Original subtitles

Please do not try what you are about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

Can't you tell?

Narrator: On this episode of "mythbusters"...

Okay. Fire at will.

Adam and Jamie stare down the barrel

for a death-defying bullet dodge.

Damn.

Jamie: We want to see how close a sniper could be

and you would still be able to dodge his bullet.

Narrator: Provided you can see the muzzle flash...

Oh, i saw that.

I totally saw that.

Can you ever dive to survive?

Jamie might be able to dodge a bullet,

but can he dance like this?

[ Grunts ] Oh, yeah!

Narrator: Then buster is used and abused...

Anybody feel sorry for buster? No. No.

Narrator: As kari, Grant, and Tory

investigate the vertigo-inducing myth...

Kari: Belly flop!

That if you fall from a great height...

Dropping buster on his face repeatedly doesn't get old.

Narrator: Water has the same impact as pavement.

Adiós, muchacho.

Narrator: Who are the mythbusters?

Adam savage...

Ah-choo!

I'm done with science for today.

And Jamie hyneman.

Bye-bye.

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

Joining them... Grant imahara...

It's why we can never have anything nice.

Tory belleci...

I'll try not to let you guys down.

And kari Byron. Whoa!

You know, i went to college for this.

They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

Captions by vitac... www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by discovery communications

[ gunshot ]

All right.

This week, as voted by the fans,

we are tackling the myth that it is possible to dodge a bullet.

What do you mean? You can't move faster than a bullet.

Ah, it is not about moving faster than a bullet.

The theory behind this myth is the idea

that there is a theoretical distance

at which you could both see a bullet being fired

and yet have enough time to get out of the way

of the bullet that's been fired at you

before it gets to you and hits you.

Well, the shooter would have to be

some distance away, like, say, a sniper.

Exactly.

It's no myth that dodging a bullet at close range

is never gonna happen.

[ Bullet ricochets ] Ugh!

But when you increase the distance from shooter to target,

you increase the travel time for the bullet.

[ Gunshot ]

So, assuming a sniper is far enough away

and you see him take the shot, can you really dive to survive?

Here's what I'm thinking. This story is all about time.

Yeah.

So, the first thing i think we want to determine

is how much time a bullet spends in the air

between the rifle and the target

from a bunch of different distances.

Makes sense to me. Let's get shootin'.

All right.

And to find out just that,

Adam and Jamie need a supersized gun range,

like this handy abandoned airfield.

It's true that in the course of doing "mythbusters,"

Jamie and i have done our fair bit of shooting,

and we're not bad shots.

Oh, Jamie!

Now we're talkin'.

But for this story, we need real precision, real expertise,

and that's why we brought in

one of the finest marksmen in the country.

Jamie: Dave liwanag has been a U.S. army sniper for 31 years.

He was commander of the army shooting team.

He's one of the president's top 100 distinguished riflemen.

It doesn't get any better than that.

He's shooting a .338 sniper rifle.

This is specifically designed

for accuracy at extreme distance.

Narrator: And speaking of distance,

200, 500, and 1,200 yards

are the marks from which the marksman will shoot.

Adam: Here's how we're going to time the bullet's time of flight.

The instant the bullet leaves the gun,

it will cross through this piece of paper

with a piece of foil on each side.

When it breaks that piece of paper, the foil will connect,

creating an electronic switch connection,

which will send a signal through this wire to this here timer

and tell it to start timing.

That timer will keep timing

the whole time the bullet flies through the air...

[ Clock ticking ]

right up until our bullet hits the target,

crossing through the same type of piece of paper

with foil on both sides, closing a switch connection,

telling our timer to stop timing,

and giving us an exact time of flight of the bullet

from the rifle to the target.

The first distance we'll be sending a bullet to our target

is 200 yards... 600 feet,

two entire football fields end to end,

six m5's.

Narrator: So, with dead-eye Dave in position...

All right. Time of flight... 200 yards.

His spotter, Kevin, all lined up...

Kevin: Bias right ever so slightly.

And the trusty foil timing system

ready to record the flight time of each round...

Go right edge, Dave.

Liwanag: Right edge.

This test is gonna be a breeze.

Send it.

[ Gunshot ]

Jamie: What? Nothing.

It started timing. It didn't stop timing.

Narrator: Maybe not. The trusty timing foil is failing.

Basically, we've got an infarction

somewhere in the circuit.

The timing's just not working.

We can't tell if it's at the gun or it's at the target,

but in order to get timings, we have to suss this out.

[ Bullets ricocheting ]

Narrator: Next up, is the physics of a fall onto water

really the same as pavement?

Okay, so, we've got a good one.

In this episode, we're testing

that water is as hard as pavement.

Yeah, I've heard this one.

The idea is that if you fall from a height tall enough

and you get up enough speed,

when you hit that water, it behaves just like pavement.

Wake up buster. He's got some fallin' to do.

[ Chuckles ]

Narrator: It's an oft-repeated urban myth

that if you fall into water from a great height,

rather than a splash landing,

you have a pavement-equaling crash landing.

Okay, so, i think we need to get buster,

rig him with some accelerometers

so we know how much impact he experiences,

and then drop him on pavement

and drop him on water and compare the results.

Sounds good to me.

But bad for buster.

So, to find out whether or not

water is, in fact, as hard as pavement,

we are gonna be dropping buster from heights

wearing one of these.

This is an accelerometer.

It is an electromechanical device

used to measure acceleration forces.

Now, these forces are commonly known

as gravitational forces, or "g" forces.

Grant: Now, the challenge with our specific experiment

is that we're gonna be measuring very high "g" loads,

much higher than ordinary accelerometers can handle.

That's why we have this system.

I'm not fondling his nipple.

It's specifically designed to measure up to 500 g's.

I've mounted it inside of a waterproof case

in buster's chest.

Just like airplanes have black boxes,

buster has a black box, and this is it.

[ Air whistling ]

Narrator: All rigged up and ready to roll,

the team hits the perfect location

for a spot of buster-bouncing.

Tory: Here we are

at the south San Francisco water treatment center,

and this is the perfect location for us to test this myth.

It's always exciting when the crane shows up.

Tory: We have pavement, and we have water.

Once we get our crane set, we won't even have to move it.

Bull's-eye.

Narrator: In the team's sight

is a series of consistent comparative drop tests

onto water and pavement at ever-increasing heights.

Tory: You're good!

Kari: Okay.

So, the way buster falls and lands will affect the results,

so we've rigged a system

so that he should fall the same way every single time.

All right! 25 feet! That's good!

And first up is the feetfirst fall.

How's that for alliteration?

In 3, 2, 1...

Ow!

Narrator: With a long day ahead,

the dummy took that one in his stride.

But what do the numbers tell us?

Tory: So, we just dropped buster from 25 feet

onto the pavement, feetfirst, and he pulled 60 g's.

Now what we're gonna do is hook him back up to the crane,

swing him over to the water,

drop him again from 25 feet, feetfirst,

and see how many g's he pulls.

All right. That looks good.

Grant: Now, i know water is technically incompressible,

but compared to the pavement,

i think we're gonna see a lower "g" load

because his feet are gonna dip in,

the water's gonna give,

and he's gonna be decelerated over a longer time period.

Kari: In 3, 2, 1...

Oh, that didn't look so bad.

That's definitely not the same as pavement.

Narrator: And the numbers bear that out.

Okay, so, i got no trigger,

which means that that fall was less than 25 g's.

It won't trigger anything below that.

And, remember, in this same situation,

over pavement, it was 60 g's.

Narrator: But the myth states

that water equals pavement from a great height,

and at greater heights,

buster will be falling at greater speeds.

Perhaps hitting the water faster means the liquid won't displace

and will behave just like an incompressible solid.

Buster, my friend, things are looking up...

75 feet up.

That's a long way to fall.

Anybody feel sorry for buster?

No. No.

Just checking. All right. Here we go.

75-foot fall, feetfirst, into water in 3, 2, 1...

Oh!

Narrator: Ooh, that was a solid hit.

And as buster is raised and assessed,

it looks like he's taken a severe pounding.

But the data in the black box holds the objective key.

We got...

29.

Kari: No way.

Yeah, so that's half of what we got on pavement

at three times the height.

Grant: Wow.

Narrator: Not good news for the myth.

The fall onto water at 75 feet

is half as damaging as pavement from 25 feet.

But there's one more test before the data set is complete...

75 feet onto pavement.

Oh.

[ Laughter ]

That had to hurt!

Tory: All right, so, we just dropped buster

75 feet, feetfirst, into the pavement.

What kind of g's did we pull?

Grant: Whoo-hoo-hoo!

We absolutely maxed out our accelerometer.

Narrator: And "maxed out" means

the "g" load was in excess of 500.

That's an impact at least 17 times harder than the h2o.

In these circumstances, water clearly does not equal pavement.

But the myth isn't sunk just yet,

and here's Grant's theory as to why.

Now, water is incompressible. That's a fact of physics.

And if i put my hand in the water slow enough,

the water can displace... It can move out of the way.

But if buster were to hit the water fast enough

and if he had enough surface area,

the water wouldn't have a chance to get out of the way.

And because it's incompressible...

there will be some point at which the "g" force

is equivalent between water and pavement.

Narrator: So, because surface area may be a factor,

it's time to bring out the belly flop.

Up next...

Adam: The next distance we'll be firing from is 500 yards...

The distance of your average restraining order.

Narrator: Adam and Jamie are testing the myth

that you can literally dodge a bullet,

provided the shooter is far enough away.

And to find out, they've got an expert sniper

who's hitting the target first time, every time...

[ Gunshot ]

and a clever foil-based timing system that isn't.

[ Gunshot ]

It didn't work. It didn't stop it.

It's not working? It has to work!

Narrator: But despite the foil's initial failings,

Adam and Jamie tweak, tinker, and persevere

until the mysterious gremlins in the system are ironed out.

Jamie: 200 yards. Time of flight.

Fire at will.

[ Gunshot ]

Adam: Hey! We got a number.

What'd we get?

231 milliseconds.

Let's move back. All right.

With that first data point finally in the bag,

the team reset for the second shot.

Adam: The next distance we'll be firing from

is 500 yards... 1,500 feet,

10 olympic swimming pools, approximately, end to end,

or the distance of your average restraining order.

Narrator: And dead-eye Dave,

once he's assumed the position, focuses...

That's it.

And hits the bull's-eye again.

Beautiful. We got a reading.

Love it. 597 milliseconds.

So it's onwards and backwards,

as the team sets up for the third and final shot...

Nice thing is the box gets lighter the longer you walk.

[ Jamie laughs ]

this time from a massive distance of 1,200 yards.

Adam: The final distance we'll be shooting from is 1,200 yards...

Roughly an 8-minute walk, a kilometer,

to those of you in every other part of the world

besides the United States.

And when i look at the target from here,

i think, "what target?"

Narrator: But if anyone can make this shot, it's sniper Dave.

Sniping is actually pretty complicated.

Your modern sniper shows up

with a spotter and a computer to get the job done.

He's got to compensate for several different things.

Gravity.

If our shooter is 1,200 feet away,

to hit here, he's actually got to aim at a point

directly above, 30 feet in the air.

Okay. Time of flight. 1,200 yards.

The wind.

If the wind's blowing this way,

then our shooter is gonna have to aim

to this side of the target to compensate.

Figure 6/10ths left.

Now, he's gonna be looking at things like flags,

if they're there, or even the grass or mirages

to get a clue as to what's going on.

Narrator: Never in doubt,

Dave threads the eye of the proverbial needle,

and just as important...

Ha! Beautiful! We got a reading.

1.791 seconds to target.

Jamie: Excellent.

All right. Let's draw a graph.

Now that we've got our numbers,

it's time to plot them on a graph.

Let's start with the "x" axis... 12 increments of 100 yards each.

The "y" axis, going up and down,

that's time, from zero to 2 seconds,

in 1/4-second increments.

Then we draw a grid and plot out our bullet times.

The first bullet, from 200 yards,

took 231 milliseconds to reach its target.

The second bullet, from 500 yards, took 597 milliseconds.

The third bullet, from 1,200 yards,

took 1,790 milliseconds to reach its target.

We then draw a line between these three points and see...

Oh!... It's perfectly straight.

That means we can take any distance

and plot the amount of time

it would take the bullet to get there.

Or, conversely, we could choose a time

and figure out how far away you'd have to shoot

for the bullet to take that length of time.

Isn't graphing lovely?

Well, now we need to know

how quickly we can jump out of the way, huh?

Human-reaction tests it is. Let's do it.

Adam: I can't believe he can hit that target from here.

Jamie: Hit the target? I can't even see it.

Narrator: All incompressible materials are equal,

but so far, some are more equal than others.

When buster is dropped feetfirst,

water has nothing like the impact of pavement.

The angle of entry means the water is easily displaced.

Grant: Yeah, so, that's half of what we got on pavement

at three times the height.

Narrator: But what if that was changed to a belly flop?

Time to hog-tie him.

Will the additional surface area

save this scientific saga from sinking?

Grant: So, in case you're wondering... and I'm pretty sure you are...

Dropping buster on his face repeatedly just doesn't get old.

All right, this is buster's belly flop

into pavement from 25 feet.

In 3, 2, 1...

Oh!

Ow! Oh, ho, ho, ho!

Narrator: That looked painful.

And without his legs breaking his fall,

the "g" load was much higher than the feetfirst test.

Tory: So, we just dropped buster chest first on the pavement.

We got 286 g's.

Now what we're gonna do is do the same thing on water,

and my feeling is we're gonna see very similar results,

and i think anybody who's ever

jumped off a diving board and done a belly flop

will understand what I'm talking about.

This is gonna hurt. In 3, 2, 1...

Oh! Oh! Oh!

I give that dive a 9!

Grant: Okay, so, belly-flopping,

buster on pavement at 25 feet was 290 g's.

And on water, it was 115.

Tory: And what that means is, sure,

water is not as hard as pavement,

but it was a lot closer

than when we dropped buster feetfirst.

So, surface area is important.

The more surface area you have,

the harder it is to displace the water.

Now, what if buster was moving a lot faster?

Then we might see the difference

between the water and the pavement decrease again.

Let's see.

Narrator: So, the team thinks speed is the key,

and to get buster moving faster, they need to take him higher.

This is dropping buster from 50 feet

in the belly-flop position over water.

Here we go.

In 3, 2, 1...

Kari: Oh!

Oh! Oh! Oh!

Look at the wave that's coming out.

So, dropping buster from 50 feet

actually peeled the skin off of his side.

It was such an impact that all of us, i think, felt it.

Grant: So it looks like, on water at 50 feet,

the belly flop is giving us 220 g's.

Narrator: Now for the all-important comparison.

Will the 50-foot pavement plummet

be any closer to water than the 25-foot test?

Take it up. 50 feet.

Grant: 50 feet.

He might not survive this, you know?

Kari: Yeah, 25 looked like it hurt.

3, 2, 1.

Ugh.

Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!

Hey, he's still in one piece.

Tell me you didn't feel that.

That one made me throw up.

I am so glad it was him and not me.

[ Grant laughs ]

Grant: All right. Let's find out how he did.

Narrator: That was intense.

In fact, it was so intense, the meter maxed out,

meaning buster pulled a "g" load of 500-plus.

Kari: Oh, my god. That's a hard hit.

Narrator: Buster is bruised and battered.

But with the meter unable to register the force of the fall,

where does that leave the myth?

So, we've maxed out our meter.

That means that we can't compare numbers to the 25-foot drop.

Now, it's possible as you go higher

that water could become more like pavement.

We just can't test it here, right now, with this meter.

Narrator: Coming up...

Adam: So, i turned into one of the three stooges.

Adam and Jamie time their bullet-dodging reactions.

We got some good numbers from our sniper. What's next?

I think the moment has come

to time another element of this story.

Human reaction time? Exactly.

If you had to dodge a bullet,

just how quickly could you get out of its way?

I think I'm gonna go get a cup of coffee.

[ Laughs ] See, he's gonna get a cup of coffee.

It's gonna make him really hyper,

and he's gonna get out of the way really fast.

Narrator: So, they've got the numbers for flight time,

and in their attempt to deconstruct this myth

without actually shooting at each other...

It works.

The next piece of data is how long it will take

to react and move out of the way.

Adam: This test is all about measuring a human being's reaction time.

This is our human being.

His task... to get himself out of the path of a bullet

described by the "x" on his chest

and the bull's-eye behind him.

His signal to move, that the "shot" has been fired,

will be given by this digital camera flash,

remotely triggered by me from back there.

All of this will be captured...

My our lovely digital high-speed camera, which,

when we review the footage of Jamie's "dodging a bullet,"

will allow us to time

exactly how many milliseconds it took him to do it.

All right. Are you ready, Jamie?

Human-reaction-time speed test

at some random point in the very near future.

[ Camera shutter clicks ]

Nice.

Narrator: Jamie's fast.

His hoosier reflexes are honed to an almost superhero speed.

Adam, on the other hand,

makes up for his slow reactions with his lack of grace.

Now to assess the results.

Here's mine.

So, i turned into one of the three stooges.

[ Both laughing ]

But the hyneman legend continues to grow.

[ Adam laughing ]

Oh! Dude!

Check his bad self out.

He's a bullet-dodging hoosier.

Despite Jamie practicing and honing his "matrix" -style sway

with an artful economy of motion,

it turns out that both Jamie and Adam clocked very similar times.

They're both clear of the target in around 500 milliseconds.

But just for the record...

And this is the figure they'll take forward...

Jamie takes the gold

with a personal best of 490 milliseconds.

Jamie: With practice, i was able to get my reaction time down

to about 1/8th of a second,

and i was able to clear the bull's-eye

in less than 1/2 a second.

Now, this is a best-case scenario,

but that's actually what we want here,

because we want to see what is possible

in terms of how close a sniper could be

and you would still, in theory, be able to dodge his bullet.

Narrator: And for that distance, it's back to Adam and his graph.

All right, editors, help me out here

and put the original graph back on the screen.

Time on the "y" axis, distance on the "x."

Now, if i draw a line from 490 milliseconds out to our plot

and check out the corresponding distance, it's 400 yards.

That is the theoretical distance

at which you could possibly dodge a bullet,

but only if you could see the muzzle flash from that distance.

That's what we're about to find out.

Narrator: And that means a return to the range

for a test where the eyes have it.

Adam: The question is, how far away can you see the rifle firing?

Now, note, you cannot rely on sound

because the bullet travels

four times faster than the speed of sound.

You'll get hit by it long before you hear it.

This has to be a visual cue.

Narrator: A visual cue and a simple plan.

Adam and Jamie will stand downrange

and look for the muzzle flash

as sniper Dave shoots at a nearby target.

[ Australian accent ] A little motivation for our sniper.

Narrator: But rest assured, for safety,

Dave will be firing blanks.

This is the real thing, and this is a blank,

but this isn't just any blank.

This is a theatrical blank that we've selected

specifically because what comes out of it

looks exactly the same as what comes out of the real McCoy.

Narrator: And first up,

they're facing the firing squad from 100 yards.

[ Gunshot ]

I saw it. I saw it.

Okay, Dave, let's move back to 150.

Cool. Roger. Moving.

Narrator: At 100 yards, the flash is as clear as a bell.

But 200 yards is a different story.

Okay, Dave, 200 yards. Fire at will.

[ Gunshot ]

I didn't see that.

And at 225 yards,

even eagle-eyed Jamie fails to focus on the flash.

[ Gunshot ]

No, i don't have it.

No. 200 yards is our threshold. Yeah.

With our blank rounds matched to a sniper's round,

our ability to see the rifle firing is 200 yards.

If you look at that on our graph...

Yeah, it's not quite enough time for us to get out of the way.

Narrator: Remember, based on the bullet travel time

coupled with the human reaction time,

400 yards was the minimum distance needed to dodge.

But at just half that distance,

you can't even see the muzzle flash.

I don't have it.

Luckily, Adam has a plan.

Adam: Not all blanks are created equal,

and on "mythbusters," we always like to find out,

what is the best possible case scenario?

In Hollywood, for instance, a blank for that rifle

includes a lot more fire coming out of the tip,

'cause that's more visual for the movies.

So, that's what we're going to do.

We're going to start from this distance

with a full Hollywood flaming blank

and see how far we can see that rifle firing with one of these.

Narrator: In other words, for the time being, at least,

it's out with reality and in with Hollywood.

And the difference is like night and day.

Okay, Dave, 225. Fire at will.

[ Gunshot ]

Oh, i saw that.

I totally saw that.

Let's go to 400. Okay.

The Hollywood round is the gift that keeps on giving

because it's visible at 400, 800...

I totally saw that.

I did. I saw it.

And even 1,200 yards.

[ Gunshot ]

I saw that.

Totally saw it. Wait.

[ Gunshot ] And i heard it.

[ Both laugh ]

That's plenty of time to get out of the way.

Adam's right.

Dodging the Hollywood round sounds like child's play,

but the real-world round is altogether more challenging.

Next on "mythbusters"...

This pig doesn't want to fly.

The team preps

for a terminal-velocity pork belly flop.

I know what to call it. What?

A pork chopper! Oh!

Do not try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

[ Clang ] Ow!

Grant: So, to test whether falling onto water

is the same as falling onto pavement,

we've come to shadow cliffs regional park.

Now, so far, in the feetfirst position,

they're not very similar at all.

But in the belly-flop position, they're actually quite similar.

The only problem is that our accelerometer,

our measuring device, has maxed out at only 50 feet.

Kari: Oh, my god, that's a hard hit.

And that's why we're here.

Because this time, we're going to drop our items

from a much greater height.

So high, in fact, that they get to terminal velocity.

The reason we want terminal velocity

is the objects will never be going faster than that

and therefore never have a greater impact than that.

Narrator: So, to give the myth the best chance of working,

the team will be comparing a 600-feet fall

onto pavement and water.

[ As Schwarzenegger ] Come on! Let's go! Get to the chopper!

But how exactly will they compare the two?

Tory: All right, so, we maxed out our accelerometers,

but we still need to figure out a way to measure the impact

when falling on pavement and on water.

So, we can't use a human,

'cause, obviously, that's gonna kill somebody,

so we decided to go with a pig.

Ugh.

Kari: To collect comparative data, we're going to X-ray the pigs,

but then we're gonna have an orthopedic surgeon

analyze those x-rays, see how many bones are broken,

and what kind of damage happened when it hit the pavement,

and we'll find out if water is as hard as pavement...

And what i had for lunch.

Narrator: It's gruesome, but with no way of measuring

the force of the fall electronically,

a comparison of the physical damage incurred

will perfectly illustrate the difference between water...

[ Retches ] And pavement.

Okay. I think he's ready. Let's get the bag.

But the squeamish amongst you can rest assured

the pigs will always be concealed in sealed bags,

even when it comes time to assess the damage,

because that will be done with a portable X-ray.

This X-ray is cool technology. How fast does it work?

Well, from the moment we push the button

till the moment we're seeing the X-ray is about 5 seconds.

So, is this the weirdest thing you've ever done with it?

It's like a pig sleeping bag.

I'd have to say it is.

All right. Bag that pig.

Nice.

Grant: So, we're using this specially designed

military-grade plastic bag with welded seams.

It's designed so that when you suck the air out,

it will minimize the possibility of rupturing the bag,

thus preventing further gruesomeness.

Narrator: Essential to the validity of the result

is the requirement that both pigs fall at the same speed.

Cue a cute little stabilizing chute.

Grant: So, now that we have our two identical pigs

in two identical bags... one for pavement and one for water...

It's time to attach the chute.

Now, why do we need a chute?

Well, terminal velocity

depends on the orientation that the object falls.

Since we want to keep our pig in belly-flop position,

we're attaching this stabilization chute,

which will provide just enough drag to keep it like this

without affecting terminal velocity.

First up... pavement.

This pig doesn't want to fly.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure if you were gonna push me

out of a helicopter, i wouldn't cooperate, either.

All right.

So, the pig is in the helicopter.

Operation pork drop is ready to commence.

Oh, god, I'm not looking forward to this.

Okay. We'll be on the ground.

Good luck.

Heads up.

Narrator: Coming up on "mythbusters"...

Jamie is staring down the barrel.

Adam: The distance I'll be shooting at Jamie from...

[laughs] I love that sentence... Is 400 yards.

Now, on one hand, we've got our ideal number.

Based on our human-reaction-time tests

and our bullet-flight-time tests,

we know that the minimum theoretical distance

you could dodge a bullet from is 400 yards.

Jamie: Okay.

On the other hand, we've got our maximum distance

you could actually see the sniper's rifle being fired,

which is only 200 yards away.

So, at our theoretical minimum,

you never see the cue to jump out of the way.

Yeah, it's not looking good for the myth.

But we still got to try it.

Absolutely. I mean, who knows?

At 200 yards, staring down the barrel of a sniper's rifle,

perhaps your adrenaline kicks in and you become super-fast.

It's worth a shot.

But you do realize we can't actually

shoot each other with real bullets.

Aha! I've got a plan for that. Check it out.

Here is our sniper, and here is our target.

The sniper fires a blank round,

and when he pulls his trigger, he clicks a switch.

That switch sets a timer timing for the precise length of time

that bullet would fly through the air. Yeah?

At the exact millisecond it's supposed to hit the target,

the timer signals a paintball gun to fire a paintball at you.

It's an ouch, but it's not deadly.

So, from 200 yards,

the flight time we're looking at is 231 milliseconds.

Exactly.

Now, since we can't use real bullets for this test,

but we've gathered the information that tells us

the exact bullet flight time for any distance we choose...

Perfect.

We are going to imitate

the bullet's flight electronically.

Here's how.

When this gun fires a blank, a wire I've mounted on the trigger

is gonna close the circuit...

which starts this timer timing.

It will count down for the precise length of time

the bullet should be flying through the air,

and at the instant it is supposed to hit its target,

it will tell this paintball gun

to fire a round directly into Jamie's chest.

Now, will he be able to get out in time?

I think i might. No, not yet.

That's what we're about to find out.

Narrator: But first there's the obligatory costume change...

Jamie into something that will clearly show the paintball,

and Adam into something of his own choosing.

Where is that guy?

Adam?

Adam!

Here i am.

Are you done screwing around? Yeah.

Let's get to work. Okay.

Jamie might be able to dodge a bullet,

but can he dance like this?

Narrator: In their respective outfits,

the guys assume their positions 200 yards apart.

And, remember, 200 yards was the maximum distance

from which the guys could see a genuine muzzle flash.

The question is, does that leave the caffeine-fueled hyneman

enough time to dodge out of the way?

All right, Jamie, this one's from 200 yards.

Are you ready?

Okay. Fire at will.

All right.

Jamie, poised to dodge,

waits for Adam to fire the muzzle-flash blank

that will, in turn, trigger the paintball gun

the required 230 milliseconds later.

But when that will be, only Adam knows.

[ Gunshot ]

[ Jamie chuckles ]

Did i get you?

Got me. Give me a second.

Although Jamie clearly saw the muzzle flash,

he had barely moved before the time was up

and the paintball was fired into his chest.

Undeterred, Jamie tries a couple more times...

[ Laughs evilly ]

but to no avail.

[ Gunshots ]

Damn.

At 200 yards, i could see the flash.

I reacted to it and started moving out of its way,

but i just couldn't do it fast enough.

Narrator: Given that their quickest human-reaction result

was 490 milliseconds...

[ Gunshots ]

trying to dodge a 200-yard round in 230 milliseconds

was always looking like a superhuman feat.

This myth is looking totally busted,

but we've come too far to give up.

We're going to switch to a Hollywood muzzle flash...

I totally saw that. I did. I saw it.

Push the gun back to 400 yards,

which gives us 500 milliseconds to get out of the way,

and see if it's theoretically possible to dodge a bullet.

The distance I'll be shooting at Jamie from...

[laughs] I love that sentence... Is 400 yards.

This is the minimum amount of time

Jamie and his quick reflexes need

to get out of the way in time.

To give him the best chance, I'll be using

a full-flash Hollywood blank,

which is far brighter than the actual sniper round.

I'm set and ready.

Okay. Fire at will. Copy that.

[ Gunshot ]

He got me.

Narrator: It's not the start Jamie wanted,

but he's not gonna give up without a fight.

Okay, Adam, fire at will.

[ Gunshot ]

You got me again.

A very long fight.

With each shot...

Jamie is making progress as he hones his technique.

That was close.

But he never quite hones it enough.

So, can Adam do any better?

Do you want to try?

You bet i do!

Adam, poised like a panther,

gives Jamie the signal and then...

[ Gunshots ]

gets shot in the chest...

Again...

And again...

And again.

Adam: Well, that was interesting.

At 400 yards, we've got 500 milliseconds

to react and get out of the way, which ought to be enough time,

but there's a difference

between the shop test and the real-world test.

In the shop, we had this super-bright flash

right in our face.

In the real world, we've got a tiny dot 1,200 feet away.

It's a lot harder to see.

So, now we're gonna move that dot to 500 yards,

give Jamie even more time to react,

and see if he can deliver the goods.

Narrator: It really is now or never.

There we go.

With 500 yards and 600 milliseconds

to react to the Hollywood blank,

it's time to step up or get the hell out of dodge.

It's time to call into play those...

Catlike hoosier reflexes.

[ Zip! ]

Fire at will.

[ Gunshot ]

[ Gunshot ]

[ Gunshot ]

I dodged it!

Adam: Whoo!

At last, at 500 yards,

the hyneman does his best "matrix" sway,

and the paintball sails clean past.

But given the status of the myth, he's not that impressed.

This test showed that i would've been able to dodge a bullet.

But here's the thing.

We were using Hollywood blanks,

and if we were using real bullets,

i wouldn't have been able to see a thing,

and i would've been dead.

Narrator: Jamie's right.

You may be able to dodge

an unrealistically bright Hollywood round,

but in the real world, well, there's only one conclusion.

So, what's the verdict?

The verdict is it's busted.

There is no way you can dodge a sniper's bullet.

Everything about all their equipment,

including their bullets, is designed for concealment.

There's just no way you could see one fire from far enough away

to give you a remote chance of dodging that thing.

It's busted.

I agree. It's busted.

Let's go.

Jamie: So, you mind pointing that thing the other way?

Narrator: To find out if water is as hard as pavement,

kari, Grant, and Tory have commenced operation pork drop.

Okay, so, here's the plan.

We've already done drops at 25 and 50 feet.

In the feetfirst position, the "g" load was very far apart.

But in the belly-flop position, they were much closer.

But just to cover all of our bases,

we're gonna go up to 600 feet,

which will ensure that our pig reaches terminal velocity.

Tory is gonna get in the helicopter.

When he gets to 600 feet,

he's gonna kick the pig out of the door,

and then we scoop it up and count the broken bones.

Tory: Okay, so, we're at our target altitude of 600 feet.

We're hovering directly above the landing zone.

Are you guys ready?

Okay. We're ready.

Okay. Here we go.

Operation pork drop onto pavement in 3, 2, 1...

The pig is flying.

Well, he's more falling.

Kari: Ohh!

Oh! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!

Narrator: Despite a terminal velocity of 120 miles per hour

and an incredible estimated "g" load of 5,000-plus,

the bag remained intact

and operation pork drop was a success.

Tory: Now, dropping a pig out of a helicopter

seems pretty straightforward.

That is, unless you have an uncooperative pig.

But once i got him out of the helicopter,

the drag chute opened up, he got into the belly-flop position,

and, most importantly, he was traveling at terminal velocity.

And the best part is, we hit the pavement.

This was a perfect test.

Dude, that was crazy!

Did you hear that splat?

Yeah, and we got a belly flop.

Narrator: And now to get the thankfully sealed contents of the bag...

That looked like it hurt.

Over to the X-ray station...

We need to get this pig into X-ray... stat!

Where the technicians take the shots they need.

But before we assess and compare the injuries,

it's go for the h2o.

Get in there, piggy.

Kari: Okay, for this water test,

we're going to use a pig of the same weight.

We're gonna go to the same height with the helicopter

and drop it to get the same terminal velocity.

God, it's never easy loading a pig into a helicopter.

We're gonna smack down on the water in a belly-flop position

and find out if water is as hard as pavement.

Narrator: It's operation pork drop, phase two...

A-pork-alypse now.

[ Duck quacks ]

Tory: So, we are set.

We have our pig in the helicopter.

We're gonna take it up to 600 feet,

push it out of the helicopter, onto water.

Now, so far, we have not seen water behave like pavement,

but we have never dropped anything from this height.

We might see a similarity here, but we won't know for sure

until we pull the pig out of the water, do an X-ray,

and compare the two pigs.

We're all set. You guys ready?

Okay, Tory, we are good to go.

Pork drop number two onto water at terminal velocity.

Adiós, muchacho.

There it goes.

Okay. Stabilizing chute deployed, deploying.

Looking good, looking good!

Belly flop, belly flop, and... oh!

Oh!

Narrator: Splashdown.

And once again, the stabilizing chute worked,

serving up the perfect pork belly flop.

So, it didn't sink.

Now to bring home the bacon and put this myth to bed.

We thought the pig was gonna sink,

so we got a special rescue crew to go out and dive to get him.

[ Chuckles ] How's the passenger?

But he's actually floating on the water.

Personally, i don't think they're gonna bring in a pig

that's quite as damaged as that pavement drop,

though it looked like a really hard hit.

Narrator: But there's only one way to tell for sure,

and that's a professional medical assessment of the x-rays

with orthopedic surgeon Dr. halbrecht.

Grant: So, did he make it?

How did our pig do on pavement?

Well, the pig on the pavement did really disastrously.

17 fractures.

Wow.

Here's a femur fracture.

Fracture and dislocation of the spine.

And to top it all off, a decapitation.

Oh!

We got a dislocated head!

So, when we dropped the pig on the concrete,

it made a sound like...

a giant popping balloon.

Now, we didn't open the bag, but we did X-ray it,

and what we found inside were many, many broken bones

and a pelvis that was so shattered,

it was unrecognizable,

not to mention decapitation.

Narrator: It's an unsurprising litany of lethal injuries...

17 clear and catastrophic fractures.

But the key to this myth is the comparison.

All right, so, how did it compare to the water drop?

The water-drop pig did much better,

although it's still 7 fractures compared to 17.

Six rib fractures and also a neck fracture,

but not as bad as the decapitation.

It couldn't be clearer.

Two pigs of identical weight falling at the same speed,

landing in the same orientation,

have significantly varied injury diagnoses.

Both the quantity and quality of the bone breaks

means there can only be one result.

But that's not the only reason kari's so happy.

Kari: Now, having the clear-cut results

that the pig landing on the pavement... bam!...

Was actually a lot harder than falling on water was great.

What was even better,

those bags didn't bust open and i didn't throw up.

Tory: So, it turns out pigs don't fly,

but they do fall, and they land hard.

However, as far as this myth is concerned,

if you're hitting the water at any height,

it's not gonna be as hard as if you're hitting pavement.

So this myth is busted.

Kari: Myth is busted.

Grant: I think we're gonna have to call this one busted.

Tory: How come we don't have a helicopter

to fly home after every myth?

So, do you want to know why we did what we did

and didn't do what we didn't do?

Well, go to discovery. Com/ mythbustersaftershow

and watch our aftershow.

Keep those questions and comments coming in.