Mythbusters:- Educational or nonsense

[sjastro]

I must admit even though Mythbusters is not the most scientifically rigorous program around is does provide entertainment.

Some of the investigations however are just plain stupid, particularly viewer requests based on "Hollywood" science.

An example is the attempt to curve a bullet in flight by waving a pistol around before firing it. Any reasonably intelligent 8 year old would probably know the answer without requiring a demonstration.

Do people take Mythbusters seriously or like me turn their brains off and have a good laugh at the sometimes unintentional pseudoscience.

My inspiration was Professor Julius Sumner Miller. His program help develop my interests in Maths and physics as a child.

Now there was a program that was educational.:)

Steven

[multiweb]

It's all good fun. I don't look too much into it. I like when they "blow or destroy stuff" . You know what's coming but you still want to see it :lol: Sometime learnt a thing or two. Light entertainment to me. :thumbsup:

[renormalised]

"Why is it so":D

Yes, good program...lousy chocolate ad:P:D

I watch Mythbusters for the entertainment value, nothing else.

[supernova1965]

Hey even serious minded people need fun it is the comedy for people who like to think. The world would be the poorer if these guys hadn't started their show and lets face it a good explosion is good for the soul as long as no one gets hurt except for buster of course so I think it is Educational and fun but not nonsense I think they do use science and present it in an entertaining way.:party2: I still remember Adam saying am I missing and eyebrow CLASSIC:rofl:

[sjastro]

Yes but can you drive a drinking straw through a 200g full cream dairy milk block of Cadbury chocolate.;)

[iceman]

Entertainment for nerds and non-nerds alike.

Enjoy it for what it is :)

[gmbfilter]

Nerds. What nerds!
Love it when they shoot stuff, blowing up is cool too

The science (ballistics) is accurate :lol:
What more can they do!!!

[Terry B]

Great show.
They always find an excuse to blow something up.!!

[multiweb]

They're huge all over Europe too. When I went to vist my family couple of years ago I switch on the TV and there they were. Like I'd never left..."Push ze button here et... le boum! voila! " Was real funny to see the voices they dubbed them with. :lol:

[Omaroo]

Actually - not necessarily so and sorry to burst your bubble. My older brother knew the producer of this program, and he was told by her in no uncertain terms that the Prof did NOT like to be upstaged by clever students, so he told the producers to go our and find students who simply weren't capable of answering back or questioning the physics. Go figure.. so to speak. He too was good entertainment, and at least the physics stood for itself even if he didn't.

I do like Mythbusters for the entertainment. I like to see things blown up - what can i say. As far as "proof" that a "myth" is either busted or confirmed, their method is usually by no means rigorous enough.

[troypiggo]

I like it. My understanding was that the original 2 guys - Adam and Jamie? - come from a movie prop/special effects background. They're not scientists. Those younger guys and gal seem to have some more physicist/engineering background perhaps. But they're busting urban myths, not proving scientific theory.

And hey, it's way better than that British show where they just blow up caravans every week, have scantily clad assistants, and get drunk at the pub occasionally - forget what it's called. The host from Top Gear is on it. That's much more deceptive, pretending to be scientific, but in reality it's further from it than MythBusters.

[renormalised]

Let's see if we can!!!!:P:D

<queue Mythbusters theme>

[sjastro]

Julius has a lot to answer for.

In the 1970's there was a sharp increase in drinking staw related stabbings, robberies committed by people armed with drinking straws etc.:)

Steven

[Kal]

I think I'd weight up my viewing as 90% entertainment, 10% educational :) I learn a thing or two from the show, but even if the result is obvious I still enjoy watching it.

[sjastro]

That's very interesting. The questions were based around the Millergram books that have been around for years. I don't recall any criticism of the books with regards to any dubious explanation of the physics from the good Professor.

Steven

[freespace]

Mythbusters teaches an essential principle of science: testing your hypothesis.

It doesn't matter that it might be "obvious to an 8 year old" that you can curve a bullet by swing your arms - obviousness is not a measure of correctness. Unless you have tested it you can't be sure.

Experimentation is king.

I enjoy watching mythbusters to see the outcome of their experiments, and see whether my own predictions are correct. I hope kids watch mythbusters take away the fact that the seemingly obvious can be wrong, and what appears to be fake is in fact real, that the only sure way to differentiate between plausible and busted is to try it :)

[Omaroo]

That wasn't my point Steven :)

The students brought in for the show were chosen so that they could not pose questions to Sumner Miller that he could not immediately answer - i.e. the brightest and best weren't always encouraged to be on the show. I hope no-one here was.... LOL!

[seanliddelow]

In school last week we did a mini test on Mythbusters and the controlled, independent and dependent varaiables of their experiments. Then write down the conclusion. A bit of a phopar:lol:

[sjastro]

Actually you can't curve the bullet in the same plane as your arms.
What makes it obvious is that a slingshot or an olympic hammer throw can be used to demonstrate the same principle. When you let go the trajectory is a tangent or straight line to the curve.
People have known that since the Stone Age.

Similiarly the trajectory of the bullet fired is a tangent to the direction of the movement of the arm.

It's like reinventing the wheel for experimentation.:)

[renormalised]

Maybe the bullets had tiny retrothrusters:P:P:D:D

[Robbie]

those guys have the best job in the world!

If its worth doing .....its worth overdoing!

[sheeny]

Myth busters is good fun. It's a good blend of science (OK... experimentation) and entertainment.

OK a lot of their experiments are "no-brainers", but they are fun to watch anyway. I bet a lot of them were even more fun to do!

It's good clean entertainment!

Al.

[Omaroo]

Yes... a release vector.

[Karls48]

I like Mythbusters but I have not watched episode when they tried to curve bullet flight. Actually, all bullets fired from rifled barrels travel in slightly curvet path. Believe me or not, but I done lot of shooting in my time. Right twist will curve bullet flight to the right, left one to the left. It is called spin drift. It may be as large as 750mm at 1000 m. It varies with calibre, velocity and bullet shape. As far I know, it can not be calculated, you have to soot in your gun on different ranges, settle on range you expect to shoot most often and then compensate with your aim for different ranges. And use same ammo all the time.

[mswhin63]

I enjoy both the entertainment and the little science involved, but it is also good for a lot of the non sensicle people out not to believe all the rubbish they hear.

Being a myth means that some people truly believe the unreal.

[michaellxv]

It's a good balance between entertainment and science. Teaches you to question what you see and some basic scientific methods to test an hypothesis.

[Hagar]

Mythbusters is just like all of us would like to be. Just big kids playing with real big toys. What a job!!!!! They even get paid for playing.
I'm jealous.

[kustard]

It's a fun show that delivers relatively decent science without dealing in too much hard fact. Like any show you have to take the chaff with the wheat for some episodes.

[citivolus]

I met Adam, Jamie, and Grant before they had the show, back in their robot building days :) Like the robot combat competitions, I don't take the show too seriously, but really enjoy watching it. It's all good entertainment, which at least attempts to not be bad science.

[circumpolar]

Science...........Maybe

Skeptical.........Definitely! :thumbsup:

Anything that gets people's critical thinking going has to be good.
Yes, some of the urban legands are boring and stupid, but every now and then they hit on a really good myth.

It's entertainment tv, not scientific testing.

[Jen]

:thumbsup: Its great for a good laugh when there is nothing else on LOL :lol:

[wavelandscott]

Mostly entertainment...it is fun to watch stuff go "ka-boom"!

[OneOfOne]

Always enjoy watching the show....on tape.

Yes, many of the outcomes are fairly self evident from the start but it is light years ahead of all the other stuff on the TV at the moment....

[lacad01]

I enjoy the show, good entertainment value. Half the fun is seeing what contraption they think up and build to test out the myth :)