Swim in Syrup? - Mythbusters - S05 EP16 - Science Documentary

on this extra sticky episode of Mythbusters  this will be by far the strangest thing we have ever done Adam and Jamie stripped  down to test a classic physics conundrum oh holy crap that is slippery can you swim  just as fast in series as you can in water oh my God look at you while Tori Grant and  Carrie put the bite on two bullet myths your mom is in my head and she's saying don't do  that could Davy Crockett really split a lead slug on an ax blade that is crazy look at  that and could MacGyve

r blow open a steel door with a gun butt and the powder from Six  Bullets brace yourself this will not be pretty Miss Adam Savage don't lick the mixing spoon and  Jamie heinemann when in doubt C4 between them more than 30 years of special effects experience so  the timing was perfect joining them Carrie Byron Rush Grant Imahara and Tori bellici I'm alive  they don't just tell them they put them to the attack [Music] so I see swim goggles I see a swim cap and I  see syrup I'm sensing a really big

mess in our future am I right oh you are correct uh this is a  classic physics thought experiment simply stated it is thus that you can swim as fast in syrup  as you can in regular old water well the syrup is thicker so I would think that it would slow  down your movement through it that might be true but it also might be true that the thicker syrup  gives you more to push against with your hands so what this boils down to then is whether  those two forces cancel each other out right that's wha

t we got to get down and dirty and  test on the surface you'd think that swimming in syrup could only end with drowning in syrup  but maybe not the thick resistance that slows you down might also mean you've got more to  push against increasing your propulsion like Adam says it's a classic physics dilemma and  we'll be testing it with real swimmers sweet you know I'm gonna go out on a limb here and  say we need to get a pool a bunch of syrup and start testing you're right but with two notable  e

xceptions one we're not going to use real maple syrup we're going to use guar gum which should  allow us to get exactly the viscosity we want two we couldn't find a pool that would allow us to  fill it with syrup we're gonna have to make our own in fact I propose we make two pools one  filled with water one filled with heavy syrup swim in each and compare our types it's that  simple well let's Dive Right In okay [Music] well this may look like just a clearing in  the hills of Dublin Pleasanton C

alifornia but by the time we're done with it by the end of  the day when we're through digging a pair of 75 foot long pools with these puppies this will  be an experimental space on the Leading Edge of fluid dynamics swimming and goo before they  tackle the swimming or the science the boys need to show their blue collar credentials and  why do you know it's poetry in motion [Music] the plan is to fill one trench with plain water  purchased from the city and the other with water thickened with gu

ar gum both of these rustic  lap pools need to be 75 feet long amazing what you can do with the right tools that took us  about an hour and a half but now we've got at least a couple hours or more straightening  them out making them into proper pools we are now about to line these  in heavy plastic and fill them with water and we're using four layers of  heavy plastic hopefully to keep any leaks from happening we tried to eliminate as  many sharp objects on the bottom perfect wow it's freaking d

ark in here okay everybody just stay put make sure you hang on to  your edges we're ready for water and Alameda County fire truck pumps the water and the plastic lining lining  bolstered by some Hefty plywood decking seems to be holding that's  turned out to be a heck of a pool dude this thing looks awesome dig a hole we've  got some plastic you got a pool huh well if the other trench is ready let's make some goo and  fill it okay it's time to get sticky for science [Music] So today we're testin

g two Magic Bullet  myths which are myths about bullets doing something that they're not designed to do  and the first one comes from the second best television show of all time MacGyver you  got it I like this one already now I know this is all just special effects but I'm really  interested to see if this is going to work in real life what is it all right MacGyver  is on a cargo ship he's trying to rescue a boy who's locked behind a steel door he empties  out Six Bullets and ignites the gunpow

der using an empty cartridge then blows the lock  open I wouldn't have thought of that one Mack's method is to pack the powder from Six  Bullets inside a shred of cloth he stuffs that in the lock shoves in an empty cartridge and smacks  the firing cap with the butt of his gun hang on I thought MacGyver had an extreme aversion to guns  true he took a 38 from a guard he just ko'd but let's not forget there's a child's life at stake  here sorry forgot that but still it's a loaded gun I mean why wou

ldn't he just point it at the Lock  and shoot it out well he thought it would Ricochet straight back off a steel door what do you guys  think I say let's give it a try let's do it it's unusual for us to start testing a myth  with an alternate method but this really is the elephant in the room if I had only a gun  to unlock a door I mean personally I would try shooting it before I would even remotely think  of MacGyver's method so I guess we'll see if he made the wise choice Grant and Tori fixed

the  gun just a foot shy of a similar lock stuck inside a solid steel door do we want to try to  shoot out the Tumblers or do we want to try to shoot out the actual deadbolt um I think the  Tumblr is probably a safer option for safety's sake they've set up the rig inside the bunker all  right we're hot we're cocked we're loaded get out of here even in the drizzle they're better  off out than in here we go in three two one oh that was a good one turns out it was  much more than a good one this lo

ck was cracked with the very first bullet  we punched a hole at base of that I don't accept that we got it open in  one shot I am positive it was locked it's I don't know what to say this never happens to  us I fully expected us to be here all day you know round after round bouncing off the top or  denting it so MacGyver could have saved time and the cost of five bullets but our job is to see if  his method would have worked at all now in order to understand this myth a little bit better to see 

how this could possibly work let's first look at how a bullet works now A Bullet is made up of  a few different components you have the shell you have the slug or the actual bullet if you have  a firing cap and you have propellant in our case gunpowder now when you strike the firing cap that  ignites the propellant and as the propellant Burns it'll create a large amount of pressure which  will eventually launch the bullet out the barrel but Mac took a leaf from our book using materials  in ways

that were never intended now before we jump straight to the Big Bang Let's test his  prep first up can you pull a bullet apart with your fingers but he is MacGyver he has the  strength of 20 men apparently not Tori has the zen-like patience of a three-year-old  unwrapping a birthday present okay right now your mom is in my head and she's saying  don't do that so that's just Hollywood Holcomb what about setting off a firing  cap with the broad butt of a 38. find out if you can set off one of  th

ese caps by hitting it with a gun all right all right this should  be fun our guys are dedicated but not insane these cartridges have all  been emptied of gunpowder Ready Set Go now I know it looks like we're having  a lot of fun but this is very dangerous we're taking all the precautions to make sure  everything is done safely nobody should ever try setting off a bullet outside of a gun  it's a bust for Max ignition system now here's but I flattened the crap out of mine and  it still didn't go

off why is that that's because this tiny firing cap flushed to the back of the  cartridge is designed to be struck precisely by an equally tiny firing pin so for our testing Carrie  fits a similar pin in the base of the gun grip Grant builds a simple rig to swing the gun to  smash the cap to ignite the powder bang bang that is gonna be awesome but just how much  gunpowder do you get from Six Bullets okay so that amount of gunpowder is only 30 grains and  that's not a lot let me show you how much

that is that is all we have to work with to blow this  lock up I don't know if this is going to work it's time to fill our pool with syrup and the  roll of syrup today will be played by guar gum it's a powdered food thickener and somehow we've  got to make 750 pounds of it with 10 000 gallons of water and that's where this truck comes in  amazingly it is uniquely custom built for mixing guar gum with water so if I'm correct you place  the 50 pound bag right here slice up in the end and dumps in

right there exactly right have you  ever mixed up a Gorga mixture this thick before we've never mixed it this thick before we're not  even sure if it'll pump well it's better breaking their toys than ours and let's remember that Adam  and Jamie will soon be swimming in this oh dude it is just gooey thick viscous syrup I mean let him forget about swimming just  kidding in it is an accomplishment oh as trench number two fills slowly with goo Adam's  worst fears start to congeal you know how hard

it's gonna be to get out of this stuff darn near  impossible this will be by far the strangest thing we have ever done we're all done with this 12  000 gallons of syrup ready for scientific testing based on what I'm seeing at this point this stuff  in the pit is about as thick as any syrup I've ever seen so will we be able to swim fast in it I  don't think so the theory goes that you might swim just as fast in something really gooey because  you're pushing back against a liquid that's more resis

tant than water well that's the theory but  we're all here to see some action and some flesh are you ready I'm ready okay I I'll swim first  if you don't mind there's your starting thistle there's your timer and uh these things are  so comfy I've been wearing mine all day Jamie averts his eyes and bites  his tongue knowing he'll be the next man stripping down to his racing undies [Music] on your mark ready this is the first of three fresh  water Sprints they'll average out the times for a compar

ison to swimming in  syrup 1572. I'll bet I'll do faster the second time it's just gotta get used  to swimming in such a narrow channel it really doesn't matter how fast he swims so  long as they get a good set of numbers 1478. but Adam just can't resist showing off for  the lady a little bit quicker each time 1462. did not and that's good enough for Jamie the  captain goggles and hands the gun to Adam I gotta say I feel less like a swimming coach than a  guy defending his house in the middle of

the night get off my lawn [Music] Jamie proves to be more  of a distant swimmer but again speed isn't the issue what kind of a swimmer am I well uh I'm  not very fast I get the job done that's about it 24 and now they're ready to swim in something  that's more like treacle this stuff is 1500 times thicker than water I know what you're  thinking of course you're going to swim slower in syrup than you are in regular water but what  if you get more purchase on your paddling hands and so on and som

ething that's thicker and  here's another thought molecular Bonds in syrup like this are constantly changing it all  depends on the temperature and the speed and the shape of a body moving through the liquid what is  happening in syrup is that we have things known as polymer chains or long strings of molecules  that basically are like spaghetti noodles like cooked spaghetti noodles and they stick together  when they soak up water we've got these Bunches of these polymer chains and depending on t

he  speed that you move through them depending on their thickness and what exactly they're made of  they can either just part and let you go through this mix like water or they can Bunch up they  can become something like the La Brea Tar Pits there's all sorts of different ways that these can  end up affecting you as you're swimming in them Journey's right it's almost impossible to untangle  the molecular physics of Newtonian fluids from einsteinian viscosity but Adam has a very prosaic  predict

ion honestly I don't see it happening that stuff is just too darn thick I think the  difference we'll be seeing is much greater on the order of like 30 40 percent like five six eight  seconds difference Adam's the first to see if swimming and syrup is faster than his freshwater  freestyle [Laughter] oh holy crap that is slippery looks fast but those resounding  plops tell a different story 18 6 lower this stuff feels completely bizarre oh it's like being born again so let's get bored again again

[Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign times are faster than my fastest times  in water and there's more good news to come Adam's average freshwater times weren't that much different to swimming and syrup I'm  really surprised how fast I was able to go I would have thought the syrup would Slow Me  Down by like a factor of two not by a factor of 0.2 but we'd like two sets of figures time for  Jamie to dip his doodle in that cold cold sludge yeah ready set it's a lot harder to move it come  on you're

doing fine I felt like it took about twice as much effort to swim  through it as it would normally in water this counselor in high school and talk about  what you wanted to do for a career and did you ever imagine it would include this [Applause]  I actually kind of like this stuff it's uh it's kind of cozy in here but uh swimming in it  not so much no freaking way really this is much heavier to me I found that swimming in this stuff  made me a lot more tired than swimming in water [Music] [Mus

ic] that looked like a lot of work So Jamie officially retires from  competitive syrup swimming we'll be using Adams averages to make the comparisons [Applause] Tori Grant and Carrie are ready to test if  TV Legend Angus MacGyver could possibly have blown the lock on a steel door using only loose  gunpowder an empty cartridge and the butt of his gun we're back at the Alameda bomb range which is  one of our favorite places to go because we can do all the things that we can't do in the shop like 

blow doors open with gunpowder get it in there somebody go get MacGyver all right so  that is 30 grains of smokeless powder that's Six Bullets worth yeah I know  it doesn't look like much I mean do you think that's gonna blow the lock open  hey work from MacGyver yeah I doubt it I think the hardest part is going to  be getting that into the lock I know all right let's do it Carrie does manage to  stuff the cloth in the lock that's the first real thumbs up for this myth okay be it then the  boys

attach Grant's custom rig to the door frame so our lock is right behind here it's got the bit  of bandana with the powder in it this is our cap and this is our mechanism to swing the gun it's  a little more complicated than just hitting it but for safety sake we need something to do  it remotely you want to put tension on the string see if it holds up yeah go ahead  perfect okay this is MacGyver gunpowder and lock test one you guys ready to have your  minds blown yeah here we go in three two one

no smoke no fire and no boom I realize the  earplugs are more for your countdown than the actual popping the pin on the gun grip  did strike the cap but it didn't ignite the powder yeah it went off with the powder didn't so  what's the next step I mean the obvious thing is the cap is not coming into contact with the powder  because of the cloth maybe we do is we put a hole in the cloth so that we have the cap in contact  with the powder all right well let's give that a shot so Tori sensibly spr

eads the gunpowder  all the way back to the ignition cap here we go three two one silence is deafening Max many  hostage wouldn't even know that someone was trying to rescue him it didn't ignite the powder  and that was in contact with the Caps you know I'm starting to think that no matter what a cap  going off isn't going to ignite the gunpowder but Grant's found a loophole that might just save  this stunt and Salvage Max reputation now the type of gunpowder that we're using is smokeless  gunpo

wder which is found in modern ammunition but at one time the 38 caliber round had black powder  which has a bit more punch than the smokeless my prediction is this is not going to work but I'm optimistic this might be their last chance  to blow the lock like mac did [Music] two one [Applause] that was cool that was cool all  right let's see if it opened that lock [Music] now the lock is intact so it still  looks real good on the high speed looks just like it did on the episode yeah except  for t

hat part where the door opens so this door busting myth As Seen On TV is busted but Grant  still has faith in the general principles just for the sake of argument let's say that MacGyver had  a lot of black powder bullets yeah let's fill the whole thing with black powder and then see so they  do all the way up to the keyhole and I've measured out 600 grains of black powder that's 120 bullets  worth of black powder now it's a lot more than MacGyver had is that going to be enough to blow  the lock

open we're about to find out and their best chance for a big result is to forego the  cartridge cap for an electric igniter how it works is you apply a battery to this end current flows  through the wire heats up a little piece of wire here at the end that heats up chemical and instant  ignition for our gun powder now Carrie's prepared to make a prediction that's crystal clear I think  there's going to be a nice colorful boom but I don't think that we're actually going to explode  this lock bec

ause I I think that the keyholes are going to let all of that pressure out you can't  fault the theory but this ain't over until they've blown the gizzards out of it alrighty boy ready  boy yes girl this is lock half full with black powder electric igniter just for the heck of it  because we can well this could you know if it does explode it could open that door I don't know  about that we'll see all right in three two one [Music] always wrong I grossly underestimated  the power of black powder

in this lock I thought there was no way in the heck that door  was opening and it's wide open and I hate it Tori's right and I'm wrong I hate this as much fun  as I had today I'm a little bit disappointed why because every prediction you had was wrong yeah  a little bit but I mean guys we busted my guy yes but prove that the general principle  is sound you just need a lot more gun and we even proved that you could set off  gunpowder using an empty cartridge by hitting it with the butt of a gun I

'm very impressed  but we did have a clear demonstration on how this was supposed to have worked from the TV  show using only Six Bullets worth of powder and we didn't come anywhere close to that all  right so this one is busted busted busted well you know what it's not MacGyver's fault it was  the writer's fault good point MacGyver's real yeah so is the Tooth Fairy no that's that's a  myth no he's real too no Sasquatch is a myth thank you [Music] we all love syrup on pancakes but Adam and  Jami

e are dipping into some complex physics to see if they can swim in syrup  just as fast as they can in water all the results are in we both swam significantly  slower in syrup it's not looking good for the myth I know but I'm not willing to let this one go I'm  starting to believe that we might have gotten this whole viscosity thing all wrong how so nobody  would deny that we were swimming in syrup right but it was an average Joe's interpretation of  syrup and it was 1500 times more viscous than

water and this myth has its Origins as a physics  thought experiment to a physicist something that's only twice the viscosity of water could be called  a syrup and we might get very different results with material like that seems one man's water  might be another man's syrup before they fill the pool with a much lighter blend JB wants to  run some quick tests in a much smaller trough we need to test the resistance of our syrup and  so we're gonna do that on a tabletop in these specially made tan

ks I'm going to be building  a mechanical device that will drag a paddle through the syrup and that way we'll get the  measurements we need Adam adds just enough gum to make double thick water Jamie's clever doodad  has a force meter that measures resistance as it drags a paddle through the syrup tank and the  water tank at different speeds okay that might be a little fast what we're going to be doing  is looking for any kind of patterns that tell us whether the syrup is actually behaving  the s

ame as the water or where it differs 2.3 a dozen tests later they've seen the  resistance in both liquids rise steadily as they raise the voltage and the paddle moves  faster no surprise and not much help that was nine but when they hit eight volts in the  syrup that resistance stops resisting at a certain point it leveled off it plateaued and  we were moving faster through the syrup but we weren't seeing any more resistance it was  about the same as it is in the water it's the first real data t

hey found to give this myth a  positive spin if they swim fast enough through double syrup it might come close to swimming in  water [Music] it might actually be something to this myth well let's get back out there and do  it full scale I'm dying to jump into this stuff good why don't you do this one totally fine back  in the trenches it's time for a full-scale refill with a brand new recipe it should be perfect let's  let her rip all right let's bring on the water so we have in order to test th

is scaled back  our syrup swimming pool all the way down to something that's only between two and five  times as viscous as water but rest assured to a physicist this is a significant difference  from regular water now the question is will there be a significant difference in my swimming  time but first we'll have to re-rate Adam in regular water after all it's a new day and  he could be a few seconds slower or faster Adam's first effort shows that getting a new set  of figures was a prudent mov

e you're there 13 43. damn I was worried that I was out of shape but  that's pretty darn good let's go for another one the average time for all three swims is  a full second faster than the day before we take a quick break and then move into the  syrup why don't we take a little bit of a reasonable break and then I'll swim in the sun  okay while Adam takes a well-earned soak let's reflect on the Practical benefits  of learning to swim through syrup you know somebody's going to be wondering  what

possible real world application this is going to have that person would be ignoring  the fact of the great 1919 Molasses Flood in Boston in which a massive vat of molasses  Broke Free molasses poured into the streets and killed 21 people who presumably had  no idea how to swim in syrup well it just goes to show you got to collect those skills  to be ready for anything right yeah meantime back at Club mud ah it's cold okay here we go  okay Adam and syrup twice as thick as water Adam strikes out

again and sets a really fast time 14.02 seconds that's significant data let's go again okay Adam's next two laps are  both well under 15 seconds 1462. ah it looks like I'm getting tired and  slowing down a little bit at the very least this comparison looks like a close call lay it on me  coach okay well in the heavy syrup swam 27 slower than you did in water but in the light syrup you  swam 2.8 percent slower than you did in water wow big difference yeah I mean I outweighed you  the difference b

etween any three of my times in either of the water or either of the syrups was  greater than 2.8 percent yeah that's less than half a second variation it's well within the  margin of error that's a really cool result in the heavy treacle analog Adams times were 28  slower than they were in water so that's myth busted then again his times in light syrup were  much the same as swimming in water so that's myth confirmed obviously there's a threshold between  the two and I'd like to find where that

threshold exactly is I.E something that the layperson would  call syrup yet you can swim just as fast in it sure why am I chopping wood you ask not because  I'm a Lumberjack and I'm okay but because we're about to test a myth that comes from one of  America's greatest legends Davey Crockett King of the Wild Frontier now apparently he  would take his ax and throw it against the tree and then he would take his trusty musket Betsy  fire a shot at the ax head and split the bullet clean in half and

that is what we're going to  test to see if it's really possible [Music] back in the early 1800s Davy Crockett gained Fame  as a U.S congressman and a Fearless Frontier type self-described as half horse half alligator Davey  had a reputation for well embellishing the truth he once posted the prettiest sister and the  ugliest dog in the country so look this guy was real and a he a huge part of American folklore  yeah I mean back in the 50s like almost every kid had one of those Davy Crockett [ __

 ] skin  caps but he did tell a lot of Whoppers he used to say that he could grin The Bark off a tree and  that's just one tall tale I mean with all these crazy stories it casts a lot of Doubt on this  myth that he could split a bullet by hitting an ax head unfortunately I couldn't agree more well  the only way to prove it is to test it right right and I can't wait me too it's an all-time myth you  just couldn't test with modern Firearms 200 years ago the guns were slower and the lead bullets we

re  rounder and softer but rest assured the taxes were sharp all we have to do is shoot the ax head with  the bullet and split it too how hard could that be what are we gonna do with the rest of our  day not no I'm always looking forward to the historical myths and this one is extra  fun because I really really am into Davy Crockett I I love all of the cap and ball musket  shooting it's it's going to be a good day that's the spirit carry unwavering optimism in the  face of yet another myth that

Beggars believe thank you pin the tail in the [ __ ] skin cap now  hitting our Target with these muskets is gonna be tough they're heavy they're not as accurate as  a modern day rifle uh so we thought maybe if we dress up like Davey Crockett maybe they'll  give us a an advantage to hit our Target you know maybe we Channel him baby help me hit my  target but I doubt it now most folk wouldn't take advice from a man who shot his own hat but  I wouldn't say that out loud to Jim Mitchell Jim's an exp

ert on antique American Firearms  Jim good to see you again good to see you Jim's outfit terrifies me feel like his Hat's  gonna bite him at any moment or just like crawl up on me so you've got a couple of 58 calibers  there with you you uh comfortable with them shooting them loading them maybe you should give  us a little refresher course it sure couldn't hurt these old-time rifles aren't exactly user  friendly first thing you load up your powder treasury powder out into the measure it's quite 

a procedure loading up a musket I mean first you've got to pour the gunpowder directly into  the barrel then you've got like a lubricated little patch that you stuff a lead ball on  you have to stuff it all the way down I mean can you imagine loading that thing over and  over and over if you had to be a quick shot but shooting these guns is just as  tricky they all need practice and here's Carrie's tip for making fruit  salad in less than a tenth of a second Grant shoots a soda bottle and Tori

terminates a tomato get that tomato  that's what you get for not being organic right now we're just hitting the targets  just to see if we can sight these guns in and they seem pretty accurate uh the tricky  part now though is to be able to hit that ax blade dead center with the bullet so we  get it to split because if it hits a little bit to the left or a little bit to the right  it might just deflect and stay one bullet we need it to hit right in the middle so we see  two pieces after the bull

et hits the ax head oh Tori Grant and Carrie are testing the myth  that Davy Crockett could hit two Targets with one bullet by splitting it on an ax blade  [Music] so now it's our chance to do this myth for real now Legend has it that Davy  Crockett could do this trick from 40 yards so we're going to measure out 40 yards and give  it a shot but that's looking a long long way off and uh 40 yards that's kind of far I'm gonna take  a shot and down I'm gonna split it in the first one but who knows m

aybe I get lucky sometimes  it's better to be lucky than good now we should get some idea of just how sharp the shooting  has to be not bad at all let's try a take two [Applause] Tory's got one more shot before the others  get their chance confirming the two target myth means splitting a bullet in half that's as  tough as anything these guys have ever attempted one two three whoa I hit the blade that's great  that is crazy look at that it just hit here I mean I was maybe an eighth of an inch off

from hitting  it dead center I think with a little practice you could hit that yeah I mean if you practice you'd  be able to hit this all day but I mean we're not looking at accuracy we're looking at whether or  not you could split the bullet all right well let's split the difference come in 20 yards and  then try it again all right they bring the mark in because this myth is more about if a bullet  can split in two then where you took the shot from Man Nice Shot wow Carrie goes close whoa then

closer as she grazes the handle look  you can see the burn mark nice shot all right thank you good one give me one more one more one  more shot hard to say no to a girl with a gun close but no cigar as my dad would say look at that just grazed the ax to be able  to hit the blade by shooting off hand it's going to take a long time on a lot of practice  Daylight's fading so Grant gets to shoot off a sandbag this could be the shot that confirms  the Crooked myth this ax don't stand a chance you hi

t the blade look right here skimmed it  you're you're real close so you just gotta go over just like an eighth of an inch to the right  like a hair [Music] the shots are almost perfect but for this test almost just doesn't cut it  you know it's incredibly difficult even off the rest so I'm gonna give it one more shot and  Grand can see coyote gym waiting in the wings no splits if Davey Croc could do this he was quite  a shot now before we move on to the expert how would you guys feel about me ta

king one shot  from the bench sure go ahead knock yourself out I'm dying to do it and we're dying to see  if this split bullet myth is just another tall tale someone needs to step up and hit that Blade  with perfect precision [Music] okay [Laughter] Tori's done it one half of the bullet went  left and the other went right you did it I can't believe it actually worked both sides  look right there that's where it hit yeah it's it's totally confirmed who thought  that Davey Crockett didn't lie that

is sweet but Jim won't go home till  he's had a fair chance to reconfirm the myth just for a little fun we put some balloons on  either side of the ax that way we can see if Jim can actually burst both Balloons with one Davy  Crockett shot I want to give it one one try at the original distance here Jim's backed off the  mythical 40 yards and he's shooting off hands [Applause] yeah good job Jim ah nice shoot wow  it's an amazing display of Frontier Marksmanship it must be the outfit the eye of t

he coyote  Davey Crockett's unlikely myth of the split bullet is confirmed and then some so we showed  you can split a bullet and take out two Targets at once yeah that was using an ax ammunition and  weapons from Davy Crockett's time I had a little bit of Mojo from Davy Crockett the outfits  so this one's confirmed confirmed confirmed [Music] [Applause] Jamie and Adam are testing if the extra thrust  you'd get from swimming through syrup might just counteract the added resistance this stuff  fe

els completely bizarre Adams times in double thick light syrup were much the same  as swimming in waters but in heavy syrup he made it through in 19.18 seconds so that puts  him at about 28 slower in heavy syrup versus water so now they'll mix up one last batch with  a texture that's more like good old maple syrup foreign not too thick not too thin but just  right that's the Goldilocks myth we're mixing up a batch right now and soon we'll be putting  it to the test it's a blend that should meet

any definition of serum 500 times thicker than water  another in the line of what are we doing moments as a veteran of 15 000 breakfasts atoms  well qualified to judge the sludge man it definitely feels like something I've  put on pancakes before I'd say somewhere between commercial grade maple syrup  and 40 weight motor oil Goldilocks syrup so these are Adam's last three swims and given  how fast he swam in the light syrup his times in this stuff should be really interesting what's  my time 14.

34 yeah that goopy looking scum on top we call fish eyes it's just clusters of guar  gum Adam actually seems to enjoy swimming in it 13.81 yeah good job thank you you're  done you can get out now I'm officially done Adam's times were nice and steady  but it stands to reason that a better swimmer would be even more consistent  and that makes for better science enter this fine specimen Nathan Adrian was  a Gold Medal winner at the Beijing Olympics hello sir hey how's it going oh my God look at you

  [Laughter] that's that's that's perfect you feel like running some tests for us absolutely  I'd love to let's start him off in a bent pool filled with straight water to set up  Baseline time this surprise of Jamie's is proving extremely fruitful not only is Nathan  fast which I expected he's super consistent all of his times are within half a second of  each other my times had about a one second spread so it just means the data is that much  more precise 9.81 can we let him get out let's let h

im get out now it's time for this Sports  hero to swim in something gooey and slippery that's it Nathan just pretend that you're one with the syrup almost dead on the money 10.87 is  that funky or what it's so weird you could bet this wasn't part  of Nathan's most Olympic dream just think about it like you gotta  swim faster to get out of it quicker a man with the right stuff forced a wallow  in some very wrong stuff awesome I can tell you're starting to get into it a little  bit it grows on you

after a while doesn't it I don't think so Nathan's either too polite  or too distressed to answer back but he does give us two more hot laps as far as resistance  goes when you're swimming at speed it doesn't doesn't feel all that much different than water  truthfully So Jamie tries to make sense of the stats Nathan was a full nine percent slower  in medium syrup than water more surprisingly while his water times were super consistent his  syrup swims were much less consistent than atoms and wi

th Adam swimming just 5.4 slower in  syrup than water which is almost within his margin of error this myth could still go  either way do you think that you were slower because the goo was offering more resistance  or because it was messing with your Technique I'd have to say it was definitely messing with  my technique and how comfortable I was in the water such a huge disadvantage of being such  a foreign environment with the uh with the goop and everything none of which seems to  bother our bo

ys but given Nathan's erratic times Adams prepared to drop a bombshell we're  gonna throw out Nathan's swim times in the syrup see we brought him in being an Olympic swimmer  one of the best in the world we thought it was going to eliminate swimming time as a variable  but because what he does for hours every day is swim in a clear water pool following a line  going as fast as he can the syrup through his technique out the window mine proved the point  much better than his do that's pretty cool

[Music] to wrap this one up the simple fact  is that you swam just about as fast in the medium or Goldilocks syrup and  the light syrup as you did in water well so I'd say that makes it solidly plausible  you can swim as fast and syrup as you can in water plausible depending on the viscosity of the syrup so that's a wrap for swimming in syrup but there's  still some unfinished business on the MacGyver set well you know we MythBusters have never been ones  to leave well enough alone and we have a

door here that we just don't want to take home and With a  Little Help from JD and some C4 they won't have to okay the question is do you want to do like  a surgical kind of an entry around the lock or do you want to just blow the crap out of it  hardly worth asking the question really blow the crap out of it okay blow the crap out of it  yeah I guess we'll be in the bunker then so our guys duck for cover JD sets the charge and  Bellows out his four favorite words [Music] in three two one [Musi

c] [Applause] to borrow a phrase from the poet of plastic  explosives Jamie Heidemann bye bye door screw black powder is incredible that's like  70 feet away from the blast side [Laughter] I think that if MacGyver had carried around a lot more C4 he could have gotten through  a lot more doors a lot easier [Music] [Music] [Music]