MythBusters (2004 season)
| MythBusters (2004 season) | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | Australia United States |
| No. of episodes | 17 (includes 1 special) |
| Release | |
| Original network | Discovery Channel |
| Original release | January 11 – December 22, 2004 |
| Season chronology | |
The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments (the myth is Busted, Plausible, or Confirmed).
This myth was revisited in MythBusters Revisited.
(Plausible)
Allegedly, British rail companies borrowed the titular gun from NASA for testing windshields for high-speed trains, but were shocked and confused at the amount of carnage the gun did. When they asked NASA what they were doing wrong, they were told to thaw the chickens before firing.
With the blessing of pumpkin chunking world champion Bruce Bradford, they proceeded with their initial test. Not only did both frozen and thawed chickens go through the windshields every time, but on their test shot, a frozen chicken broke the pane of Lexan they had set up to protect the windshields. They declared the myth busted - but then realized they had made a big mistake: Piper Cherokee windscreens are not rated for bird strikes.
They then came up with another test - time of impact (which would be the one variable that could affect force of impact since mass was constant whether the chicken was frozen or thawed) - and tested it by firing the chickens at metal plate viewed with a high speed camera. They found that the impact times were exactly the same and thus declared the myth busted, but this verdict was later overturned in the Myths Revisited episode when they found that the penetration was still different.
After their initial verdict, they also fired a pumpkin at one of the windows, which went through both windows, through the Lexan glass shield and came to rest several meters away.
The myth was retested for Myths Revisited and found plausible. It was ultimately cut out of the episode, but later included in MythBusters Outtakes.
...
Wikipedia