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Mythbusters Accidentally Bust Windows In Nearby Town
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.'"
... Jamie got big boom.
Tis women makes us love, Tis Love that makes us sad, Tis sadness makes us drink, And drinking makes us mad.
The Myth Busters truly are gods among geeks.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
.... can't wait to see this one air. I wonder what odds Adam gave of shattering windows a mile away from the blast site?
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
...could get the go-ahead on tripping 500 lbs of ammonium nitrate in order to "knock the socks off" of a mannequin.
"Chief Barry Burns, of Esparto Fire Department" :-)
--- Nick, hard at work
And their big 'bleep' was located 'bleep' but don't 'bleep' anywhere near 'bleep' CUE BIG FIREBALL BOOM!
Sorry about that, it is just a pet peeve of mine that Mythbusters is seemingly censoring mundane details about what they are doing. What is the point about censoring the location where you are firing off a minigun? It's obviously restricted, and it isn't as if people are going to wander onto some military base and pick up a minigun.
If the people who watch the show were so stupid as to try and use some of the chemicals that are used in the show (and harm themselves or someone else) I'd wager that they are probably too stupid to even know where to order them.
You never saw Mr. Wizard bleeping out the chemical names on his demonstrations.
I swear that if the lawyers had their way, they would bleep 'gasoline'.
Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
Ever since these other "lets blow stuff up on high speed film" shows came out, MythBusters has had to blow more and more stuff up, kind of getting anti-intellectual nowadays. Plus Kari needs a bigger rack.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
RTFA: They were trying to literally "knock the socks off" Buster by igniting 500 pounds of NH4NO3
Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
Experience? They are special effects guys, they have done all of maybe 2 or 3 really large explosions and all of them were oversaw by professionals because most of the stuff they deal with is not generally available. They aren't exactly blasting/munitions experts.
"I don't necessarily agree with everything I say." - Marshall McLuhan
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.
The cost of that cleanup, of course, will be borne by taxpayers, not industry.
BUSTED!!
"...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...
Remember the one where they tried to muck out that cement truck? Man, that was unreal! One second there's a truck, and the next second it's completely gone. No Hollywood fireball, just Bang! and no-more-truck.
Cool. That's what it is.
You have the order wrong.
The shows popularity would have made people come too close so it wouldn't be possible to perform the explosion. They judged it safer for everyone if people didn't know about it.
Myth: Plausible
Windows: Busted
Yeah, for the really big explosions, like the cement truck for example, they call in external help from professionals who are supposed to know what they're doing.
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Think ya used enough dynamite there, Butch?
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?
Well, I think that stuff like this can take anyone by surprise. Castle Bravo turned out to be 2.5 times bigger than expected, and those guys were Atomic Scientists!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo
I agree. The guy made the right decision. Mythbusters draws a huge crowd anytime they're doing anything. If people had found out they were doing something that involved an explosion those people would have definitely shown up... and then gotten blown up. Yes, it was startling for the towns people... but I think they'll survive.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Remember, they built the bulletproof shelter for explosions then in a much later episode discovered that the material wasn't bulletproof.
What's the verdict on the myth that the Mythbusters can continue to do huge explosions without any collateral damage?
Definitely busted.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
It was a NASA Mars Mission problem. The Mythbusters were loading 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate while the safety guys thought they meant 500 grams.
Experience? They are special effects guys, they have done all of maybe 2 or 3 really large explosions and all of them were oversaw by professionals because most of the stuff they deal with is not generally available. They aren't exactly blasting/munitions experts.
Presumably, this explosion was no different. That should imply that the fault doesn't lie with the Mythbusters crew, but with the professionals that were overseeing this demonstration.
Many reasons: Irregular sized object (it's not like they are trying it on the same object each time), terrain not blocking the sound/vibrations enough, climate/temperature hampering the chem composition of the explosive, improperly mixed explosive or contaminents. Last but not least - accidents happen. In all the years they have been doing explosives this is their first noteworthy accident. As for "this one in particular"...don't people always say that "why this one in particular...why me....why at that time...etc" -- eventually it had to happen somewhere - this is the spot.
I do not support "The Man". I also do not support your irrational stupidity
At this time, Buster is still unavailable for comments.
What, did EVERYONE (including Fire Marshall Bill) forget to bring their handy dandy bomb-squad approved $10 calculator with them that day?
I'm guessing they underestimated the burn rate of the explosives. This is probably due to the high variability in quality of ammonium nitrate. They may have done the calculations for agricultural grade ammonium nitrate, and used another.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
They usually have a retired FBI agent who is a specialist in explosives handle the big booms for them. I wonder if they had him along this time too?
Now we know why he's retired ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
They were igniting 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate
[humor]
I hereby declare this an act of domestic terrorism. The fact this wasn't in the middle of a public square just means they were bad at planning.
[/humor]
That one was unreal; it really conveyed the power of those explosives more effectively than any other explosion I've seen on the show. It's definitely my favorite.
I can't wait until MythBusters start busting nuclear weapon myths! Oohh boy! :D
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
My chem teacher
a: knew that potassium is *more* reactive than sodium, so used less of it
and
b: put the beaker full of water on the desk that the two cheerleaders in class sat at so when it went phooey they were the ones that ended up soaking wet.
He was a truly superior human being -- and he taught there his entire career, for 15 years after I graduated.
Nostalgia's not what it used to be.
It wasn't gone. Just more finely (and widely) distributed. :-)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Damn you, I wanted to be the first to post that.
The perfect comment, and it is only +2 Funny, right now.
And here's the oblig XKCD showing you why.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Our chemistry teacher would have everyone as quietly as possible leave the room. Then he'd move the clock to 5pm. Then he'd leave and on the way out into the hall bang the door as loud as possible, waking the student up.
Good times. =)
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
A new science teacher came to my high school during the 1980s. During the first week of his job, he decided to help clean out the chemical closet. As he was going through things, he came across a large jar of picric acid, which is an ingredient to some explosives. As he took a more detailed look, he noticed that the acid had crystallized.
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.
--Chag
Somewhat strongly in fact. I think experiment is the very essence of science. What you're chasing there is something different:
Misconceived ideas can be turned into accepted fact by flawed, or worse, deliberately contrived experimentation methodologies.
Well, of course.
But let's say some charlatan makes a bogus experiment and foists it on the scientific community. How do you refute their claim?
You got it - experimentally.
Remember a good experiment has a reproducible result. See cold fusion for examples in that arena. Cold fusion might be possible. But until you can reproduce it - by independent groups performing your experiment - it won't ever be science. Nature may have permitted it all along, but until you can experimentally verify it, it can never be science.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Yes.
It has to be combined with some type of fuel to explode.
Surprisingly, no. It will detonate all by itself with a big enough shock. This was discovered when a large amount (about a ton) got wet, and recrystalized into a large mass, and someone got the "safe" idea of just blasting it apart with dynamite. It was always "safe" before. There have been a number of ammonium nitrate disasters.
One could be reasonably safe by simply transporting the oxidizer and the fuel separately.
True. Or even mixed, though this is obviously less safe. Ammonium nitrate is such a useful explosive precisely because it is so hard to set it off. But, with an appropriate blasting cap, and sensitizing with fuel (6% fuel oil by mass will do it, IIRC), it can be done. It will also undergo a DDT (deflagration to detonation transition) in a fire in an enclosed space.
Actually, the biggest risk is generally ensuring that one does set the charge off, and not merely disperse it over a large area.
In Liberty, Rene
Actually try Wikipedia's Ammonium Nitrate Disasters Page
Here, if i accidentally blow out three windows with 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate i would be labeled and handled as a terrorist.
Even if i volunteer to repair all damage.
Come think of it, i would be handled as a terrorist there too...
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
I used to work as an explosives chemist- including once at one of the favorite facilities for Mythbusters- so maybe I can make a constructive comment or two.
Ammonium nitrate (AN) is used for stumping fields for a lot of reasons. First off, it's cheap. ANFO is just about as cheap as you can get in terms of "bang for your buck." When you're dropping iron bombs, cost isn't so much of a concern- even moreso with torpedos- so more expensive stuff is used for these applications.
Secondly, it's highly insensitive; ANFO either needs to be sensitized with other compounds (aluminum flake, for example), or a large booster has to be used in the firing train for it to be reliably detonated. Even then, most of the large shots I've been involved with used two independent firing trains, making a fizzle much less likely.
Thirdly, ANFO for stumping fields uses readily available components- a sack of AN (which, I note, can still be purchased locally- for now- with no special paperwork), and any one of a number of hydrocarbons like diesel. However, ANFO has a particular property that makes it amenable to stumping, which is that it provides less brisance- more "heave," and less "shatter." If you're moving rock, it's undesirable to move just a few hundred pounds that have been reduced to powder; normally you want to move a few thousand pounds that have been reduced to cobbles. It's the difference between being punched in the shoulder, and being shoved; given the same amount of energy, the effects will be dramatically different.
AN *can* be combined with other fuels to provide much greater brisance- anhydrous hydrazine comes to mind, but that's dangerous stuff even by the high standards held for explosives. Moreover, it's toxic and hard to store.
As an aside, it is disappointing to see Mythbusters using the "big shot in an open field" technique. They have a bigger budget, and should have gone somewhere that specializes in that sort of thing, like they have in the past. This obviously wasn't the right venue for a quarter ton ANFO shot. Noise abatement is a big part of dealing with energetic materials, and whomever they had on the job to make that assessment screwed up pretty badly.
The stuff that your on must must be good too. Can I have have some?
>>Wouldn't have been francium - that stuff's got such a short half life
>Because it surrenders to the germanium?
At the "Mythbusters Live" event, one or the other of the guys claimed that Scottie left the show because while she liked the myth busting, she didn't like being on camera. The producers of the show really, wanted her to get more air-time (they know their audience, after all). She didn't like being pressured into being on-camera more, so she left.