconds.

And finally bringing up the rear...

There it is.

...is the original magazine at 12 minutes.

As we suspected, it does make a difference

what kind of magazine is
stuck in the toaster.

Best case scenario is something

that amounts common newsprint,

but even that took about three times

as long as what it did in the movie.

Interesting.

So it's clear that even with the
best case scenario magazine,

toaster ignition takes a lot longer

than the 20 seconds it took Bourne.

And now to test the next ingredient
of this expl*sive combination,

the methane.

Now, methane, here, is a natural gas,

and it's most of what comes out of
your stove, at home, to cook with.

It is a flammable gas,

but it's not flammable on its own,
it actually requires a certain

amount of oxygen out of
the air in order to burn.

How much oxygen?

Well, that actually turns out to be
a very particular relationship.

The relationship of oxygen to flammable
gas is called stoichiometry.

To create fire, it takes
heat, fuel and oxygen,

and when it comes to flammable gases,

the amount of fuel to oxygen is a complex
relationship called stoichiometry.

Too much fuel, or too little, and there
will be nothing close to a flame.

But get the perfect mixture
and you'd get an expl*si*n.

Now, according to the movie, it took
Bourne 20 seconds to get that expl*sive

ratio of air to gas just right.

So, now the MythBusters

are dialing in to find out
exactly what it is.

We know that if we're
gonna get methane to burn,

we need a ratio of between


The ideal range is about 9%
methane and the rest air.

What we don't know is
what that actually means.

Does that mean if we are a little
off we get sort of a whoof,

but if we get right at the 9%,

we are getting a real strong bang?

Before we go full scale, we wanna
really know what we're doing.

So, what we've done is make a ten inch
by ten inch by ten inch cubic box,

and that will allow us
to really easily dial in

on these ratios to see what it means.

And while Jamie is boxing,

Adam has the ratios in the bag.

One of the ratios I want to

play with is 9% flammable gas to air.

This bag holds 9% of the
volume of this chamber,

I will fill it with gas.

I will then hook it up to the chamber,

open up both of the valves,

press the gas into the chamber.

I'll be displacing air that

comes out of this little hole right here.

Seal it up, walk away,

ignite it with a neon transformer
and see what happens.

Adam's bags will help the guys

zone in on exactly what ratio
of methane to air is expl*sive.

And speaking of methane...

So that we can ignite this thing safely

we're gonna remotely turn
on this neon transformer

that will create a high voltage spark

inside the methane chamber.

And here, we'll be able to vary
the methane concentrations,

ignite it, and see what we get.

First up,

a test at the very bottom
of the stoichiometric zone.



We're good.

Okay.



In three, two, one.

We expected something
and something happened.

Our frangible box separated just as
we hoped it would and it's actually

kind of a little bit of a pop.

I was expecting a little
more from an expl*si*n,

and I'm interested to see if our optimal
stoichiometric ratio gives us that.

Me, too.

Well, let's set it up.

Ok.



but what if Bourne achieved the
optimal ratio of 9% methane to air?



Well, that was more energetic.



but for Adam, the surprising
thing is that at both ratios

they scored the mythical expl*si*n

they were looking for.

This is awesome.

We think that 6% means we'll
see a small pop, and 9%

means we will see a big pop.

In this case, that's not the case.

And that actually makes it
look better for this myth.

If we're getting a pop at the very
lowest end of the stoichiometric range,

that's making Bourne's... use of
this as a diversion technique

more feasible.

I'm not saying it's probable, but
it's making it look more feasible.

Later, the MythBusters build a house...

It ain't pretty, but it's home.

...but can the myth bring it down?

And Carrie takes to the skies
on the tale of blue ice.

You're looking excited.

That's because we have a myth

that's spectacular, gross, and
challenging, all wrapped up into one.

What's the story?

It's the one with the pilot jettisons
the contents of an airplane toilet,

which promptly freezes at altitude

and turns into a deadly projectile.

Ah, you're talking about
the myth of blue ice?

Exactly.

When mysterious substances of
suspect origin fall from the sky,

urban myths are sure to follow.

And the conspiracy theory that
has the message boards in a spin

is the infamous blue ice.

And here is how it happens.

On a bright sunny day, a passing

pilot supposedly jettisons the
contents of the toilet's tank,

and apparently at high altitudes
the subzero temperatures

freeze the liquid into a damaging
and disgusting m*ssile.

All right, we know a little
bit about airplane toilets

because we did a myth on them.

We know for fact you can't get sucked
into them if you're sitting down.

And we know the reason why it's blue

is because they use that
chemical to cover the smell.

But what we don't know is

what happens to the waste.

Yeah, can you actually eject
the contents in mid-air?

I guess this is where we start.

So, first up, Carrie hits Stockton airport

to find out when and how

a pilot dumps his... waste.

You're an airplane technician.

What do you think of our old blue ice myth?

Well, Carrie, as you can
see from this c*ck,

there are thousands of buttons and switches

of which none are
labeled "Dump the toilet".

Which is bad news for the myth,

but if the pilot can't jettison
the john mid flight,

is there any way the liquid
blue waste can escape?

Failure of components.

So there could be a mechanical problem

that causes the blue ice
instead of the pilot?

Yes. Like with most systems on an airplane,

there are redundancies and with
the lav, it's no different.

Yeap, there are three fail safes

that have to be breached in
order for the liquid to leave.

The dump valve on the holding tank

and two water tight seals leading
to the exterior of the fuselage.

If all three of those components
fail, that's a problem.

It's not likely.

Is it possible?

Absolutely.

Multiple components that
fail leading to a problem.

This myth is looking good.

All right, Kari. So how did it go?

Well, part of this myth isn't looking good.

There's no way for the pilot

to jettison the contents of the toilet.

True. But that doesn't rule out
ice falling off the plane.

That's right. There are still two
scenarios that could happen.

There could be a major malfunction

that leads to either all of the
contents coming out at once

freezing and falling to Earth,

or you could get a nice slow
leak that created an ice ball.

Now, the question is

how are we going to test them?

Actually we've been talking
to our friends at NASA

and they've agreed to let us use
their Icing Research Tunnel

which can simultaneously duplicate
temperatures of minus 20 degrees

and wind speeds up to 250 knots.

That is the perfect
conditions for high altitude.

Well, it sounds like before we leave

we're gonna have to build
a leaky airplane toilet.

Now, this myth is about
airplanes, but in order to test it

we don't need to build a full airplane.

All we need to do is make something

that has similar aerodynamic properties.

So this is our design.

And this will have low drag and

a place to leak which are
the most important things.

So, for their tests at NASA,

Kari builds a waste system

designed to fail in two ways:

either with a slow leak,
or a catastrophic dump.

Now, according to NASA's specs,

it had to be out of aluminum,

'cause that's what our
planes are made of,

and we were not allowed to weld anything,

'cause they didn't want anything
breaking apart inside the wind tunnel,

'cause there was gonna be so much
pressure created by the wind.

So, we had to drill, and rivet,
over six hundred rivets,

to put our airplane together.

And what we have right here is our valve.

This is where we're gonna have
hooked up to a water tank

and we're gonna be doing two tests.

One where we dump the water
completely, and then one

where there's a slow leak,
to find out: can you grow

a chunk of ice on the side of a plane?

Jason Bourne knows how to
make an expl*sive exit.

But could a magazine in a toaster

really toast a gas filled apartment?

After getting to know
their enemy in the shop,

the guys are ready to go full scale.

If we're going to replicate

the natural gas expl*si*n in this
guy's apartment from the movie,

we're gonna need, clearly, two things.

Yeah, they said get your own show,

it'll open all sorts of doors.

One is methane natural
gas which is easy to get

and two is the guy's apartment

which we don't actually have.

So, we've come out to the b*mb range

where they got plenty of room,

and in a few hours we're gonna
build this guy's apartment.

Not to code,

we just need it to be a
gas containment device

that is in the shape of the apartment.

But it will be properly
appointed, I'm sure.

So to find out if you really can get
a room to kaboom with just gas,

a magazine and a toaster,

they'll precisely replicate
the circumstances

of the movie, starting with
the apartment dimensions.



Once the roof has been successfully raised,

it's time for the resident

exterior decorator to take over.

After you blow enough things up,

you start to look for esthetic
finesse in the expl*si*n.

I'll give you an example:
first hot water heater.

We painted that little house red.

Look at that! Isn't that beautiful?

So we're gonna give the same
treatment to this thing.

We're gonna paint the
outside in lovely orange,

so that when it finally blows up,

the high speed shot will
be especially gorgeous.

Well, it certainly will
be explosively tangerine.

There.

I wouldn't call it livable,

but I'd call it blow up-able.

It is blow up-able.

And the final finishing touches
are to furnish it before

they step on the gas.

Excellent.

It's got a nice view here.

You know? The valley out the window there.

The house may be complete,

but soon it will be filled
with highly flammable gas.

And, in the event they don't get
an ignition, Adam has created this.

What I got here is an exhaust system,

so that I can evacuate
the gas from this room.

Because one of the most dangerous things

that could happen to us in
this experiment is nothing.

We found this on "cell
phone destroys gas station",

we had a room full of gasoline fumes,

and we didn't get it to ignite,

and nobody wants to approach
a room full of fumes.

Hello expl*si*n, hello?

So, if nothing happens I've got a switch I
can turn that will start these fans all up

and get all the gas out of this room,
so it's safe to do a reset.

I think that's the last
piece of the puzzle.

I will get to a safe location.

And that's not the only safety precaution

they're taking with this test.

This is our methane outlet,
which has tin sill on it,

which we'll be able to see moving

if gas is coming through
here on our remote camera.

This is our tank of methane.

We have a regulator, and
a flow meter attached to it.

This rig is set up to give us
the same kind of input of gas

into our house as you would normally have

in a domestic gas line
going into an apartment.

Now this valve here I have
with a line attached to it

that goes to our bunker.

I'm gonna pull on this
line if there is anything

that bothers me about this setting.

Because, you know, it's gas.

It's flammable.

If there's something we don't like

we wanna be able to shut it off.

And from this distance I
can safely pull the plug,

if there's something I don't like.

The list of things Jamie doesn't
like may be a long one,

but if the expl*si*n of the
movie is anything to go by,

putting this myth to the test
could be very dangerous.

Shall we get started?

Yeah.

After you.

Next up, it's full speed ahead.

All stations reporting with the go / no go.

But will the blue ice myth be blown away?

Kari, Grant, and Tori

are tackling the infamous
tall tale of blue ice.

Can a leaking toilet midair lead

to a deadly chunk of ice down there?

To find out for sure,

Tori and Grant touch down in nerd Nirvana.

All stations reporting with a go / no go.

Roger. Prepare to release the geek.

Because this place has a
heap of hard core hardware.

This massive fan is the heart
of NASA's icing tunnel.

It's powered by a 5,000 horsepower

direct drive electric motor.

It has 12 individual custom fan blades

for a diameter of 25 feet.

It's capable of generating
wind speeds over 300 knots.

And that's only half the equation.

This is the other half of the equation.

The icing tunnel itself.

The wind comes rushing through here

refrigerated to minus


Those are the spectacular specs.

And now, to put them to good use.

The way we're gonna test this

is we're gonna stick
our section of fuselage

into their wind tunnel...

Does this mean I'm the R2D2?

Oh, boy.

...and recreate the same wind
speeds and temperatures

that you would find at altitude.

Then, we're gonna create
a leak inside the valve,

let it sit there and see if
those conditions would cause

that blue liquid to form
into a chunk of ice.

Remember, there are two leaky
valve scenarios the team will test,

and first up is the catastrophic dump.

We have our model in position.
We're ready to go.

All right. Fire it up.

All right, let's go, fire it up.

Maximum warp.

Sorry, I just made that really...

We're trying to make science cool, dude.

There we go.

And for cool science, let's make it so.

The fan winds up, whipping up a


Then the heat exchanger
drops the air temperature

to a high altitude minus


Our model is holding together perfectly.

Then they are ready to pull the pin
on the catastrophic failure test.

Will the blue liquid instantly
freeze into a chunk of blue ice?

So, this is full tank dump.

In three, two, one, go!

- Wow! Wha, ha, ha ha!
- On my God!

Look at how fast is going out.

That is awesome.

As soon as the liquid exits

the aircraft, it's ripped away by
the sheering force of the wind.

And despite the bitterly
cold air temperatures,

it's unable to form the
mythical slice of ice.

Behind me are the results of
our complete release test

where we dump the entire
contents of the waste tank.

Now, it didn't atomize all the way,

because you can see some of
it formed on the surface here,

but it also did not form one big
chunk that could fall on someone.

Yeap, although most of the blue waste was
vaporized on contact with the wind,

some did form a thin layer,

just not enough for a blue icicle.

I mean, it's incredible.

We got an actual layer of
ice, and pretty quickly.

All right, well let's try again,
and this time have the slow leak.

All right, let's see if that
gives us a big chunk of ice.

Once again the NASA techs simulate
the same high altitude conditions

and then sabotage the
plumbing for the drip test.

And once the leak is leaking...

Look how quick the ice is building up.

...the results are astonishing
as they are immediate.

Hey, this is looking great, and it's blue.

That is fantastic.

It hasn't even been two minutes yet.

Oh, my gosh! That is incredible.

The liquid moving over the
surface of the aircraft

is protected from the extreme wind speeds

by what's called a boundary layer.

What that means is that not all the air

traveling over the airplane
goes at the same rate.

Over certain areas, it
actually travels a lot slower.

Which creates a protective cushion

where ice crystals can form.

This thing is like this big.

I'd call that baseball size right there.

If that whole thing broke off,

that would be just like the myth.

The guys are blown away,

unlike the ice.

Question is, how big can
it get, and will it fall off?

I just can't believe how big it's getting.


diameter around ten inches,

the blue icicle seems to
have reached a size plateau.

It's approaching soccer ball size.

And with plenty of water still in the tank,

that's not the limiting factor,

but Grant thinks he knows what is.

Now, an interesting thing to note here

is that as the ice is getting thicker

and pushing away from the skin,

it's actually pushing its way
out of the boundary layer.

Once it exits the boundary layer,

it actually hits the faster
moving air and... just goes away.

It doesn’t allow it to freeze up.

Which may be a reason why the ice
doesn't get really really big.

Let's see if we can get it to fall off.

Let's pretend like it's at its final
descent, temperatures are rising,

maybe we can get it to break off

and find out exactly what
happens when it does.

Perfect.

All right. Start warming it up.

It's a good theory.

Because as the aircraft descends
and the air temperature warms...

Oh, we're getting bigger
chunks breaking off!

...surely it's only a matter of time before

the blue ice barnacle
becomes a blue ice m*ssile.

Minus 7 degrees.

And, as it turns out,

when the wind tunnel conditions match those

of an altitude of 12,000 feet...

...we have lift off.

That thing blew off in one giant chunk.

That was perfect.

This myth is starting to
look very, very believable.

Yeah, but you know what the next step is?

What happens to the ice after it falls off.

I can't believe it.

Coming up later...

&*^#$ we're burning this building down.

Here is the story we're testing.

Jason Bourne, knowing that
the bad guys are coming,

wanting to buy himself a little
extra time for the chase,

opens up the gas line of the house he's in,

walks over to a toaster, grabs a magazine

and sticks it in that toaster

and sets it as a remote fuse,
and then he exits the house.



gives him the lead time he's looking for.

Now, is that remotely plausible?

Well, those are the circumstances we've
got set up in this house right here

and that's gonna be our first test.

In other words, this test will
be exactly like the movie,

but with one exception.

According to our testing, it
actually takes about two minutes

for the toaster to set
the magazine on fire.

So that means that we've had
about four times the amount of gas

going into the room,

in that two minutes, as what Bourne
had, for the whole house to blow up.

Now, that two minutes, in our
case, is only allowing about

seven cubic feet of methane
to go into the house,

and it's rising towards the roof.

Meanwhile, our source of
ignition is about 15 feet away.

I don't expect to see any
kind of expl*si*n at all.

And that's down to stoichiometry.

In theory, for a room this size,

seven cubic feet of methane will be

too low a concentration to ignite.

All right. I'm ready.

Okay, Adam. Go ahead and turn on the gas.

Copy that.

But this is MythBusters,

and it's not a fact until you test it.

It's pretty eerie, watching flammable gas

go into a room in which
we've started a fire.

Or are about to.

Oh, I see some fire.

Fire. Great.

All right.

The magazine may finally be on fire,

but the methane is not igniting.

Oh man. That toaster is totally burning.

And even after a further 60 seconds

there's still no hint of a Hollywood blast.

Gas is off.

Starting up the fans to evacuate the room.

That was cool.

That was very cool. I was
a little... I was a little tense.

Flammable gas, a fire, no boom.

No boom.

So it's time to send in the
MythBusters fire brigade.

Oh, yeah.

There's your problem.

So, we've replicated all the
circumstances for Bourne's

evasion technique, and
it totally didn't work.

I think that's a pretty
clean busting of the myth.

Yeah, it's busted.

- But, you know, I was thinking...
- Yeah?

...if we put something in that
room that burned for longer,

eventually something's gonna happen.

You mean, eventually the gas
and the air will reach a mixture

whereby we will get some kind of reaction?

Yeah.

I love it. I think that
should be the next test.

Although the exact
circumstances of the movie

won't get the bad guys off your tail,

the question is, could a little
more gas and a longer fuse

get the big Bourne boom?

We know from our small
scale testing in our research

that it takes a minimum 6% fuel to air mix

for methane and air to support ignition.

The way we've got it planned out, if we
take the contents of this methane tank

and put it in our test room,

we'll have the right fuel-air mix.

How we're gonna get a long
burning open flame, well

we're throwing out the
toaster and the magazine,

and we're going with a
supermarket fireplace log.

Light this puppy on fire, it
will burn for at least an hour.

This is for real.

The log will burn

while the gas builds to the 6% ratio.

That's it.

But, when it hits the stoichiometric zone,

will they get the bad guy repelling
detonation of the movie?

Back in the safety of the bunker,

at first things go just as planned.

Did you leave a log burning
on the kitchen table?

Oh, crap, I did.

But, in a dramatic turn of
events, after four minutes...

Oh, you know what's happening?

The gas is actually making the
whole room catch on fire.

...things suddenly get incendiary...

I see smoke on the...

$%#^#, we're burning this building down.

...and out of control.

There we go. We had a blow up.

That's it.

Well, I don't know if we're
putting this building out.

Ah, we should get up there with the hose.

All right. Let's turn off the gas.

Gas is off.

The MythBusters initiate
the safety protocols

and cautiously approach
their apartment inferno.

Don't go in.

I'm not seeing any flame.

There's the hole we blew.

It may not have been the
blast of the movie...

It's a horror show in there.

...but the methane sure made
a mess of the apartment.

So all of a sudden, a fire is going
up and reaching the ceiling,

I could see smoke coming out at the top,

and then the mixture hit the
bottom of the stoichiometric range

and we saw this hrrummm!
across the whole room.

I've seen broken glass
on a bunch of windows,

on the back double doors,

it's clear that we got a
significant reaction,

but nothing close to what
we saw in the movie.

Nothing close to a kaboom,

but certainly enough of a conflagration

to distract the bad guys.

It's really clear from all
the melted plastic in there,

and even our exhaust fans melted,

it got super-crazy hot
in there very quickly.

I mean just the whole
room was absolutely...

I didn't even know what
temperature it could be at,

but it was really hot.

But you know we're not
gonna leave it there.

No, no.

Next...

I think Kari is gonna scream her head off.

She may potentially pee her suit.

But I think that block of ice

is gonna land on the
ground in one big chunk.

So here is where we're at.

We've looked into airline toilets

and found that they can leak
through an external valve.

Is it possible? Absolutely.

We've made our own fuselage,

went to NASA's wind tunnel

and found that you could actually
form a giant chunk of ice

which then fell off the airplane.

Now, what we're going to test

is what happens to that ice after it falls.

What we need to see for
this myth to be confirmed

is for that ice to fall through
the air as one giant chunk,

and hit the ground as one
piece with deadly force.

This is the final piece
of the blue ice puzzle.

While falling from 12,000 feet,

at a terminal velocity
of 160 miles per hour,

will the ice stay in one piece,

or will wind erosion and
warming temperatures

cause it to break up into
a harmless blue rain?

To track that, the team has a
spectacular plan of action.

We have our airplane.

We are gonna load it up
with a large chunk of ice,

take it up to altitude
and then throw it out.

Now, we're gonna have a few sky divers

jump out with the ice to track.

Kari is gonna be one of those sky divers.

Yeap, and sky diving team leader Nick

also has the crucial job
of timing the drop.

Because, if the myth is true,

and the blue ice falls in one chunk,

missing the mark could be deadly.

Let's hope they can see that.

Okay, so here's the plan.

Kari and our expert Nick will
go in the plane with the ice.

They're gonna go up,

and based on prevailing conditions
and Nick's calculations,

they'll know when to release the ice,

at an altitude that they deem safe.

Nick will jump out, and so will
Kari, following the ice down.

You'll be fine.

I'm gonna double check this.

Meanwhile, Tori and I will
be on the ground, tracking

the ice in the air and
looking for the impact zone.

And as for the blue ice, well, earlier,

Kari prepared a similar size block

to the test at NASA.

It's approximately the
diameter of a basketball,

eye catching and easily retrievable.

To make sure that we can
watch this ice fall,

I've done something a little different.

I've made it red instead of blue,

so that it's going to
stand out on the blue sky.

I've added some really long streamers

so that we can track it,

and I'm going to put a GPS on it.

Now for this myth to be confirmed,

we need to see that block
of ice drop from altitude,

and get to the Earth in one solid chunk.

Good luck.

- Good luck you guys.
- Thank you!

What I think is gonna happen?

I think Kari is gonna
scream her head off,

she may potentially pee her suit.

But I think that block of ice

is gonna land on the
ground in one big chunk.

Okay. Here is the package.

Good luck.

And despite all of their precautions,

they will need some luck.

Their goal is to drop the ice

and Kari from 12,000 feet...

Here we go, Kari.

...the height at which Grant and Tori

saw the ice release from
the fuselage at NASA.

OK. Now I'm starting to
get a little nervous.

But will it remain intact?

Traveling with an energy of 392,000 joules,

its impact will certainly be deadly.

However, if it melts in
the rising temperatures,

it'll be rendered harmless.

After the break, the MythBusters
touch down for blue ice.

Nice!

And can Adam and Jamie
get a big Bourne boom?

At 12,000 feet, Kari and
her free-falling friends

are preparing to deploy
their blue ice cargo.

All I gotta do is look at the ice. One job!

But will it break up on descent,

or have the devastating impact
internet reports claim?

Ah boy, this is it.

If the team misjudged the timing
of the drop by even a second,

a 35 pound projectile, traveling
at 160 miles per hour

could crash through a neighboring house.

But that's only if the ice
actually stays in one chunk.

If it breaks up, the only thing
busted will be the myth.

I got them.
They are approaching the drop zone.

So, this is it.

It's time to drop out and
jump off for science.

Okay. The ice is away.

So are they.

In a stunning piece of
free-fall camera work,

Nick manages to capture
the ice as it plummets.

- Look how fast it's falling.
- That thing is hauling!

And Kari can see that it's so far, so good.

With the ice already at a balmy 5,000 feet,

it's still completely intact.

Look, it's staying in one chunk.

Dude, that's crazy.

But will it stay that way as they enter
the final few thousand feet of descent?

I see the ice right there,

and is that... is that near the target?

That's great.

Did you see the size of that impact?

And did you see it stayed in one chunk?

Wow, that's maybe only


Let's go meet Kari, and we'll go find it.

All right, let's go get it.

Hi, Tory. Hi Grant.

Here she comes.

She's coming in hot.

- You made it.
- Wow!

Nice.

What a ride and what a test.

And no wonder Kari's
adrenalin is off the charts.

It's a good job.

Let's go check out the ice!

- Did you see it?
- Yeah, yeah.

Everything went according to plan.

For the majority of its decent,

there was visual contact confirming
that the ice retained its shape and mass.

And then, thanks to Kari's visual A*DS,

and Nick's awesome aim,

finding the impact site is a breeze.

There is a streamer.

Is it intact?

It was a chunk before it hit the ground.

And that is still a chunk of ice.

Check it out. It dug
itself into the ground!

Wow. That is a serious impact.

Yeap, and it may have melted slightly
in the time it took to find it,

but the crater created is a clear
testament to its destructive power.

This is the size of the block of ice

that we threw out of our
plane, which is very similar

to the size of the chunk of ice that

we formed in the wind tunnel
at NASA that fell off.

That block of ice reached
terminal velocity very quickly,

it left a sizable impact crater area,

what's more, it stayed pretty much intact

all the way down to impact.

Okay, a pilot can't release all
of the toilet water at once,

so that part's busted,

but I think the phenomena is confirmed.

I mean, it made it all
the way to the ground.

Totally confirmed.

I agree 100%.

Confirmed. But three mechanical failures

leading to blue ice falling on

your house is in reality
incredibly unlikely.

I'm gonna be looking up for blue ice
to fall on my head now, right?

Dude, I'm gonna get blue ice insurance.

- I... I know a guy.
- Yeah?

Let me know,

I'll give you his number.

At the MythBuster's mansion,

they've been renovating, Bourne style.

No boom!

However, the myth, as it appears
in the movie, is busted.

But it aren't over until the man

in the beret gets a big Bourne boom.

So, next, they are upping
the ante with more gas.

Now, when we empty
this tank into that house

that means we will have just
over 9% methane to air in there,

and that happens to be the butter
zone for an expl*si*n.

The guys know from small
scale that 9% netted them

the most energetic boom.
But this is large scale.

Will this test rip apart
the apartment Bourne style?

Before they blow it up,
they need to spruce it up.

We swapped out all the windows and doors.

All these holes that got warped and open,

we're gonna actually lay
in a bunch of stripping.

We probably tripled the cohesive
strength of this building,

and that ought to give us just
the boom we're looking for.

Jamie is known for how
he handles these fans.

This time around I'm running
the methane into the house

through these holes that
I've attached to the floor,

and I've drilled a lot of little
holes in the hose, so that

we'll get these jets of gas coming out

that will mix with the air

that is being pushed
across with these fans.

Kind of like a blender.

Just mix the air all along.

Yeah.

This squirreling mass of air
I'm hoping will distribute

this fuel air mix throughout the room

and hopefully that will make the difference

between a "poof" and a "bang".

Jamie's fantastic method will circulate

the methane throughout the apartment.

And with the dangerous
ratio of 9% gas to air,

they'll need something
more sophisticated for ignition.

We brought back out the neon transformer
from the small scale testing,

with the addition of a little
piece of paper here.

Go ahead and plug it in.

We're gonna be able to set a fire exactly

when we want to set a fire.

Exactly when they achieve the
goldilocks ratio of 9% methane to air.

Fans are rolling.

That's the last piece of the puzzle.

Shall we get to a safe place and go boom?

- Yeah.
- Awesome.

- Let's turn on the gas.
- Okie-dokie.

All right. We got about five minutes.

Let's get to the bunker.

Fire in the hole.

Hopefully.

Actually, I think they need
a new signal for us, it'll be like...

Fire in the hole!... hopefully.

Fire in the hole!... hopefully.

Hopefully is right.

The precise stoichiometric ratio should be

enough to detonate their apartment.

So our fire starters take cover

as the methane fills the room.

Oh, we're down below


and we're about 100 psi,

so I'm thinking we should
go whenever you are ready.

With the room filled with 9% methane,

will this finally yield
the Hollywood blow out?

All right, here we go.

Ideal gas-air mixture, Bourne expl*si*n

in three, two, one.

That is awesome.

- We blew out the whole front.
- Yeah.

We couldn't have done that if we planned.

That was perfect.

And there you have it.

One magnificent made to
order apartment expl*si*n.

But unlike the movie detonation,

this one is polite enough
to put itself out.

Well, almost.

I hope this is a cautionary tale

what happens when you mix
MythBusters with science.

Ok, here is the thing.

While that was fairly exciting,

I mean we blew out the wall,

I wanna point out that we
didn't break any glass,

there was no bang,

it was a whoosh.

And that's something entirely different
than what we saw in the movie.

The fact that this was an
ideally mixed mixture with fans

and everything in the exact quantity

and that's the best we could do,

kind of tells you

what the real deal is, it's
not what the movie showed.

Clearly we were "Bourne" for this job.

Yeah. But it's kind of too bad.

That was a nice view in that house.