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Putting Star Wars to the MythBusters Test

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the jamie-i-am-your-father dept.

DangerTenor writes "The cast of the show MythBusters chat about their pasts with ILM, talk about some Star Wars myths (Can you avoid freezing to death in a blizzard overnight by gutting a dead animal like a tauntaun and getting into its carcass?) and why R2-D2 is the perfect sidekick." Not as cool as our interview, but pretty neat.

6 of 386 comments (clear)

  1. That Tauntaun thing... by cnelzie · · Score: 5, Informative

    ...wasn't how they survived the entire evening. It was just to keep Luke warm while Han built the shelter... Geeze.

        (Yeah, I am a Star Wars Geek.)

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    If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
    1. Re:That Tauntaun thing... by ArsonSmith · · Score: 5, Informative

      As someone who grew up hunting and skinned many a deer and elk I can say that the insides will stay rather warm for quite some time. While bow hunting you often have to track an animal the next morning because a bow wont kill it right away. While I think Hoth was suppose to be something like -60 or more I know that an Elk will hold heat for well over 12 hours in 0-10degree weather.

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  2. A 50 footer? by Otter · · Score: 5, Informative
    Could you survive a 50-foot fall into a snow bank like Luke Skywalker did?

    Huh? Jamie Pierre just broke the skiing cliff-drop record with a 245-footer in Grand Targhee. I haven't seen the video yet, but supposedly he didn't even land it cleanly. (The New Zealander who previously held the record hit a 225-footer into slush, landing on his back with a backpack full of foam.)

    C'mon, a 50-footer won't even get you into a movie nowadays unless you throw at least a 720...

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  3. Water Phase Diagram by everphilski · · Score: 4, Informative

    Water Phase Diagram

    Note regions VIII-XI. With enough pressure yes, water will solidify. HOWEVER there is a temperature point at which the water will no longer solidify (not shown on this scale although you can see the "liquid dome" is increasing as temperature increases. Eventually if you go far enough to the right there is a point where only vapor exists, regardless of pressure.

    So while GP is correct that pressure will solidify water there is also extreme temperature that will counteract the pressure. One must wonder why water cores don't exist in real life...

  4. Re:The Real Myth by MutantHamster · · Score: 5, Informative
    "English is VSO (Verb Subject Object)."

    No, is not English VSO. Is English SVO. Sound VSO languages retarded.

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  5. Re:The lightsaber myth... by SETIGuy · · Score: 5, Informative
    Even the most uninformed fan knows that it's not just the light, but it's plasma being shaped into a cylindrical shape approximately 1 meter in length (according to the Episode III novel) that gives the lightsaber its power. (Yes, and the Force, but let me just talk about the saber for the moment...)

    I have a device that is very much like a light saber that uses no power at all. It consists of a thermal electron plasma which is contained by a matrix of positively charged ions. I can't get it to glow like a "light saber" unless I supply a lot of energy to it, but doing so weakens the ion matrix to the point where it might fail to stand up use.

    Electrostatic repulsion and the strength of the ion matrix prevent it from penetrating another saber of similar design, but the same electrostatic repulsion, when focused to specific parts of the blade, is quite adept at slicing through flesh.

    There is a picture of a saber of the type I describe right here.

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