07x07 - YouTube Special

[bunniefuu]

NARRATOR: On this high-flying
episode of "Mythbusters"...

[Laughter]

One word for this... splat!

NARRATOR: The whole team
tackles one massive myth.

Everything in your mind
is saying, "Don't do it."

NARRATOR: Testing the tale of
a spectacular midair mishap...

[Laughing]

...pushes everyone to the limit.

[Grunting]

This whole story
is just totally absurd.

NARRATOR:
They'll need luck...

For science.

- Aaaah!
- NARRATOR: Courage...

Ah!
This is the best data ever!

NARRATOR:
...and some serious science...

That's perfect.

NARRATOR: To tackle the myth
of the man who fell to earth...

Grant, take it away.

NARRATOR: Struck a seesaw,
and launched a legend.

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage...

True and fancy-free

NARRATOR:
...and Jamie Hyneman.

[Grunts]

You just need
a little extra lubrication.

NARRATOR:
Between them, more than 30 years

of special-effects experience.

I'm taking me Jamie
out for a walk.

NARRATOR:
Joining them... Tory Belleci...

Freedom!

NARRATOR:
...Grant lmahara...

Let's go! Come on!
I'm gonna be rich!

NARRATOR:
...and Kari Byron.

- [g*nsh*t]
- That was a rush!

NARRATOR:
They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

A little old for dolls,
aren't we?

[Chuckles]
This is not a doll.

This is a demonstration model

for the next story
we've got to do,

which comes
right from the fan site.

Okay, tell me more.

[British accent]
I'm a skydiver, right,

and I'm falling
through the air [Whooshes]

And my parachute
has utterly failed.

Looking desperately
down at the ground

for something to break my fall,
I spy a children's playground

and a seesaw with a little girl
at the other end.

Not worrying about her, I aim
for this end of the seesaw,

go straight upright
at the last second.

I hit the seesaw and
catapult that poor little girl

up to the top
of a seven-story building,

where, amazingly,
she lands safely.

Wow.

Sounds almost too good
to be true.

I thought the same thing.

NARRATOR:
Lmprobable, yes.

But impossible?

Parachutes
do sometimes fail to open.

[Gasps]

If he's jumping
over a town or city,

it's feasible he could drop
over a playground.

Common sense and basic physics

tells us
that if he hits the seesaw,

that lonely little girl
is going somewhere.

But seven stories high,
and she lives?

Well, don't knock it
till you've tried it.

[Normal voice]
"Jamie, I don't know about you,

but I feel like
we could just go for this one."

Sure, we can do it
right outside.

All we need
is a regulation seesaw.

And a correctly weighted
little girl.

And a skydiver.

Terrific.
Let's do it.

When I was a kid,
seesaws were long wooden planks,

and that's what we started
looking for.

But it turns out
no one makes those anymore.

Now seesaws
are made out of steel,

and there are as many designs
as there seem to be playgrounds.

So we have chosen
a mid-range, middle-of-the-road,

simple steel seesaw, and
that's what I'm about to build.

NARRATOR:
For Adam,

building a two-kid plaything
is a one-man job.

Inside 30 minutes,
he welds a central pivot

from 2-inch pipes
and a couple of elbow joints.

ADAM: The bench itself is just
a 10-foot slab of hollow steel.

Now I've just got to attach
one to the other.

NARRATOR:
So far, so good.

But then Adam finds a fatal flaw
in the foundations.

ADAM: [Chuckles]

There's no kid
that wants to go that high.

NARRATOR:
After a quick nip/tuck,

we've got a working seesaw,

a simple device that just might
flip an unsuspecting 6-year-old

seven stories high.

ADAM:
Much better.

NARRATOR:
But here's the problem.

To hit terminal velocity,

the unlucky skydiver would have
to fall from at least 600 feet.

ADAM: [Grunts]

So to get around that problem,
at least for this first test,

what I'm doing
is trading altitude for weight.

When I fill these barrels
with water,

they'll be much heavier
than a man,

so we can then drop them
from a much lower height

and get a more or less
guaranteed hit.

And the impact force
should be exactly the same.

NARRATOR:
That's the theory,

and they can't wait
to put it into practice,

so they've picked a drop zone
that's real close to home...

the parking lot behind M5.

And that's just getting
welded down at the plate?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

NARRATOR: It's a stunt
that will scare the neighbors.

Given the massive forces
at play,

only a lunatic
would choose this moment

to trial a new technology.

This quick release,
which holds up to 10,000 pounds,

is gonna be the mechanism

by which we drop our weight
on the seesaw.

And normally we'd use it
in a "pull on a wire" mode.

Now it's got
an automatic cylinder release,

which, when we connect a battery
from our viewing site,

and I say,
"Connect the battery"...

[Clang]

...it's gonna drop the weight
right on our seesaw.

NARRATOR:
Now for the checklist.

They've got the crane.

They've got the weight.

And Adam's built a teeter-totter
that both sees and saws.

JAMIE: Okay, so it is,
in fact, a seesaw.

It is, in fact, a seesaw.

I want one of these
in my office.

[Laughs]

NARRATOR: All we need now
is a full-scale victim,

and this one is almost too cute
to catapult.

Almost.

JAMIE:
So, shall we name her "Ariel"?

NARRATOR:
Nice call, Jamie,

but it's best not to get
too attached to your missiles.

JAMIE:
Our little girl over here

is supposed to be
an average 6-year-old,

and so we've made her weight


Now, if the physics
in this story are correct,

the water barrels, when they hit
this end of the seesaw,

are gonna launch her straight up
about 70 feet, or 7 stories.

ADAM: I've calculated
that filling the barrels

with 1, 150 pounds of water

and then dropping them from


the skydiver's free-fall impact
force of 85,000 foot-pounds.

NARRATOR:
The foot-pound

is a standard
gravitational measurement.

It's the energy expended
by a force of one pound

acting through a distance
of one foot.

- JAMIE: Looks good to me.
- ADAM: All right.

Let's go up.

NARRATOR:
The numbers look good on paper,

but let's see how it all
pans out on the pavement.

So, I'm gonna pull the safety,
but you know what?

I don't want to be anywhere
on this lot

when we drop this thing.

I was thinking
we should be up over there.

I was thinking the same thing.

NARRATOR:
So with the elements in place,

Adam and Jamie head
for the high ground.

ADAM: Right now
I'd describe the situation

as "mayhem in potentia."

Soon we'll have actual mayhem.

NARRATOR: And that actual mayhem
is now just moments away.

All right, here we go...
skydiver seesaw.

In 3, 2, 1.

[Laughing]

Aw, darn.
The seesaw broke.

It just kind of like
folded in half.

NARRATOR:
The bench is buckled,

but the full extent
of this disaster

is best assessed
from ground level.

I don't think we've ever done
this specific kind of damage.

What do you mean?
A little bending and welding.

- And it will be good as new.
- [Laughs]

Look, you can see where...

That's exactly where it hit
the rebar handle.

Yeah. Which is, like, flattened
as flat as it could be.

It not only crushed it
right at the pivot point,

but it also crushed it
right at the end here.

So, you know,
that's a heck of a lot of force.

A lot more than we considered.

We're gonna have to rethink
this thing.

Yeah. Even if this was
a solid bar of steel,

I don't think
it would have taken it.

ADAM: Yeah.

I swear, this is the best part
of the job...

reviewing
the high-speed footage.

I want to see if she even
comes off the ground.

Oh, I think she does.

I saw her flip
a couple of times.

NARRATOR: Little Ariel launched
at exactly 23 miles per hour

and then flew 20 feet high.

ADAM:
What goes up...

- Come back!
- Must come down.

Here it is.

NARRATOR:
That's barely two stories,

way short of the mythical seven.

[Both laugh]

But with all the substitutions,
this test was always more likely

to be an indication
than an indictment.

I can't help but feel
this nagging feeling in my head

that there's a big difference

between 1,000 pounds of water
in steel cans

and a soft,


falling at terminal velocity.

We've got a lot of rethinking
to do to really call this one.

This thing right here...
It already buckled.

And so, all of that energy
has been wasted.

Now we need to figure out,
if we're gonna make this work,

how to get all of that energy
over there

to come over here
to the little girl

without wasting itself on
breaking things in the process.

NARRATOR: In short, the fact
that a home-built seesaw

cracked under the weight
of three sharp-edged barrels

doesn't prove or disprove
the myth.

And with the help
of Tory, Grant, and Kari,

things will get better.

The common playground seesaw

is about as safe or as dangerous
as you want to make it.

But could it really toss a girl

on top
of a seven-story building?

Well, it flipped an elephant,
right?

[Trumpets]

Dude, there is a lot to do
in this myth.

Yeah, there is,
but I'm ahead of you.

Reinforcements
should be arriving... now.

- KARI: What do you need?
- [Laughing] Okay.

You know the seesaw myth
that we're working on?

- Yeah.
- We need a way, first,

to calculate the terminal
velocity of our skydivers.

Specifically in the myth,
it stated

that he is wearing
a camera suit.

That's a specific kind
of skydiving suit.

We need to know
how fast he's going.

Okay, cool.
What else?

Well, we need to have a delivery
system for the skydiver

to put him on target
at terminal velocity.

A giant crane?
We'll figure it out.

All right.
We'll see you later.

- "We'll figure it out."
- I don't know.

I just went blank.

Great.
Always have to be the hero.

NARRATOR: So on
the very next misty morning,

the team arrives
at SkyDance SkyDiving

to see just how slowly a man
can fall in a camera suit.

Grant's our designated diver,
and Nick Armstrong's here

to point him
in the right direction... down.

- So, this is the camera suit?
- Yes, it is.

Can you tell us
a little bit about it?

Sure.

It's different
from most of our skydiving suits

in that it's built specifically
for videographers.

NARRATOR:
The key design difference

is a wing-like flap
from the elbows to the hips

that should give
added air resistance.

So you can get a lot slower
with one of these suits on?

Absolutely.

NARRATOR:
Grant's not licensed to go solo,

so he's doing a tandem jump.

Nick's wearing the camera suit

and a fancy
Altitracker wrist computer

to log the details
of his descent.

He and Grant
are both gonna go up.

They're both gonna jump
at the same time.

And when Grant gives Nick
the signal,

he's gonna spread out
as far as possible

to see if he can slow down
his descent.

And when he gets off the plane,
I'm going to take that,

download it into a computer.

We'll have a graph
that'll tell us all the speeds.

TORY: Now, after Nick is done
with the spread-eagle position,

then he's gonna try
flapping his wings.

Is flapping your wings
gonna make you slow down more?

I don't know.

Maybe it'll take your mind
off the fact

that you're falling
without a parachute.

NARRATOR:
For a veteran skydiver,

flapping your wings
sounds a touch undignified,

but it's worth a shot.

Grant's just happy be here.

GRANT: This is one
of those great opportunities

on this show to do something
that's reasonably dangerous,

but in relative safety.

I'm very excited to try this
out again.

This will be my second sky-dive.
Hope things go great.

NARRATOR:
So do we, buddy.

When the plane hits 2 miles
high, the passengers push off.

GRANT:
[Shouting in distance]

NARRATOR:
Once the guys get situated,

Nick initiates
part one of the test...

spreading those tiny wings.

The result
is just as predicted...

Relative to Grant, he does seem
to reduce his speed.

A few seconds later, Nick tries
flapping like a giant pelican

to see if that slows him down.

GRANT: Yep.

NARRATOR: Team lmahara makes
a perfect 4-point landing.

- ARMSTRONG: [Laughs]
- NICK: Nicely done.

- You're safe and sound.
- You made it.

NARRATOR:
And our eye in the sky

has a fair idea of what worked
and what didn't.

So, he opened up his arms,
and he was gone, just like that.

So when he reset and tried to
start flapping, how did that go?

GRANT:
Yeah, I saw him come back down

when he started flapping
his arms,

and he was just falling
at the same speed I was.

NARRATOR:
To confirm Grant's account,

Kari downloads the data
from Nick's wrist computer,

and the graph
couldn't be more clear.

When Nick opened up
his camera suit

and went completely spread out
so he had the most surface area,

he slowed down
to about 114 miles an hour.

But over here, this is where
he started flapping his wings

like a cartoon
to see if he could slow down,

you know, Goofy-style.

That didn't seem to work
too well.

NARRATOR: So 114 miles per hour
looks like the speed to aim for.

But Grant's remembered
a crucial part of the story

they've overlooked,
so Tory needs to suit up.

GRANT:
We need to send Nick up again

because the myth
specifically said

the skydiver tried to land
on his feet.

In other words,

he fell spread-eagled
like the last test,

but then at the last second,
tried to land the jump,

and I'm guessing
that even if the guy

only went perpendicular
for a second or two,

it could significantly change
the speed

at which he hit the seesaw.

TORY:
All right, here we are again,

putting our lives on the line
for science.

But don't get me wrong.
I love skydiving.

But I've only been two times,
so maybe that's natural.

Ready, set...

NARRATOR: They all assume
the standard frog position.

It takes 10 full seconds and
at least 600 feet of free fall

to reach terminal velocity.

Then Nick tries going vertical.

It's harder than it looks.

A few seconds later,
he tries again.

Hopefully Nick stayed upright
long enough

for the computer to register
any change in velocity.

And if Grant was right, that
brief moment of verticality

will affect the speed at impact.

Then at the last second,
he tries to land on his feet.

He kind of closes up
into a smaller position,

and his speed shoots up
a little bit.

But since it's only 1 second, he
gets to about 122 miles an hour.

Now, that is the important
number right there

because that's gonna be
the final speed

at which he hits the seesaw.

NARRATOR: For just the second
time in Mythbusters history,

the whole team
has pulled together

to test one fantastic fable...
the skydiver who hit a seesaw

and sent a little girl
seven stories high.

If that's not too hard
to swallow,

the myth says she survived
the adventure.

But that car-park catastrophe
still haunts Adam.

It's not looking good
for this myth, man.

I mean, if our regulation seesaw
made of steel

can't come close
to handling the forces,

can't transfer the energy from
the skydiver to the little girl,

then this thing's busted
before we've seen anything fly.

Yeah, the forces involved
are really enormous,

but there's nothing stopping us
from improving on that design,

making one
that's indestructible...

a super seesaw.

We can build
the mother of all seesaws.

I love it.

And then if it holds together,
the girl might just fly.

She might.

NARRATOR:
And Jamie has some grand plans.

It may not be
the best seesaw ever...

who knows
what NASA has locked away?..

But he's aiming high.

We want to exactly be done
with delivering the load

from the incoming projectile
right before it hits the ground.

NARRATOR: But why scribble
when you've got the software

to design and test the concept?

JAMIE: We're using
SolidWorks software here,

which I've had for a while,

but I've never really been able
to use it to its full potential.

The beauty
of something like this

is that it really allows me

to push the limits
of the material and the design

because it doesn't matter
if the design

breaks on the computer.

I'll just pull up another one

and change it a little bit
and try again.

And that way,
by the time I get around

to building the real thing,
I already know it's gonna work.

NARRATOR: Jamie's decided to
build his bench in two parts,

both hinged on a pivot.

Where does that put us
as far as our yield strength?

NARRATOR:
The big picture here

is to maximize
the energy transfer

from the falling man to the girl
and to keep the seesaw intact.

So I started thinking about,
"What do I know

that is really massively strong
and lightweight?"

And so what I came up with
was a construction crane,

like this toy here.

Instead of relying on something
to not bend,

they put a cable
across the top of it

so the load that's being
experienced is on that cable,

and instead of a bending force
on this spar structure here,

you've got a compressive load.

It's hard to see here,
but the load is this way.

And so you end up with something

that's able to build
whole buildings,

and yet there's really
not a whole lot there.

NARRATOR:
The next few hours

sees Jamie and a small team
of experts refine the design.

Any kind of offset would cause
a twisting sort of a thing

that it would be a problem.

NARRATOR: While Jamie thinks
big, Adam goes small scale

to get some idea
of what to look for

when they try this again
at full force.

ADAM: Building a toy
teeter-totter is easy-peasy,

and, I don't know,
kind of wholesome, you know?

NARRATOR: Filling
a muscleman body with lead shot

is kind of strange.

But capping it off
with a baby-doll head

is just plain weird.

Still, it should do the job.

What I've got here is
a scale model of our seesaw rig.

This is our little girl,
as creepy as she looks,

and this is our skydiver,

as much as it looks
like a round ball.

They are the equivalent
weight relationship

of our real skydiver and our
real girl... about 31/2 to 1.

What I want to investigate
with this is,

what happens to her when
the skydiver hits the seesaw?

If the seesaw doesn't break,
where does she go?

What is her trajectory,

and what can I predict
about her trajectory?

NARRATOR:
So Adam starts test number one

from 10 feet up
on the scissor lift.

A plumb line indicates
the perfect drop point,

and it's bombs away.

ADAM:


[Thud, clang]

[Laughs]

Oh, God, that's one of the best
high-speed shots ever.

I dropped the weight
from about 10 feet up.

She smacked into that lamp
at a pretty high speed,

which means she's going higher
in the air

than the lead weight
is starting from.

That tells me there might really
be something to this.

NARRATOR:
So Adam installs a scale

that measures the drop height
at 6-inch intervals.



NARRATOR: He starts out
from just 30 inches.



[Laughs]

Dropping from 36 inches.

For such a simple test,

this one is giving me
tons of data... and good data.



Number one, I think
she might actually make it

to the roof of that seven-story
building or higher.

Here we go with 48.

Secondly, I'm noticing
her flight characteristics.

She is pretty much staying
in line with the seesaw...

Wow!

...either landing
where she took off from

or landing around the center
of the seesaw.

That gives me a really good bead
on where we can all safely be

when we're watching this thing
happen in full scale.

Dropped from a height
of 36 inches...

NARRATOR:
When he's done,

Adam checks the replays
to log the stats.



NARRATOR: And the big graph
confirms his optimism.

Hey, dude.
Check this out, man.

Higher.

NARRATOR: When the dots
are joined, the line

shows a compound increase
that's hard to ignore.

When I dropped the weight
from 54 inches,

she flew 8 feet into the air.

Wow.

I'm looking at this, I think
she might actually make it

to the top
of this seven-story building.

NARRATOR: But a full-scale girl
won't hit those dizzy heights

without Jamie's super seesaw.

They've got the parts, and now
they have to put it together.

ADAM: Obviously, we like the
complex engineering challenges.

"Lead Balloon."

[Laughing]

"Shredded Plane."

Yeah!

"Ping-Pong Rescue."

Yeah, it worked!

Whoo!

This is the first time
we've ever resorted

to computer simulations

for calculating the huge amounts
of energy we're dealing with.

When that skydiver
hits our seesaw,

it has to transfer
all of its energy...

all of his energy...
to the girl.

And everything
that we've done thus far

says that this will do that.

[Laughs]

I'll believe it when I see it.

This is one of two trusses
that will make the seesaw,

and even without welds on it,
it's really strong.

We're not only using
a different material.

In this case,
we're using chromoly steel.

We're using a different
configuration of it as well.

The way these joints kind of
grab all of the other members...

It's gonna be
really, really sturdy

once we get it all welded.

NARRATOR:
This thing that looks like

a maximum-security birdhouse
is, in fact, the vital fulcrum.

The trusses like this
are gonna be welded onto here,

and this is
where the pivoting happens.

It's got to be really strong
because there's gonna be

one heck of a lot of weight
hitting it.

NARRATOR: And if this
engineering marvel breaks,

the girl, just like the myth,
ain't going nowhere.

In just two days,

belief in the myth of a skydiver
hitting a seesaw

and sh**ting a small girl


We're gonna have to rethink
this thing.

NARRATOR:
...and waxed.

Wow!

NARRATOR: Jamie's super seesaw
looks promising,

but now they need to find a way

to accelerate
a full-weight dummy

to terminal velocity
and hit the target.

Okay, so now we know the speed
that Buster has to fall

to hit the seesaw...
just over 120 miles an hour.

Yeah, but there's a problem.

We need at least 600 feet
to get to that speed.

TORY:


Do you know how hard
it's gonna be to hit a target

dropping Buster from 600 feet?

Yeah, so we need to figure out
a way

that Buster could fall
faster than gravity

at a reasonable distance like


- What about bungee?
- Bungee?

Yeah, we do
like a reverse bungee

where we attach Buster
to one end of the bungee,

we anchor the other end,

then we stretch him up
and release him.

It hits the target every time.

NARRATOR:
Fresh from skydiving school,

Grant and Tory
head for the hills

to try another extreme sport.

Again, it's all in the name
of scary science.

You know, we got close
on border slingshot,

but we've never actually used
bungee in an experiment.

Yeah, it's a good idea,

but is it gonna get our skydiver
up to 122 miles an hour?

Well, you know there's
only one way to find out.

- We're gonna have to jump, huh?
- Yep.

NARRATOR:
The method behind this madness

is to see if a giant bungee cord
could work in reverse

to slingshot a skydiver simulate

to that magic mark
of 122 miles per hour.

Now, I have never bungee-jumped
myself before.

I've used it to strap things
together,

but I've never actually depended
on it to keep me from dying.

Uh...

NARRATOR: And they're both
trusting their lives

to this woman.

So, what are
these wristbands for?

Because, you know, sometimes the
bodies are horribly d*sfigured

and it's to identify them.

- Are you joking?
- I am joking.

They're actually so that we get
you in the right weight class

so that you don't get whiplash
or touch the river.

NARRATOR: After the pep talk,
McKenzie spills the figures

that have special relevance
to this myth.

On your way down, you will be
going at 68.3 miles an hour.

And then when you come back up,

you'll be going


You're coming up faster
than you went down.

NARRATOR: It's that reverse
thrust they're looking for.

One, two, you!

NARRATOR: Tory's the first
to take the plunge.

GRANT: Don't worry, buddy. It'll
all be over in a few minutes.

I know.
That's what I'm worried about.

[Groans]

Remember, go big.

You cannot dive too hard
or too far.

- Oh, man.
- Go big.

Oh, man!

NARRATOR: Or here's a thought...
Just gol

Aaaah!

Whoa-oa-oa!

NARRATOR: It sure looks like
Tory rebounded faster

than he fell.

At least he had fun.

TORY: Everything in your mind
is saying, "Don't do it."

Aaaah!

And then once you get over
that fear to do it,

then there's like this sensation

of all your guts
going into your mouth.

Aaaah!

And then you hit the bottom,
and you bounce up,

and you do it
a couple more times.

So it's like... It continues.

Aaaaaah!

NARRATOR:
And while Tory's concerned

with the state of his guts,

Kari's about to be up to
her elbows in someone else's.

This is going to be
my falling parachutist.

Now, to make him,

we need something that's
going to emulate the human body,

which is approximately 75% water
to 25% solid materials.

Now, to do that,
we're going to use an alginate.

This is used for life casting,

taking impressions when you go
to the dentist's office.

We're going to fill this
wet suit with the wet alginate

and hopefully we are going to
have the perfect analogue

for the human body
to fall on our seesaw.

NARRATOR: In short, he'll go
splat just like a real man.

And Kari's figured the average
athletic weight at 171 pounds.

KARI:
Kind of feels like guts.

And, yes, I do know
what guts feel like.

I've been on the show for years.

I believe I'm in the butter zone

for the weight
of my parachutist,

but at this point,
I can't lift any more,

and it's time to weigh in.

I need to find out
how much weight he needs

to make him perfect.

So I'm going to go look around
the shop

and see if anybody's stronger
than I am.

NARRATOR: It's Jamie's fate
to carry the load,

assuming he can lift it.

KARI: Oh, geez.
[Laughs]

- [Grunting]
- Aah!

NARRATOR:
They finally do make the scales.

Jamie's already weighed in
at 180 pounds,

so they'll subtract his bulk
from the total.

- So, how much?
- It's good.

It looks like we only need
about another 20 pounds,

and I haven't done
the feet or the hands yet,

so I think we're right
in the zone for the body.

Okay, so that was
only about what?



- Really?
- Yeah.

I'm getting old.

[Laughs]

NARRATOR: Back on the bungee
bridge, it's Grant's turn.

Yeah, I selected cremation.

- Good choice.
- Okay. Thanks.

NARRATOR: He jumps the rail,
finds the platform,

then takes a last deep breath.

[Exhales deeply]

For science.

Aaaah!

Whoa!
Oh, yeah!

[Laughs]

Whoo!

Ah!
This is the best data ever!

Whoo.

NARRATOR:
Let's hope so.

Both Grant and Tory

are trying to feel
the pulling power of the bungee.

GRANT: [Laughs]

Well, I think
this is really gonna work.

I could really feel the stretch

and the acceleration
on the way back up.

Yeah, but we're definitely gonna
have to tweak this

in order to get our skydiver
to go 122 miles an hour.

Casey.
How are you?

NARRATOR: The man who might be
able to help them out

is Casey Dale, from bungee.com.

It can be done.

It's... There's some math
involved as far as getting...

How fast do you want him to go?

We're trying to get him
up to 122 miles an hour.

So you're going
to terminal velocity?

- Exactly.
- Yeah.

I mean,
Rubber bands are rubber bands.

We can stretch
rubber band for you.

NARRATOR: We'll need his best
and biggest rubber band,

which Casey calls a mongo.

"Mongo" means a really big cord,
New Zealand-style cord,

so that it has more stretch
and rapid acceleration.

TORY: Think you'll be able to
get it up to 122 miles an hour?

Put enough rubber in, stretch it
hard enough, absolutely.

NARRATOR: Meantime,
Kari struggles to dress her man.

Ohh!

NARRATOR:
Then adds some personality.

Hey, there you go.
Now you have a head.

The better to see me with.

Put a parachute on you

and drop you out of the sky
to your death.

NARRATOR:
And he should hit a spot

that's tailor-made
for a smooth landing.

If the guy hits it
and ricochets off like this,

that's not good for us.

So we're helping it along

by squaring off that end
a little bit...

that's what this is here...

as well as really heavily
reinforcing it

so it can withstand that impact.

NARRATOR:
With the frame finished

and the parts
fitting perfectly...

ADAM: [Laughs]

- That's perfect.
- Awesome.

NARRATOR: Adam and Jamie rig
the high-strength Spectra rope.

Working just like the cables
on a crane,

this should give us
a compression,

rather than a bending load.

ADAM: [Laughing]

Well, that's just
another seesaw.

JAMIE:
That's what it is.

NARRATOR: In theory, the rope
is even stronger than the spars,

but no one knows for sure

if this amazing structure
can withstand the sudden impact.

And then there's Ariel.

Will she survive?

Will she even fly?

The big questions
and a dozen little ones

will all be answered tomorrow.

All five Mythbusters
have joined forces

to make or break
a bizarre urban legend...

the young girl who supposedly
survived a seven-story flight

from the end of a seesaw.

No surprise then
that the test venue

is a spectacle in itself...
Mare Island Naval Shipyard.

Now, the myth states that once
the skydiver hit the seesaw,

the little girl flew 70 feet up,


and landed safely
on top of a building.

Now, this works out perfectly
for us, this location,

because the dry dock
is 30 feet deep

and that scaffolding
right there is 40 feet tall.

So when we place it
on the side of the dry dock,

that is
our seven-story building.

It's our point of reference.

NARRATOR: Adam, Tory, and Grant
have arrived a day early

to make things right
for the big test.

So, you might be wondering
what these giant plates are.

Well, we can't weld
to the dry dock.

We can't drill into it.

We basically can't modify
the dry dock in any way.

But we still need
something solid

to attach our bungee cord to
and to attach the seesaw to.

So, our solution...
trench plates.

Each one of these
weighs 7,500 pounds,

and we have 2 of them
for a total of 15,000 pounds.

I think that ought to be
solid enough.

NARRATOR: While Tory
welds the plates together...

...Adam nervously considers
his next step.

ADAM: I want to make sure
that my skydiver

hits this seesaw square on.

So I'm gonna run two guide wires

that will guide him
all the way down

to hit the seesaw precisely.

I've got to weld in
their bottom points.

Then I got to walk out
to the end of the crane

and rig the spreader bar.

That should be fun.

NARRATOR: It's understood that
Adam has a strange idea of fun.

The job itself
is simple enough...

to secure a sling
over the very end of the boom.

Well, that's it.
We're fully rigged up here.

I'm gonna go down below.

- [Beeping]
- NARRATOR: Grant goes up

to attach the spreader bar
to the sling.

Getting this right

is probably the most crucial
part of the setup.

Okeydoke,
I'm gonna let it go.

It looks good.

NARRATOR: Down in the dock,
Tory welds two sturdy steel tabs

to the trench plates.

Adam fastens the wires,

then fantasizes
about being the fall guy.

So, right now I want you
to picture me

as an experimental skydiver.

I'm a wet suit
filled with dental alginate,

and I am being
reverse-slingshotted

into the ground, using
these guide wires to guide me,

falling all the way into...
bang... our seesaw

and hopefully sending
our little girl flying.

- CASEY: [Laughs]
- TORY: Casey, you made it.

NARRATOR:
With impeccable timing,

Casey arrives
with a bagful of bungee.

- TORY: Whoa!
- GRANT: Whoa!

TORY:
Look at the size of it!

GRANT: Oh, my God.
That's crazy.

TORY: So, this is
our mongo bungee cord.

It's 23 feet long

and five times thicker
than a normal bungee cord.

Now, it should be able to
stretch up to eight times

its own length before it breaks.

But we probably only need it

to stretch at three times
its own length

to get our skydiver
falling at 122 miles an hour.

NARRATOR:
They've done their sums

and found that 1,240 pounds
of stretch

should deliver the speed
they need.

But they still have to test it.

So, the first thing that goes
on the big hook is this.

It's a dynamometer,
and this tells us

exactly how much force there is
in the system.

NARRATOR: The dynamometer gets
hooked up to the quick release.

Now all we need is a body.

But they're not prepared to risk
Kari's alginate man

on a dry run.

So, for our calibration test,
we're gonna use this,

which is an inner tube
filled with sand.

And the idea is
that it weighs 171 pounds,

which is exactly the same
as our human analogue will be.

We have 171 pounds
of tire and sand

hurling towards the earth
at 122 miles an hour.

I am not really sure
what is gonna happen,

but I know
it's gonna be violent.

NARRATOR:
It will.

They'll be dealing
with huge forces from the bungee

as they try to propel the weight
smoothly down the guide wire

for a direct hit
at terminal velocity.

TORY:
You know you have a good myth

when you're excited
about the calibration tests.

NARRATOR:
Even in testing,

this is the myth
that keeps on giving.

All right,
we're at 2,240 pounds of force.

- We're ready to test this.
- Okay.

This is calibration test
number one.

Here we go.



[Laughs]

Oh, my God!

- Did you see what happened?
- Yeah!

We just ripped the inner tube!

- Yeah!
- Oh, crazy.

It kind of worked.

I mean, if this
had stayed together,

it would have been perfect.

Yeah.
The bungee cord worked.

Our guide wires worked.

GRANT: The inner tube is gonna
need a little bit of revision.

TORY: Yeah, 'cause
this is not an accurate test.

This isn't 171 pounds.

What happened was, the inner
tube that we had the sand in

ruptured immediately, which
shows you the kind of forces

that we're using to accelerate
the skydiver.

NARRATOR: The best possible
solution is simple and cheap.

TORY:
I think what we're gonna do

is take a duffel bag,
wrap it with ties,

and hopefully that will keep
the weight together

so we can get an accurate test.

[Grunting]

So, slight change of plan.

Instead of an inner tube,
we're sending our luggage.

Pull on the safety.

NARRATOR:
If the bag holds together,

they'll get a precise fix on the
speed of the falling skydiver,

and they're hoping that's very
close to 122 miles per hour.

Calibration test number two.

In 3, 2, 1!

Wh-aah!

I had a feeling
that was gonna happen.

Gah!

It just ripped
through the straps.

All right.
We're gonna have to redo it.

TORY:
So, we just did our second test.

This time
the straps on the bag broke.

So the bag
didn't even get pulled down.

It just fell down.

NARRATOR:
Worse still, the bungee cord

took a serious hit on the
carpet-covered trench plates.

- TORY: This doesn't look good.
- GRANT: Unh-unh.

Hey, Casey!

NARRATOR: Casey has the spare
parts to build one more cord,

which they'd all like to save
for tomorrow.

Still, they can't proceed
without dialing in the speed,

so it's well worth
a parting shot.

So, right now the bungee
is so damaged

that we're just gonna take it up

and the very second
that it hits the right force,

I'm gonna trigger it.

So there's no waiting around,
none of this... just go.



I got it.

NARRATOR:
Casey helps out on the launch.

And at 21.5,
Grant pushes the button.

It goes.

NARRATOR: This last calibration
test just has to work.

- Go! Hit it.
- Okay. Here we go!

- Yeah!
- Yeah!

TORY:
It worked!

It hit the target,
and the bungee didn't break.

GRANT:
That's perfect.

TORY: Now we just got to see
what our speed was.

NARRATOR:
To calculate the speed,

they carefully check
the high-speed replay

frame by frame, and
there's reason to be hopeful.

The bungee held,
and the bag fell unimpeded.

Grant does the math, and Tory
makes the big announcement.

This bungee cord is done.
We can't use it again.

We're gonna have to build a new
one when we do the final test.

But the good news is,

is we got a calibration for the
speed of our falling skydiver,

and it's exactly


We are gold.

Grant and Tory, come on down!

NARRATOR: It's the last day
of testing the "Seesaw Saga,"

and Jamie's ready
to show off his baby.

ADAM:


Ta-da!

TORY: Wow!

Oh, my God.
This is better than Christmas.

GRANT: I've never seen a seesaw
like this before.

[Laughter]

I was expecting
a giant piece of steel.

This is beautiful.
It's elegant.

It's gorgeous.

All the boys are over there
going [Giggles]

"Oh, 85,000 pounds
of foot force. Oh."

[Giggles]
"It's so cool."

It's adorable.

When you think about it,

this whole story
is just totally absurd.

I mean, a skydiver that
just happens to land dead-on

on the end of a seesaw.

A girl is on the other side.

She takes off and goes,
you know,

who knows how many stories
in the air.

It's all just, like, nuts.

It's a fantasy.

But it's what we live for,
actually on this show.

NARRATOR:
Kari's Diver Dan

makes a rock-star entrance
to the dry dock.

That's assuming the rock star
is Keith Richards.

And Jamie's found a way
to improve the energy transfer

by padding the impact zone
with foam.

We've got an awful lot of energy
coming along with that skydiver.

And if we deliver it all at once
like a hammer blow,

it's gonna put a lot more stress
on the system, on the seesaw.

So what we're doing is slowing
that delivery of energy down

because it's got to crush this
before it gets to the seesaw.

This is kind of like
the difference

between a sledgehammer
and a rubber hammer.

NARRATOR:
Tory delivers the victim.

TORY:
You're gonna be fine.

Your dad, Buster's, done it
millions of times.

NARRATOR: And Grant pulls out
the shock watches.

These stick-on patches
measure the force of impact.

If the red one triggers,
she's dead.

If the green one triggers,
she's injured and alive,

but she's not walking away.

NARRATOR:
So they're finally all set

to see if a plummeting man,

landing perfectly
on the end of a seesaw,

could really launch a 6-year-old


JAMIE:
There's no question in my mind

that there's enough energy in
the parachutist as he comes down

to throw that little girl
way, way up in the air.

And there's a host of problems
that we could have.

The dummy could just split apart

and only deliver
part of his energy.

Things could not line up
properly.

The rig could break.

And not to mention
she has to go up

pretty much straight up
in the air for this to work.

NARRATOR: Let's spare a thought
for the stunt man.

I have a feeling he's gonna do
what the average man would do

on impact from that height.

He is going to squish into
a million little, tiny pieces.

ADAM: But the myth is all about
the welfare of the girl.

Could she really survive
a seven-story springboard?

The best way to find out
is to push the button.

"Seesaw Saga," full-size test.

Grant, take it away.

Here we go.

In 3, 2, 1.

- KARI: Whoo!
- GRANT: Whoa!

- Yeah!
- [Laughter]

TORY: Did you expect that?
It didn't go up.

- It shot across the dry dock!
- Wow.

TORY:
That was cool.

The skydiver hit the seesaw.
The seesaw stayed together.

And the little girl got launched
over 55 feet in the air.

That's above the dry dock.

[Laughter]

TORY:
See, the skydiver exploded.

KARI:
One word for this... splat!

ADAM:
Looks like he landed butt-first.

His legs missed the seesaw,
but his upper torso hit it.

That's probably about 60%,


and even that amount was enough
to catapult her


and 70 feet laterally.

NARRATOR:
Grant checks the shock watches,

and the news is grim.

GRANT: Oh!

Red shock watch is tripped.

NARRATOR: Hardly surprising
when the doll was flung

high and wide
into solid concrete.

But this testing
needs more finessing.

JAMIE:
At this point,

it looks like our understanding
of the physics is correct.

The only problem that we have

is our aim of the skydiver
at the target.

NARRATOR: Little more than half
the weight hit the seesaw,

and with Dan's demise,
the inner tube gets a recall.

Hopefully it will hold together.

KARI: Now, it is the same exact
weight as the average man,

but this time we're hoping
that we'll impart

all of its energy
onto the seesaw

and fling the girl
the seven stories

that we talked about
in the myth.

GRANT:
Here we go!

In 3, 2, 1!

Yaah!

KARI: Ow!

- Didn't see that one coming.
- Yeah.

- Dang it!
- That looked very painful.

ADAM: [Laughing]

TORY: [Laughs]

She got clotheslined.

GRANT: We got a good deployment
of the sandbag,

hit the seesaw,
the girl went up,

but she got tangled
in the wires.

She's traveling
on a much greater arc

than I saw
in any of my scale tests,

and I think that's because
our seesaw's play

is much greater
than the playground seesaw.

Well, you can see the red grease
going up her shoe.

That's right where she actually
hit the guide wire.

So we're gonna have to reset
and do this one again.

ADAM: In the best
Mythbusters tradition,

the fast-setting winter sun

means this next attempt
is absolutely our last one.

It's now or never.

Let's go up.

NARRATOR: They can
only cross their fingers

and hope that this time,
the girl misses the guide wire.

GRANT:
Here we go!



[All cheering]

- Oh, my God!
- Touchdown!

NARRATOR:
Well, Jamie said it would work.

MAN: Oh!

NARRATOR: The skydiver simulate
did hit 122 miles per hour.

And despite
the colossal sideways arc,

little Ariel flew way higher
than anyone dared to hope.

ADAM: She flies about level
with our spreader bar,

and that's 130 feet.

JAMIE:
That's 13 stories.

And that was
with an angle like this.

If we'd got her to go
straight up,

she would have cleared 200,
easy.

NARRATOR: This myth
sounded totally improbable

from the get-go.

But Jamie and Adam
kept the faith.

The fact is, normally
when we're testing myths

that have to do with
broad guesses about physics,

they're usually grossly
overestimating what's possible,

and in this case,
we've come across a myth

where the physics
are grossly underestimated.

JAMIE: If you had
an impossibly strong seesaw

and if you had a parachutist

that didn't just go splat
when he hit it,

you'd be capable of launching
a little girl

up at least 13 stories
in the air.

NARRATOR:
So, how do we call it?

Well, sad to say, it's busted.

Jamie built
the best possible seesaw

and almost doubled
the seven-story flight.

But that little girl would be
just as dead as the skydiver.

I've reviewed
the high-speed footage,

and I've calculated
that the little girl

was subjected to 42 G's,

which means, well,
she was likely injured

just from her launch
from the seesaw.

And her landing...
That's a whole other thing.

[All cheering]

Oh, my God.
That's how far she went?

Nice work.

We wanted seven stories.
I think she delivered.

High fives.

I think our work here is done.