'MythBusters' cannonball goes through nearby house

U.S. News ^ | December 6, 2011 | NBC News and msnbc.com staff

[EveningStar]

A "MythBusters" experiment went awry Tuesday, sending a cannonball blasting through a home, the Alameda County Sheriff's Office said.

[Tanniker Smith]

Remember the steam-powered cannon? They couldn't get the pressure they wanted and fired before the sun went down. It went much farther than they expected -- and had they gotten the pressure they wanted, it would have shot across the bay into down (San Francisco)(*).

(*)or whichever major city was just across the water from the empty area they were using to blast cannonballs.

[WSGilcrest]

I don’t know what range they were using, but I’m guessing it was over at Santa Rita jail. That makes the house they hit 1/2 mile away.

[Carthego delenda est]

It”s clear now since the other half of the boob belt met with us....

[tophat9000]

Kari ping...(hot smart redheaded chick with gun and killer smile)...whats not to love

[JohnBovenmyer]

Article says they were shooting at the Alameda County firing range which, IIRC from its use in prior episodes, is run by the Sheriff’s department. Presumably they had to sign off on whatever the MB’s were doing. Which should complicate things now.

[org.whodat]

Good old Va, lady, would say something about the cannon and balls but i will skip it.

[saint]

Watched the show once, thought they were idiots. I’ve known junior high school science students who could do a better job of it.

[mwilli20]

What’s more sickening, is that the middle boob in that picture reveals in a later episode that this was an important moment in his life. I had to switch the episode off it was that barf inducing.

[baddog 219]

Kari is one of the hottest girls on the Television....

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks EveningStar. BTW, I'm not a fan of the show.

---

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

---

[Kirkwood]

There is no science involved in these shows. How can you have science with an n-value of 1? It is just for entertainment. They've gotten things wrong on many occasions.

[AndyTheBear]

No one was injured...It was unclear where the cannonball came to rest.

If it is unclear where it came to rest...how do we know no one was injured?

[Political Junkie Too]

Did they forget to convert to metric, or were they working with PG&E?

-PJ

[WSGilcrest]

Sounds like a job for the Meteorite Men.

[Vermont Lt]

Busting the myth of Presidential penis size?

[Vermont Lt]

Busting the myth of Presidential penis size?

[Vermont Lt]

Busting the myth of Presidential penis size?

[WSGilcrest]

Whoa, there! Easy fella.

[MediaMole]

It seems a little odd that the Sheriff’s Dept. spokesman is... J.D. Nelson, who is the Mythbusters bomb expert.

Of course, it was even odder listening to Nelson when he was the sheriff’s Dept spokesman during some Oakland riot last year.

IMHO, Mythbusters needs to be careful. (...and I enjoy the show.) They seem to be constantly pushing the envelope for TV and someone is going to get seriously hurt or killed.

[AndyTheBear]

There is no science involved in these shows. How can you have science with an n-value of 1?

There is some science on some of the shows. For example the time they measured the difference in wetness one got when running vs walking in the rain. They controlled the conditions so the rain was similar and had dry coveralls with a wet suit underneath and weighed the coveralls to determine the amount of water absorbed. They ran several tests with both walking and running, with side wind and without side wind.

As for the idea that a single experiment is not science...nonsense. Albeit is not completed science, but certainly even one scientific experiment is a scientific experiment, despite it being alone. Even a thousand experiments is not completed science. At best science can get us closer to understanding how nature works, it can not get us all the way there ever. But progress is made one experiment at a time. Now if nobody cares to replicate some of their experiments, it is not their fault. Progress in science does not rely completely on any particular individuals, rather on others being willing to run experiments for themselves.