07x22 - Hidden Nasties

[bunniefuu]

Attention, viewers.

Do not try anything you are
about to see at home.

We're what you call
experts.

Narrator: On this episode
of "Mythbusters,"

Adam and Jamie
go on a grime wave

with two
frightfully filthy fables.

That is nasty.

Narrator: First, they call in
the rat pack.

Oh, I see some rat urine
on a can.

For the terrible tale that rat
pee on a pop can can k*ll.

Oh, this one
is so gross!

Then they test the myth

that everyday items are dirtier
than your toilet seat.

Mary had a little lamb.

Its fleece was white as snow.

Narrator:
Meanwhile, Jessi, Tory,
and Grant cut to the chase...

Why'd you stop?
You were supposed to skip it.

Narrator: As they find out
if a souped-up supercar...

That's a fast car!

Narrator:
...can bounce across the surface
of a lake like a skipping stone.

We're like
Thelma and Louise!

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage...

[laughs]

...and Jamie Hyneman.

Relax.
This won't hurt a bit.

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

Joining them...
Tory Belleci...

[screams]

...Grant Imahara...

We're good to go.

...Kari Byron...

That is terrifying!

...and featuring
Jessi Combs.

This is gonna be so rad!

They don't just tell
the myths.

They put them to the test.

What do you got there,

a story
about very small things?

Yep.

We're talking about millions
of tiny organisms

that you come into contact with
every day.

But some of them could have
a nasty surprise waiting for you

and be really harmful.

I got one
that fits that bill.

I got
a chain letter recently

that stated a woman had died
from a deadly pathogen

she contracted drinking
from a soda can

tainted with rat urine.

That's exactly
what I'm talking about.

Well, let's get to it.

Okay.

Wherever there are rats,
filth follows.

But are soda cans really
contaminated by rat pee?

And, if they are, could drinking
directly from the can be deadly?

So, how do you want to
test this?

Well, you know,
this myth is so pervasive,

we need to get it right.

And that means we need to have
a nice, large sample size.

Okay.

And I think we should start
with a positive pee control

so that we know
what rat urine looks like,

we know how to test for it,

we know how to know
when it's there.

And we need to just get
a whole passel of rats,

a bunch of cans,

and let nature
take its course, huh?

Is "passel" the collective noun
for rats?

I don't know.

Well, actually, it's a horde,
swarm, rabble, or pack of rats.

But before they get started...

But I don't understand.

How is it possible
that rat pee could k*ll you?

Yes, it's not rat pee itself
that could k*ll you.

It's the fact that rat pee
could potentially carry

both leptospirosis
and hantavirus

that makes it
potentially dangerous.

I see.

According to this myth,

deadly pathogens transfer
from rat through rat urine

to soda can,
and from there, to people.

So first, they're starting
with a positive control.

Now, normally, we certify our
tasty, tasty Mythbusters cola

as both a life-extending elixir
and rat-pee free.

Until today.

Today, 1,000 of these puppies

are gonna be set up as a rat run

to be used as what we like
to call a control

for exposure to rat pee.

Narrator:
Adam and Jamie will hone their
rat-pee-tracking technique

before moving on
to test real-world soda cans.

So, why go to all this trouble
to clean the cans

just to have rats
pee on them?

Well, it's because all we want
to find is rat pee,

not random dirt
or other false positives

that may be introduced
into our test.

So, we scrub
every single one.

And I got to say,
looking at 1,000 cans,

there's a lot of dirt
to be cleaned up.

Now that the cans
are pristine,

let the rodent
incontinence begin.

Oh, I see some rat urine
on a can.

Nice!

This is awesome.

Jamie:
This is one of those sounds

that you'll only hear
on "Mythbusters"...

the sound of 40 rats
on 1,000 cans.

[Light scratching]

[Laughs]

Narrator:
And after 90 minutes of the
pitter-patter of ratty feet...

The rat party
is wrapped.

[Laughs]

Let's put them back
in their cages.

There's certainly rat pee
on those cans.

And the first tracking
technique... black light.

Did you know that rat pee
fluoresces under black light?

[Squeaking]

That's the next thing
we're gonna do.

Get some black lights
and go take a look for 'em.

[Squeaking]

I feel like I'm in one of those
police procedural dramas.

Narrator: And with plenty
of glowing puddles...

Jamie:
It's got to be urine.

Lights up
like a pinball machine.

Oh!
This one is so gross!

Look at that!

[Laughs]

...the boys are positive
that the black light

is the perfect way
to pinpoint the pee.

Well, that's gross.

I guess it's time to collect our
real-world random samples now.

Well, we better get started.

We've got 1,000 cans to collect
from all over the city.


Okay, let's do it.

With their identification method
lighting up the pee,

the main test begins

as the guys collect 1,000 cans
from a variety of sources,

and a variety
of storage conditions...

some upmarket,
some, uh... not so much.

All set?

Ooh.

Uh, check this out, man.

First can, I see little
fluorescing spotty spots.

That's a good sign.

I'm gonna put that in...
no, it's a bad sign!

I'm gonna put it in the
"for further research" category.

A sign that gets worse
with every can.

Spots.

Ooh.

Ugh, spots.

The whole world
is contaminated!

Spots.

What are we gonna do,
dude?

I mean, these can't be
all contaminated, can they?

Narrator: Next, a myth
that's sink or "skim."

[Imitating car engine]

Well, you guys
may have figured out by now

that, well, me and cars,
we kind of have this thing.

And there's a myth on
the fan site that I
really want to test out.

All right, what is it?

Are you familiar
with the "Cannonball" films?

Sure.
From the '80s, right?

Okay, so, it's the
third installment that
our myth comes from.

The beginning of the movie,
there's a red Lamborghini

that is trying to evade
the cops.

Well,
there's a lot of speeding

and a lot of weaving
and trickery.

But, man, the cops are not
going to accept defeat.

So what the sports-car driver
does is he drives off the road

and heads straight
towards the lake.

He totally floors it,
skips across the water,

makes it to the other side,
and gets away from the cops.

- Exactly.
- I love it.

Fast car
skipping across the water?

You should come here
more often.

Narrator:
To flee the force,

a speedy sports car
skips the lake fantastic.

But is this filming fantasy
or stone-fold fact?

Could a 1.2- Ton car

really skim a pond
like a skipping stone?

So, what's the plan?

I have watched the scene
over and over in slow motion,

and what I have found,

that by watching
frame by frame

and measuring points
of reference,

the car wasn't going very
fast... maybe 50 miles an hour.

It went off
a little launch

and skipped about four times
over a 100-foot body of water.

Okay,
sounds easy enough.

We get a Lamborghini,
drive it at 50 miles an hour,

and see if it can skip
across 100 feet of water.

Who is gonna let us borrow their
$250,000 car

and drive into a lake
to test this?

I mean,
it's not gonna happen.

This isn't
gonna be easy.

Narrator:
No, it's not.

But although you can't always
get what you want,

sometimes,
you get what you need.

What in the heck
did she get that for?

That doesn't look like
a Lamborghini.

Yeah, far from it.

Supercar it ain't, but it's
still a perfect stunt stand-in.

On price tag and top speed,
the luxury car has ours beat.

But for this myth,
what's key is that

the surface area, weight,
and weight distribution

are almost identical.

But because nobody
is volunteering

to drive it into a lake,

our resident control geek
gets to work.

I got a plan.
I got a plan.

Narrator: With Grant's
remote control under control,

Tory's talking tracks.

Now, for this myth as well as
the car, we need two things.

One, we need
a long, straight road

that we can get this car up
to some pretty high speeds.

And two,
at the end of that road,

we need a 100-foot pond for
this car to try to skip across.

Now, we've looked
all over San Francisco.

We've looked all over
California.

And we've come up with nothing,

which means only one thing...
road trip, baby.

Wouldn't it have been easier
if we could fly?

Narrator: With local lakes
few and far between,

the team hits the road
to a familiar location.

[Horn honks]

The last time the team visited
the test track of Freightliner,

they put some big-rig myths
to the test.

With open space
and miles of trackway,

it was the perfect place to
put their lives on the... what?

[Adam laughs]

And this time, they've added
a crucial addition

to the end of the track...
a giant purpose-built pond

ideal for a sports car to skip.

Only not this one.
This is just for show.

[Tires squealing]

Why'd you stop?
We're supposed to skip it.

Yeah, but that's why we have
make-believe Lamborghinis.

Grant:
Where did you get that car?

Well, a good friend
let me borrow it.

Forget the car.
What do you think
about our pond?

This is a gorgeous pond.

It's a little bit bigger
than I thought it was gonna be.

Yeah, we made it to the same
dimensions as in the movie...


and 3 feet deep.

Narrator: Yep,
with a perfect pond to skim,

Tory and Jessi break out
the heavy machinery.

Jessi: All right,
so now what we're doing here

is we are building a little ramp

before we actually
hit the water.

Why? Because that's
what they had in the movie.

We can look at it as close
as we possibly can,

and that Lamborghini
had a little bit of lift

before it went
across the water.

Narrator:
A little lift that equates to a
movie-matching 8-inch mound.

With that time-lapsed
into place,

Jessi casts the first stone.

Now, this whole myth
is about skipping a car

across the water like a stone.

I'm sure you've all
tried it before.

If you get a smooth enough stone
and you fling it just right,

it'll actually bounce
across the water surface.

But why?

Well, it's all about
spin and speed.

The spin of the stone
stabilizes it

and stops it from simply
falling into the water.

And if the stone is traveling
at a fast enough speed,

then each time it hits the water
surface and pushes some

of the water downwards,
the stone is forced upwards,

so the stone continues
to skip along the surface

until, eventually,
it runs out of speed and sinks.

Narrator: So if skimming
is all down to spin and speed,

will a car
that isn't revolving skip?

There's something that doesn't
look quite right with this car.

It doesn't look fast enough.

That's a fast car.

We are ready to find out
if this car is gonna skip.

[Creak!]

Is it gonna work?

Probably not.

What I think is gonna happen
is it might skip once.

Maybe. Probably not.
Probably not.

It's not gonna make it
to the end, either way.

Narrator: Well, all
is about to be revealed.

As Jessi heads
to her vantage point,

a clearly excited Grant
starts the engines.

[Engine turns over]
The car is on!

This is it, you guys!

And Tory gives the countdown.

Tory: The car skip
just like in the movie.

Here we go.

In 3, 2, 1.

Hit it.

Narrator: Dirty rats!

They're everywhere.

But are these crafty rodents

leaving disease-ridden
calling cards on soda cans?

Well, after examining 1,000 cans
from all over San Francisco...

I'm starting to lose
my appetite.

...Adam and Jamie
are worried.

So where does this leave us?

Am I lying on a mountain
of rat-pee-infested cans?

Are we gonna need to add it as
an ingredient on every soda can?

Or...

Did we just happen to see

a bunch of other
run-of-the-mill things

that happen to fluoresce
under black light?

Well, the only way
we're gonna know

is by taking testing
to another level.

Clearly, we need to swab the top
of our sample

and take it to a lab

and find out what's
on top of them for sure.

Narrator: First up

is the rat-pee-positive


I'll tell you one thing...

I am never letting my rats
play on my soda cans again.

The things you learn
on this show.

Using a sterile swab
dipped in sterile water,

each can is swabbed, and then
a vacuum extracts the sample.

I got to tell you.

This may be boring,
and it may be painful,

but it's also really cool.

Yeah, this is so much fun
I can hardly stand it.

Oh! Oh-h*-h*-h*!

Oh, it's like a concentrated
pet store.

That's what that
smells like.

[Laughs]

Narrator: The lab should show
that their positive control

is brimming with rat pee.

But will the random cans
also have rodent remains,

or did the black light
get it wrong?

You got to try the one-handed
bag-opening can flip

I got going on over here,
Jamie.

It's really saving me time.

I can see that.

[Laughs]

That is my last can.

I'm done.
I'll see you later.

Okay.

Narrator: Eventually,
with both samples collected,

the Mythbusters
head to Stanford University...

- Thank you, sir.
- You're welcome.

...where Chris Adams
and his mass spectrometer

find out
just how the two compare.

This meticulous machine

will detect exactly
what each sample contains...

rat pee or otherwise.

The results are in.

- We're done?
- The results are here.

Narrator: First up
is the positive control.

We identified 15 proteins
specific to rat urine

in the positive control
samples.

Urinary proteins.
That would be rat pee.

- That's rat pee.
- Okay.

But what about...
[drumming]

...the reason we're here?

Yeah, was there any urine
on the random sample?

Absolutely none detected.

The real-world cans
are clean!

They are!

That is a load
off my mind.

Let's go get
some sodas.

Narrator: Turns out
the black light had it wrong.

That glowing organic matter?

Not rat pee, but harmless dust.

The mass spectrometer, however,
is completely precise.

This machine is capable
of detecting peptides

on a femtomole level.

Something like one
in a bazillion.

Or, in other words,
it's extremely sensitive.

So if it says rat urine's
not there, it ain't there.

Narrator:
But, given that millions
of sodas are drunk every day,

Jamie's not prepared to call
this without a second opinion.

He wants to find out
if you could ever contract

a deadly pathogen
via a soda can.

So, how likely is it

you could catch
one of these bugs in this way?

Highly unlikely.

In the case of leptospirosis,
number one,

the usual route of transmission
is through broken skin

that comes in contact with
contaminated bodies of water.

Number two, the organism,
when ingested orally,

is rapidly k*lled
in the stomach.

So, finally,
leptospira is highly fragile,

and it is rapidly k*lled

when it's exposed
to a dried environment.

Narrator:
So even if infected urine
did make it onto a soda can,

the pathogen would be long dead
before anyone took a swig.

Hey, so what'd he say?

Well, according
to the good doctor,

catching hantavirus
or leptospirosis

from rat pee on soda cans
is all but impossible.

Well, that's great.

You couple that
with our results

where we found not a smidgen
of rat protein whatsoever

on 1,000 randomly
collected cans,

and I think we can
call this one...

Busted.

Yeah, busted.

Narrator: Usually, when a car
drives into water,

it does anything but skip.

But according to this myth,

a supercar can leap a lake
in four bounds.

And at Freightliner H.Q.,

our intrepid trio is about
to put that to the test.

The car is on.

Tory: Here we go.

We are about ready
to take this

and do exactly like they did
in the movie,

going 50 miles an hour,
launching off the ramp,

and "skipping" it across water.

Here we go.

In 3, 2, 1.

Hit it.

Narrator: Grant's actuators
put the pedal to the metal,

and the mustard menace
takes off.

As the car gains speed,

Grant expertly steers it
straight down a guideline.



Until...



[Laughter]

With a hop, a flip, and a thump,

the car crosses the pond,
but not quite as hoped.

That car didn't skip...
it flipped!

[Laughter and cheers]

Oh, my gosh.

That was insane.

Look at what it did, though.

It actually made it
to the other side of the pond.

Grant: That's not
how it's supposed to do it!

Wow.

Oh, wow. Oh, my God,
we destroyed this car.

Now, we matched pretty much
every aspect of the movie...

the ramp, the speed,
the specifications of the car...

and we got a completely
different result.

What this means is that
the movie stunt was faked,

that it wasn't
a real skip across a lake.

Now, the most likely scenario

is that there was
a submerged platform

just a few inches below
the surface of the water

that the car
actually bounced across.

In addition, in the movie,

the car lands
on its rear wheels first.

The only way it could have
gotten that trajectory

is if it were specifically
weighted for the stunt.

Our car, on the other hand,
was weighted to match a stock,

off-the-lot


and it plummeted nose-first.

All this to say,
however you look at it,

this myth is busted.

Narrator:
Busted indeed.

But surely they're not gonna
leave it there.

Next, Adam and Jamie
go on a "grime" wave.

"Relative Filth...
The Myth and the Plan,"

take one.

Dude, this one's yours.
You're leading this one in.

- Can you remind me?
- Yeah.

- Most people think their
toilet seats are pretty dirty.
- Yeah.

This myth states that that's not
necessarily the case,

that there are many other
locations and things

within your average person's
immediate vicinity

that are far filthier
than your toilet seat.

That's
what we're gonna test.

We're gonna pick a bunch
of different places, go out,

take samples, grow cultures,
compare the results,

see what happens,
that kind of thing.

Exactly.
Shall we start?

- Yeah.
- Okay.

Narrator: It seems every week
there's a new claim

about hidden household hazards.

But are the microscopic critters
on everyday items

more menacing
than the beastly bugs

found on the old
porcelain throne?

Well, the Mythbusters
are on the "swab."

But where to start?

Now, you may be wondering,

what are the criteria under
which we chose the samples

that we are just about to test,

and it's actually pretty
straightforward...

we looked for objects
that you touch every single day

that others might touch, too.

Narrator: Great. But since germs
aren't visible to the naked eye,

we'll need a way
to track them down.

Allow me to demonstrate our
sample collection methodology.

It begins with a dry
cotton-tipped applicator,

with which I swab
a one-inch square

of the object in question.

In this case, it's a scale model
of the lunar lander.

Then, I dip that cotton swab
in tryptic soy broth

for exactly 10 seconds.

This is basically like a growth
medium, sterile growth medium.

It's a liquid petri dish,
if you will.

At the end of 10 seconds,
which is... now,

I remove the cotton swab,
cap and label my soy broth.

Later, I'll use it to try
and grow some bacteria.

Yuck!

If you'll excuse me, I've got
some samples to collect.

First up, our yard stick...
the toilet seat.

Mary had a little lamb.

Its fleece was white as snow.





Jamie: Money.

Mary had a little lamb.
His fleece was white as snow.

Narrator:
They're not regressing.

The rhyme ensures
that each sample

is swabbed for the same count.

Shopping-cart handle.

Mary had...
Kitchen sponge.

Narrator: Everything they swab
has one thing in common...

Jamie:
...had a little lamb.

Hotel room remote.

Narrator:
In a plethora of reports,

they've all been deemed dirtier
than a toilet seat.

Keyboard.

Light switch.

Narrator:
But can that really be true?

Cellphone.

Hold on a second.

With the everyday eight
collected,

the guys call in
Dr. Russell Vance,

an expert in microbiology.

You guys ready?

- Ready.
- Then let's begin.

Okay.
Number one, toilet seat.

Narrator: A precisely pipetted
amount of each broth

is carefully transferred
onto an agar petri dish.

Into the incubator
they go.

They'll sit there overnight
at 98.6 degrees.

Narrator:
And tomorrow, after a steamy
night of bacteria breeding,

there should be plenty
of germy growths.

Let's go.

The colonies that are growing
in there could be anything.

They could be yeast, mold,
bacteria, whatever.

So what we're gonna do
is we're gonna count and record

the different types of colonies

and also the overall
abundance of them.

And based on that,
we'll pick the dirtiest ones.

I see two.

That's it?
Just two from the toilet seat?

Just two.

This is already
getting interesting.

Narrator: The toilet seat
is remarkably clean.

But that's not so true
of the others...

particularly the kitchen sponge.

Oh-h*-h*!

Dude!
That is nasty!

[Laughs]

Have fun counting that.
I'll see you next summer.

Yeah.

Well, we don't have that long,
so Dr. Vance has a solution.

I think it's almost
uncountable.

So, then how do you
write that down?

Well, I would say
that's just off the charts.

Narrator:
The remaining six samples,
from cellphone to light switch,

are counted and logged.

Well...

That's it.
All present and ac-count-ed for.

Narrator: Which means
it's time to sum up the results.

So, our everyday eight swabs
have become eight petri dishes,

which in turn
have yielded eight results.

And those results are,

in order from least filthy
to most filthy...

Can you editors help me out
with a graphic here?

That's better.

So, you can see, at number 8,
with only 2 colonies,

is the toilet seat.

And the colony-count increases
only slightly

until we reach number 4,
the keyboard, with 65.

From there on, things start
to get really dirty

as the colonies
go through the roof,

with the light switch
and the money

before finally,
topping the chart,

we have the kitchen sponge,
a sample so numerous

we couldn't even count it.

So, does this mean
that the kitchen sponge

is the dirtiest thing
in your house?

Well, it actually all depends

on what your definition
of "dirty" is.

I mean, sure,
there's a ton of colonies,

but suppose those colonies
are all totally harmless,

whereas the two colonies
we found on the toilet seat

are really nasty?

What we need to know now
is what we're looking at

on those petri dishes.

Luckily, we found a
microbiologist to help us out.

Narrator:
Yep, it's over to Dr. Vance...

- There you go.
- Fabulous.

...to find out exactly what
kinds of ghastly germs

lurk within our everyday eight.

Can a car skip a pond
like a skimming stone?

No, apparently not.

But, of course, the Mythbusters
never leave any stone unturned.

All right, so the scene
as portrayed in the movie

is busted.

A car going that fast,
hitting that ramp...

there's no way
it would skip to freedom.

But that's got me thinking...
I wonder what it would take

for a sports car
like that to make it

all the way across
the water surface by skipping?

Well, that's why we have
our patented small scale here

at "Mythbusters."

We'll take a 1/12 scale car,
a 1/12 scale pond,

we'll fiddle around with
the parameters until it works,

and then we'll take it
full scale.

And those parameters
include

presence or absence
of the ramp...

What are we waiting for?
Let's go!

...speed.
Don't forget the speed.

Narrator:
And to find out exactly what
it will take to skip a car,

first, they'll need
a scale vehicle.

So what I have here
is a 1/12 scale Lamborghini.

It's an exact replica
in every detail

except for one... the weight.

They did not
scale their weight correctly.

All right, so, right now,
this weighs 4 pounds.

I need to get it to 2 pounds.

This is a pretty nice car.

It kind of pains me to do this.

Look at the detail
on this thing.

Narrator: It's a little
auto shop of horrors

as Tory strips his teeny turbo
down to 2 pounds.

You're probably thinking
to yourselves,

"Uh, it's not
aerodynamic anymore."

Well, this is how I'm gonna
take care of that problem.

I'm gonna use some tape
to cover up all the holes.

And that way, it'll remain
aerodynamic and light.

Narrator:
So with a streamlined supercar,

how's the small scale
gonna go down?

So, I had this car jacked up.

All you need to do
is hit the gas

and then stick this car
underneath the wheel,

which will fire it out
just like a baseball
pitching machine.

It'll go down the track,
into the trough,

and skip across the water.

At least, that's the plan.

I haven't really
tested this yet.

Narrator: As a final touch,
Tory adds a bike speedometer

to track the speed of the car
when it's pushed into the wheel.

First things first, we're gonna
set it up just like in the movie

with a slight ramp
and a scale car

going at a scale


Here we go.
In 3, 2, 1!

Wow.
That was exciting.

Narrator: Maybe not, but off
the ramp at 50 miles per hour,

the car noses into the water,
just like the full-scale.

All right, so my theory is that
we need to ditch the ramp

and have the car come into
the water at a lower angle.

So for this next test,
we're gonna do it at myth speed.


speed of 14 miles an hour.

And we won't have the ramp.

So we'll see if it works
any better.

Tory: 3, 2, 1.

Whoo.

That was cool.

Narrator:
Indeed it was.

That was a small-scale car skip.

Now, without the ramp,
going at 50 miles an hour,

the car skipped.

Eventually, it sank,
but it did skip.

So it's obvious that the ramp
is a hindrance.

The shallower the angle
of attack, the better it is.

And I think if we get the car
going fast enough,

we're gonna get
that little Lamborghini

to skip the whole way.

Well, for kicks and giggles,
should we try and go faster?

- Like 100 miles an hour?
- Yeah.

Yeah!

Hit it.





Oh-h*-h*!
Holy crap!

Narrator: Tory's right.

At 100 miles per hour, the model
car skips and would skip again,

except it runs out of trough.

Tory:
Check out this high-speed.

At 28 miles an hour,

which is 100 miles an hour
for a real car,

the car is skipping
across the water,

which means speed is gonna be
a huge factor

when we go to do this
full scale.

But this is just small scale.

This is a toy
we're using right now.

When we go to full scale, using
a car weighing 2,600 pounds,

who knows what's gonna happen.

Narrator: Dirt.
It's everywhere.

You can't run,
and you can't hide.

But is there more frightening
filth lurking

on everyday items
than on your toilet seat?

Adam and Jamie are finding out,
and the results are in.

For those of you
playing at home,

it is finally time to count down
the everyday eight.

Now, this is the table
based solely on colony count.

And as you can see,
kitchen sponge, off the charts,

is the filthiest thing we found.

Toilet seat... the cleanest.

But check out
what happens to this list

when we account not only for the
number of bacterial colonies,

but also for how nasty
they might be.

Toilet seat moves up
a couple of notches,

specifically because
while it only had two colonies,

those colonies were actually
pretty nasty.

The other big movers,
hotel remote control moved down

because it had some colonies,

but they weren't actually
bacteria.

And the cellphone moved up

because what was on it
was pretty nasty.

But, staying strong at number 1,

kitchen sponge,
which had acine...

This stuff,
which is apparently pretty bad

if you have
a weakened immune system.

James Franklin Hyneman,
what do you think?

Nice work. But I don't think
we can call it yet.

I mean, it's only
a single, solitary swab.

We need
a larger sample size.

All right.

Well, what say we choose
the top five...

toilet seat as a control,
plus the four top contenders,

and do a really nice
large sample size with those.

- Our filthy five.
- Works for me.

Narrator:
So, to expand their sample size,

they're off to U.C. Berkeley,
where a class of microbiologists

are about
to start Mythbusting 101.

Hello.

All: Hello.

We need your help.

We've selected
several surfaces

that we're calling
the filthy five.

Now, these are surfaces that
people come into contact with

on a daily basis,

and the question we need to
answer is, how dirty are they?

That's where you come in.

Now, in order to get
a nice, big, fat sample size,

we need 50 of you to collect us
samples from the following...

Toilet seat,
a light switch,

a kitchen sponge,
money,

and a computer keyboard.

Can you guys help us?

All: Yes!

Awesome.

And with a hunger
for the filthy five facts,

our mob of microbiologists
quickly get the swab done.

Mary had a little lamb.
Its fleece was white as snow.

Narrator: Then, once again,
the samples are transferred

to the petri agar,
incubated, counted,

and finally DNA tested.

Want more?

Log on to
discovery.com/mythbusters.

Go!

Narrator: So far,
in the "Cannonball Run" caper,

we've seen a spectacular flip,
but there's been no skip.

But after small-scale success,
this myth is far from "sunk."

In the small-scale tests,

we did learn a couple
of important things.

Yeah, first thing is that
the ramp has got to go.

We need to glide
onto the water surface

as seamlessly as possible.

So the ramp is out.

And also, speed is a very
important factor here.

The faster the car is going,

the better chances it has
of getting across the pond.

Now, how fast
are we talking?

- Are we talking
rocket fast?
- No.

It's actually surprising
how little speed we need.

All we would have to do
is get another sports car,

take it to the max,

and it should make it
across the water.

But just in case, why don't
I add some nitrous

just for
the extra little kick?

Perfect.

Wait. Yes.

I think I see some
radio controlling in my future.

It's like
you're a mind reader.

Narrator: Yep,
Grant's the controlling type,

and luckily, the team has found
just the thing for test two.

So, we pretty much know what
went wrong with the first car.

Believe it or not, we got a
second car of the same vintage,

and this one is as good as gold.

In fact, it is gold.

But before we can take it back
to madras for a second try,

we've got to do a little
radio-control magic.

Now, after its trip
across the water,

I managed to salvage
the control system...

And here it is.

Now all I have to do is
install this in the second car,

and we'll be ready to go.

Since I've already done this
once, it should be pretty easy.

Narrator: Once again,
it's a simple setup

of servo, cylinders, and wiring.

Which one is it?

The brown wire,
the other brown wire,

or the other other brown wire?

Narrator: And while Grant's
installing his system,

Jessi is giving
the horsepower a boost.

Okay. So what we have here
is a normal engine.

Air comes in, mixes with fuel,

and then is dispersed down
into the cylinders.

Now, we need this little engine

to go as fast as we can
possibly make it go.

So we're gonna be
adding nitrous.

Now, what nitrous does
is it's added into the mixture,

helping cool it down,
giving it a more dense charge.

It adds more oxygen,

all of this making the rate
of combustion happen

a whole lot faster,
which, in turn,

makes this little car go
as fast as we want it to go.

[Intensely]
You know what would make
this car more awesome?

Flames.

'Cause everybody knows that cars
with flames are more awesome.

See? I told you.

Narrator: While flames
undoubtedly add style,

Jessi's NOS system
will add much-needed speed.

All right, being the fact
that this is an older car,

it's not gonna want
to get up to the speeds

that we really want it to.

So adding this nitrous
is definitely gonna help us

get across that water.

Especially by looking
at all of our past tests,

we need as much speed
as we can get.

So this is just gonna be
one of those added benefits.

So basically, all I got to do
is hook up the nitrous,

tap into the fuel line
to wire it,

and it's ready to go.

It's very, very simple.

Okay, so the car
is looking great.

The radio system's in.

Jessi's added the sheet metal on
the bottom to reduce the drag,

and the NOS system
to increase the speed,

and Tory has finished
the nose cone.

Now all we have to do
is go back to Oregon

and see once and for all
if we can get a car to skip.

What could possibly go wrong?

This ain't built for comfort,
that's for sure.

But, man,
it sure looks good.

They've souped up
their supercar

to give it the best chance
of a skip.

But there's still one more
modification to make.

The first thing I have to do
is get rid of this ramp.

I'm gonna get my big digger

and knock this thing
out of here.

Narrator:
Counterintuitively,

ramping up this test
means getting rid of the ramp.

Who said TV's not glamorous?

Pfft!

This little wire right here?

This is the "go, baby, go" wire.

Now, my only concern
is that this system

gives out over a 100 horsepower
boost to the engine.

That's basically doubling
this little guy's horsepower.

So my concerns lie in the fact

of possibly blowing up before
it actually hits the water.

But I have faith

that it's actually gonna make it
all the way.

Mostly.

Narrator:
Thanks to the nitrous,

it'll be traveling at twice
the speed of the last test.

And if the car
is traveling fast enough,

each time it hits the surface,
forcing water downward,

the opposing force of the water
pushing up on the car

should propel it forward.

At least, that's the theory.

Nitrous bottle
is now open.

System engaged.

Nothing's gonna happen
until you push your "go" button.

- All right.
- All right.

No turning back now.

Narrator: Grant nervously makes
his last-minute checks,

and then it's go time.

All right,
time to turn on the car.

[Engine turns over]

Grant: The vehicle
is in drive.

Yay!

Okay.

Ahh.

Dude,
has it hit you yet?

We are about to skip a car
across a pond!

This is crazy, man!

This is totally,
totally crazy.

We're like
Thelma and Louise!

We are?

I just say dumb things
when I'm excited.

[Laughs] Okay.

In 3, 2, 1.

Hit it.

Okay, brakes off.

And... here we go.

Narrator:
It's make or break time.

Grant builds up the speed,

then presses
the "go, baby, go" button.

Here goes the nitrous.

The car surges forward,

and then when it reaches
the edge of the lake,

physics take over.

- Yeah!
- Yeah!

[Laughter]

We skipped a car
across a lake!

Yeah!!

The Mythbusters
understandably

can't contain their excitement.

That was a full-scale
car skip.

The high speed shows
the supercar skipped twice

across the 100-foot lake

and then continued to drive
on the far bank.

That is, until Grant remembers
to apply the brakes.

Yes!

It's crazy.

I was piloting in the car.

We hit the water.
I saw a big splash.

Like, okay, we hit the water.

And then the water went down,

and the car was still driving
on the other side!

We did it! We skipped!

[Laughs]

And this little guy!
I'm so proud of it!

I am so proud of it...
we doubled its horsepower.

More than doubled
its horsepower.

And it's still running.

Look!

I'm so happy.

We did it!

We set out to skip a car,
and we actually did it!

I mean, the small scale
said it would work,

but we didn't believe it.

But we brought it out here,
and it did it!

It did exactly
what the small scale did!

Seeing is believing.

I can't get over this.

We actually skipped a car
across a pond.

It's so awesome
that they're both still running.

I can't believe
it worked!

I know.
We got our car to flip and skip.

All right,
last one to the shop!

[Laughter]

I know a shortcut!

Go, go, go, go, go!

Whoo-hoo!

Eat our dust!

You guys,
that was pretty awesome.

I have never seen anything
like that before.

I mean, we totally
replicated the result

and we got a car
that weighs over a ton

to bounce across the surface
of a pond.

I know. And how cool
was that high speed?

Absolutely.

But you know,
the most amazing thing

is how little
it actually took to do it.

I mean, that was
a 15-year-old car

going a little bit more
than highway speed.

No rockets,
no special tires,

no ramp,
and no underwater platform.

And it skipped
across the lake.

Just like the small scale
said it would.

I agree. However,
I'm with Grant...

I just cannot believe
how easy it was to do.

In fact, it's so easy,

I think
we really need to stop and say

do not try this at home.

Yes.

But let's keep in mind,
the movie is still busted.

Of course!

Going 50 miles an hour
with a ramp,

and you're going for a swim.

Yeah, but you get rid
of that ramp,

you put the pedal
to the metal,

and you just might
make it home safe and dry.

Yep.
You know what I think?

I think we need to look at that
high speed shot one more time.

Narrator: Absolutely.

'Cause with results like these,

we're, uh,
skipping over ourselves

to show you them again.

But spectacular
high-speeds aside,

let's not forget
that there's another dirty story

awaiting conclusion.

And after a swath of swabs,

and a deluge of DNA tests,

that conclusion
is at last cooked.

Ladies and gentlemen,

it is finally time
for the filthy five countdown.

In order
from cleanest to dirtiest,

and starting at number five,
we have the light switch.

Number four, our control,
the toilet seat.

Number three... the keyboard.

Number two... money.

And the number-one
dirtiest thing

of everything that we tested,

he's back on top after a year
of hard training...

Jamie, come on in
and name number one.

[Ding]

Jamie:
The kitchen sponge.

Where does that leave us?

Well, given the myth
that there are everyday things

in your house that are far
filthier than your toilet seat,

I'd say
it's totally confirmed.

Confirmed it is.