MythBusters

Attention, viewers. Do not try anything you are about to see at home.

We are what you call experts.

On this combustible episode of "mythbusters"...

I see good things in our future.

...We test a tale

That brings out the teenage boy in all of us.

Dude, you got to be careful.

It's nonstop fireworks for Tory, Grant, and Kari...

When in peril, I will use one of my co-workers

As a human shield.

...As they tackle the myth of the human skyrocket.

One.

Oh, my God.

Meantime, Adam and Jamie try turning the tables

On their favorite episode of "CSI"...

I am aimed.

...To see if combining two supposedly nonlethal weapons...

Welcome, earthlings. We mean you no harm.

...Could actually make them a deadly duo.

There's your fireball.

With any luck, we will end up with a charred corpse.

Stand clear. I'm going hot.

Who are the Mythbusters?

Adam Savage... Aah!

That is science. ...And Jamie Hyneman.

Things are gonna start to get a little crazy in here.

Between them, more than 30 years of special-effects experience.

Joining them --

Grant Imahara... Burn!

...Kari Byron...

Let's do it.

...And Tory Belleci.

But don't worry. We're not gonna give up.

They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

Captions paid for by discovery communications

First up, a shocking tale of crime-scene chaos.

So, what do we got?

Well, you remember a few months ago

That you and I did a cameo on "CSI"?

I do. We played scientists in lab coats.

It was about a perp who had spontaneously combusted

After being hit with a stun gun,

And it turned out, upon investigation,

That prior to being hit with the stun gun,

He was pepper-sprayed,

And that the pepper spray had a flammable component in it

Which, when coupled with the spark of the stun gun,

Caused him to burst into a huge fireball.

And guess what happened after that episode aired.

We got a ton of requests

To do it ourselves and test it for real.

Exactly right.

It would appear that not only did we make a cameo on "CSI,"

But "CSI" is making a cameo on "Mythbusters."

The science unfolds in the C.S.I. Lab

As Nick Stokes shows that stun gun plus pepper spray

Equals an instant, massive fireball.

It's a nice bit of tv,

But we all want to know if it works in real life.

Well, if I'm gonna potentially set something on fire,

I think right here under Jamie's exhaust hood

Is as good a place as any to do it safely.

The boys have made a bold decision

To simply set up the scene and go for it.

Standing in for the victim is one dead pig.

We use pigs a lot on this show

Because they're great human analogues.

But we're not wasting them because they're too darn tasty.

In fact, after we're done with him here,

I'm taking him home and cooking him up.

You ready? I am. Let's hook it up.

Okay.

With the pig analogue securely fastened,

Adam fits a small flannel shirt they've been saving

For just the right occasion.

There we go.

Now Jamie unloads

A whole can of police-issue pepper spray.

All right, time to take him down with the stun gun.

And hopefully replicate that "CSI" fireball.

I am aimed, and...

3...

I got to say, I don't think

We're gonna get fire on this one.

Okay.

...2...1...

What do you know? I was right.

Yep. No fire.

That's disappointing.

That's putting it mildly. It's a complete dud.

Even Adam's surprised by the totality of the failure.

I don't know what to say.

We did everything right -- no flaming pig.

Yeah, well, there are

A number of different things going on here,

And I think we need to break them out separately

To see what's happening.

Before we call it. Yeah.

Okay, let's do that.

And here's the breakdown.

Successful combustion needs three things.

The first is oxygen, and there's plenty of that.

Second is something combustible and there's plent of that --

Supposedly the pepper-soaked shirt.

Third is a reliable source of ignition.

So let's reboot this myth by reexamining the stun gun.

The operation of these stun guns is relatively simple,

And it happens in two phases.

Allow me to illustrate.

The first phase -- when you pull the trigger,

The gun fires a pair of shiny little barbs across the room

That embed themselves right into your skin.

And the second part -- it starts pumping voltage

Through these wires into those barbs and into your body,

And when that voltage gets to your body,

It starts interrupting your brain's ability

To tell your muscles what to do,

And you pretty much collapse in a heap on the ground.

But the question remains --

Can even 50,000 volts produce enough spark

To start a human bonfire?

There you go. Plenty of sparks.

I have to say, I'm kind of surprised.

I was actually expecting that once those barbs

Embedded themselves in the pig flesh,

They'd complete a circuit and we wouldn't see any sparks,

But we do.

Look at that.

I was also surprised that the barbs

Were creating sparks while they were fully embedded in the pig,

But it's easy to understand why.

The company has decided it's most efficient

To simply tie a knot in the end of the wire

So it locks into the hole like so,

And they know that, given the fact

That they're using such high voltage in these things,

That the spark will jump across into the needle

And do its job.

But that jumping spark

Also serves as a potential source of ignition.

But will it be big enough to ignite the myth?

You know, we've dabbled with small sparks before.

How hard can it be to blow up a room full of gasoline?

And often enough, we're left disappointed.

Nothing. What a shocker.

So, ideally, they'd like a much bigger spark.

And they've worked out a way that perfectly fits the myth.

All right, let me describe the experimental setup here.

This ham hock is our perp.

This barb is the barb that's in his skin.

This vinyl shower curtain is our perp's clothing.

And this barb is the barb

That didn't make it all the way to the perp's skin

'cause it got caught up in his clothing.

Let's see what happens.

It's an intriguing twist on the basic test.

But will it work?

That's what I'm talking about.

Nice big 3-centimeter spark

Through the clothes into the guy's flesh.

Bingo.

That's a big tick for reliable ignition.

Next up, they'll be pushing the button on pepper spray.

Our second myth has

Blatant disregard for self-preservation

Written all over it.

So, a guy is lighting off fireworks

At a German fireworks festival,

And he decides to take an action figure,

Strap a skyrocket to it, and send it flying.

Well, I used to do that all the time when I was kid.

Yeah, but that's not the myth.

The myth is that he then decides to step it up

And strap the fireworks to himself.

So he gets around 400 skyrockets,

He attaches them to himself, he builds a ramp,

He lights them all off, and whoosh.

He goes flying 150 feet over a lake

And splashes down to safety.

The details are delightfully vague.

All we know is that some guy builds some kind of ramp

And launched himself with 400 skyrockets.

Is that even remotely possible,

Or is it a special kind of stupid?

All we do know for sure is that he wasn't a professional.

So likely the fireworks he used were over-the-counter.

All right, well, why don't we just start there?

We'll take some of these skyrockets,

We'll add some weight, and find out

Exactly how much one of these skyrockets can lift.

Good idea, because if we can find

The carrying capacity of a single firework,

Then we can calculate how many it's gonna take

To lift an average man -- somebody like 200 pounds.

So they book the bomb range

And get hold of the biggest over-the-counter skyrockets

Money can buy.

We're out at the alameda county bomb range

So we can test the most powerful consumer fireworks