TV Science Experiment Goes Wrong As Cannonball Hits Nearby House

Mythbusters Cannonball

Huffington Post   Alastair Plumb First Posted: 08/12/11 10:33 GMT Updated: 08/12/11 10:34 GMT

Unless you're a die-hard Discovery Channel viewer here in the UK, chances are you won't have heard of (or watched) MythBusters.

A practical, action-packed show that seeks to destroy those generally-held-presumptions about science, physics and the world in general, it's a fun-filled programme that will probably teach you a thing or two too.

Recently, however, they managed to get themselves in the news not thanks to an outstanding experiment of theirs - but an outstanding cock-up.

Perhaps "cock-up" is a little strong, admittedly, with their blunder seeming to be a totally freak occurance - a cannonball they were firing at Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb range in Dublin, California managed to hit a safety beam and ricochet into a nearby house.

Fortunately, no-one was hurt - they have an extensive safety team on site for all experiments - and only a nearby car and the house were damaged.

What urban myths the show's hosts, special effects experts Jamie Hyneman (in the beret on the left) and Adam Savage (in the cowboy hat on the right), were attempting to bust in this particular instance is still unclear - but one thing's for sure: we're definitely going to be watching the episode it appears in. Cannonballs, you know? Can't not watch them...

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Unless you're a die-hard Discovery Channel viewer here in the UK, chances are you won't have heard of (or watched) MythBusters. A practical, action-packed show that seeks to destroy those generall...
Unless you're a die-hard Discovery Channel viewer here in the UK, chances are you won't have heard of (or watched) MythBusters. A practical, action-packed show that seeks to destroy those generall...
 
 
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Paul Medina
Not purchased by the corporations, Still free
02:32 PM on 12/08/2011
I wonder if this proved the myth?
07:04 PM on 12/09/2011
Myth - Civilians can fire cannonballs without destroying property
Verdict - BUSTED
lastpost
see biography
12:58 PM on 12/08/2011
“a totally freak occurrence - a cannonball they were firing at Alameda County Sheriff's Department bomb range in Dublin, California managed to hit a safety beam and ricochet into a nearby house.”
Unless its possible to faithfully reproduce such incidents, wouldn’t they themselves have busted as myth someone else's anecdotal report of this?
11:50 AM on 12/08/2011
It's still a good show however and they have proved that many myths are just that. One such myth involved mobile phones and they proved that a mobile phone cannot possibly cause a fire while you fill you car with petrol or that it can upset controls in an aircraft. In both those cases, they went to extreme lengths to try to get the phone to cause chaos but it didn't.