Mythbusters Accidentally Bust Windows In Nearby Town 500
Thelasko writes "In an effort to knock Buster's socks off, the Mythbusters accidentally created an explosion so large it shattered windows in a small town over a mile from the blast site. The Mythbusters had the broken windows replaced the very same day.
The Esparto, California fire chief says that several firefighters were on hand for the blast, but he didn't notify residents because, 'Mythbusters is supposed to be a really popular show. Everybody would have been out there. We would have had to cancel it because it would have been too dangerous.'"
Re:Oops. Oh well. (Score:4, Interesting)
RTFA: They were trying to literally "knock the socks off" Buster by igniting 500 pounds of NH4NO3
Re:That's odd... (Score:3, Interesting)
I presume they were using oil with that ammonium nitrate. IIRC this is the preferred recipe for lifting stumps &c. as it pushes more volume/pressure than TNT or what-have-you. A little calculation might have suggested the advisability of doing it a little further from town. This may be a bit bigger @ 500# than their previous endeavors. Sounds like fun was had.
A classical music recording already did this (Score:1, Interesting)
Back in 1978, one of the first digital sound recordings was Telarc's recording of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. It used real cannons in the recording and the rumble from the cannons go down to about 4Hz. The liner notes for the CD said that some windows were blown out 1 mile away while making the recording. I heard from a friend that a vinyl version of the 1812 would actually make the needle pop off of some phonographs (not sure if it was the same recording or not).
Oh, and am I the only one who thought this was about some software from Microsoft?
Selective Terrorism? (Score:5, Interesting)
"...They were trying to literally 'knock the socks off' a mannequin by igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate."
Uh, I like the show and all, but it's rather ironic that a couple of "celebrities" can get their hands on 500 pounds of this stuff and use it, when Average Joe can't manage to buy 50 pounds of "enriched" manure from Home Depot without tripping the "terrorist" flag at Homeland Security...
Re:That's odd... (Score:5, Interesting)
Cool. That's what it is.
Re:That's odd... (Score:3, Interesting)
Not anticipated?? Hardly. (Score:5, Interesting)
The keyword in the summary was "accidentally". This was not an intended result and was not anticipated. Especially not a mile away.
They were igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate. What, did EVERYONE (including Fire Marshall Bill) forget to bring their handy dandy bomb-squad approved $10 calculator with them that day?
Re:wow (Score:5, Interesting)
having been a pyrotechnician for 15 years, I can say that many of the "broken" window claims probably were for windows cracked long ago. But hey, there's a boom, so I can get free window replacement!
NASA problem (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Bleeped (Score:5, Interesting)
What is the point about censoring the location where you are firing off a minigun?
I always assumed that they censored that particular nugget because they film in the People's Republic of^W^W^W California, which isn't exactly a pro-firearms state. I know they had to get special permission when they were playing around with the .50 rifle during the bullets fired at water episode. I also seem to recall the neighbors of M5 whining when they were doing some other gun myths.
I do agree though that some of the stuff they censor is just plain stupid. I would guess that the lawyers make them do it.
Re:That's odd... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:That's odd... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Bleeped (Score:4, Interesting)
I think it's funny that they bleeped it out in that episode. They even blurred the label of one of the containers of chemicals they used for it. IAAC so I pretty much guessed what they were using just by seeing it. Did a quick google search after the episode and confirmed it. I find it rather stupid that they feel the need to bleep and blur when a few milliseconds online can find the details anyways. Knowing how to break the law is not the same as actually breaking the law.
I also was meandering through our chemical storage (I work for a college) just to see if we even had the ingredients for thermite. We did (not that surprising really), but what I did find interesting/surprising was that on our shelf of old chemicals that aren't used in classes anymore was a big jar of thermite and thermite activator.
Re:And finally... (Score:1, Interesting)
This sounds like a rave I went to once. There were people complaining about their windows/houses vibrating 3 MILES away. It was a cold night and they were using "servos"(massive subwoofers that they use in demolition, they essentially shake the structure and weaken with sub-10Hz vibrations).
What was funnier was that the cops were called and the rave was being hosted at a nudist resort and some of us were naked when they showed up. Since I know most of you didn't attend, I can safely say this was just outside Cincinnati, OH.
Re:NASA problem (Score:5, Interesting)
In high school, I had a physics teacher who, way back when he first started teaching, ordered x picograms of radioactive material for his class. The school secretary thought he misspelled the order and changed it to grams.
He said later on the principal called him over the intercom and sounded really upset. He went to the office, only to find the principal steaming mad over a $50,000.00-plus invoice. He looked at the invoice and, realizing what it was, went and got his giger counter...only to find it going crazy even out in the hall from the principal's office.
As it turned out, they had shipped a large order of radioactive material in a cardboard box!
They had to evacuate the office and call someone to come and get it.
Possibly unrelated, because that had happened many years prior, but he died of cancer.
transporter_ii
Re:MythBusters isn't the safest show (Score:4, Interesting)
and the steam cannon - they wanted to get it up to 200PSI, but time conspired against them and it only got to 65PSI. The cannonball travelled a mile, it might well have hit the San Francisco suburbs if they'd tripled the PSI..!
and the chicken cannon firing at non-birdstrike approved windshields.
We all make miscalculations!
Humber Refinery Explosion (Score:2, Interesting)
Little anecdote for you pyromaniacs:
I live a few miles from one of the Humber Oil Refineries (east coast UK). A few years back, it blew up [bbc.co.uk].
Windows & doors got blown through in Immingham, a couple of miles from the site. I was maybe 5 miles away and heard the blast.
Because this is /. I'll tell you what happened - I had a friend working there at the time, so they all got the report. Turns out there was a large high-temp gas pipe that had a little inlet, used to release a slow, steady drip of water into the flow and cool the gas. For one reason or another (principally because nobody could be bothered to flag it up for replacement), the valve got a bit temperamental over time, and so people going around doing the checks would occasionally open the valve a little because they thought it had stopped.
A drip became a thin stream, which hit a bend in the pipe and eroded the wall. Eventually the wall got so thin that the gas leaked out, and, well, boom.
Off topic? Go ahead, I have Karma to burn.
Re:NASA problem (Score:3, Interesting)
What happened to the egregiously mistaken secretary?
The Science Teacher Who Cleaned The Chem Closet... (Score:5, Interesting)
He called up the local police department to talk to someone who does hazmat / dangerous chemicals work. The moment he said, "crystallized picric acid," the man on the other end of the phone shouted, "Evacuate the building now!"
The full bomb squad arrived and took the beaker carefully up the hill to the 50-yard line of the football stadium and detonated the beaker. The shockwave went clear across the town.
Re:Bleeped (Score:1, Interesting)
The episode I remember the neighbors whining was when the mythterns were standing around shooting revolvers (loaded with blanks) in the parking lot.
Common sense should tell anyone that standing around shooting firearms in a public area is an EXTREMELY stupid thing to do without informing the neighbors and local law enforcement, unless you like getting shot!