Original subtitles

Please don't try anything you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts.

[ Glass shatters ]

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

Adam: Go, baby!

Adam and Jamie go Newton cradle crazy...

Even these 2-1/2-inch balls are making me giggle.

As they find out if this viral video

is wrecking-ball baloney.

From big beginnings...

Oh!

To a colossal conclusion.

Adam: Looks beautiful!

But will their mother of all Newton's cradles really work?

World's largest Newton cradle. In 3, 2, 1!

Also toying with big machines are kari, Grant, and Tory...

N-o-o-o!

As they test a cliff-hanger of a myth.

I've had nightmares like this.

If your car is teetering over a gorge...

With even a breeze, that car's gonna go over.

Can a bird landing on the hood

really cause you to totter over the edge?

Don't make any sudden move.

Who are the mythbusters?

Adam savage.

That's a delicious memory.

And Jamie hyneman.

When in doubt, c-4.

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

Aah!

Together, with Tory belleci...

All in the name of science.

Grant imahara...

Something just touched me!

Narrator: And kari Byron...

This should be fun.

They don't just tell the myths.

They put them to the test.

[ Whirring ]

What are you doing?

An equation.

Go on.

Does one of these plus one of these

equal this?

Narrator: It's a simple equation taken from this viral video.

Take five cranes and five wrecking balls,

and you've got a desktop toy taken to the Max.

But is it really possible

to supersize a Newton's cradle?

[ Laughs ]

A wrecking-ball-sized Newton cradle.

That is fantastic.

Ain't it sweet? It's my favorite.

How do you want to proceed?

Well, we all know where this is gonna end up,

and it's gonna be with full-sized wrecking balls.

[ Scoffs ] That is gonna be a huge build.

Well, since this is all about scaling the Newton's cradle effect,

there's no need to go stampeding

towards the full-on wrecking balls.

Why don't we do it gradually?

You mean incrementally

bumping up the size of our Newton cradles?

Exactly, and see if we can tease out

any kind of problems dealing with the increase in scale.

That sounds perfect.

Let's do it. Okay.

So, after the first of many cheap gags...

You need to stop playing with your balls

and get back to work.

[ Laughs ]

Adam sets sail on small-scale.

Adam: Now, the Newton cradle is effectively

an instant lesson in energy transfer.

And energy transfer is the soul of this story,

for when we bring this up to full-scale wrecking balls,

the biggest problem we could encounter

is that the energy transfer doesn't work...

That when we lift ball 1 of the wrecking balls,

it does not send ball 5

like you'd expect a Newton cradle to work.

So, how are we gonna know how we're doing

as we scale this up incrementally?

This is how.

I will pull ball 1 up to this block,

which is the exact same distance from ball 1

as this block is from ball 5.

I release ball 1.

It sends ball 5

a certain distance that i can measure

and compare against our subsequent Newton cradles.

Narrator: It's a simple but short-lived setup.

So, let's see it again in slow motion.

Adam releases ball 1,

and in a clear demonstration of this cradle's efficiency,

ball 5 almost kisses the blue block.

Jamie: What'd you get?

The energy transfer was surprisingly clean.

Ball 5 traveled 98% the distance that ball 1 did.

Wow. Only a 2% loss after one hit.

Why don't we take it up a notch? Next size up.

Absolutely. Let's do it.

Adam: Now, I've got to make one of these

with five of these.

Now, clearly, all i have to do is attach some string to this,

but that's no mean feat.

I don't know if you've ever tried

to drill into a chrome steel bearing, but i have.

It sucks.

Narrator: And with that complete,

a quick montage later, and Newton 2.5 is ready to roll.

[ Laughs ]

Narrator: And, uh, roll it does.

It's not easy being me sometimes.

Narrator: But after a quick restring...

Shall we try it out?

It's got Adam dancing with excitement.

Adam: Oh, that's cool. Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

Narrator: And while both he and Jamie

get particularly pleased at something a little low-key...

Isn't that nice? Uh-huh.

It's definitely a build to be proud of.

It's funny.

Even these 2-1/2-inch balls are making me giggle.

[ Laughs ]

Right? I love it.

But in my mind's eye, I'm already seeing

the larger and larger ones that we're gonna be building,

and it's gonna be hilarious.

Narrator: But before that hilarity, it's time for scale test 2.

2-1/2-inch-ball Newton cradle

in 3, 2, 1.

Let's check it out on high-speed.

Like last time, Adam releases ball 1

before measuring where ball 5 maxes out,

and the results are very encouraging.

Adam: Come on, come on, come on.

It's looks like it's gonna touch.

It's 3/8" away, which is 3%,

which means it's pretty friggin' efficient.

The desktop model, the ball went 98% of the original distance.

This is 97% of the original distance.

[ Chuckles ] It's scaling beautifully.

Narrator: And what that means

is that going ludicrously large, like the myth,

may just yet work.

Next up, a cliff-hanger of a myth.

So, i have a classic physics-meets-Hollywood myth.

All right. Let's hear it.

So, a car goes skidding off the road

and is about to go over a cliff,

when it's saved by stopping precariously at the edge.

It's perfectly balanced,

but a little bird comes and lands on the hood... dink!

And the whole car goes crashing off the cliff.

A little bird causes a car to go over the cliff?

Look, I'm skeptical.

But you know what? Sounds like a good test.

Narrator: It's a favorite in many a scriptwriter's handbook,

but if a car comes to a standstill

on the very edge of a cliff,

can an inquisitive bird be enough

to tip the balance?

[ Slide whistle ] Aah!

All right, so, obviously we're gonna have to balance a car

on the edge of a cliff.

Why don't we build our own cliff?

That way, we know it can hold the weight of the car,

and if we go over, we won't get killed.

Good idea. Then for the fun part...

Getting a bird to land on the hood.

I don't think that's gonna be as easy as we think.

No. I think balancing the car is gonna be the easy part.

Narrator: So, with tipping over a real cliff

ruled out for obvious reasons...

Woman: Aaaah!

Narrator: At the bomb range,

the mythbusters are going to build their own.

[ Horn honking ]

[ Chuckles ] I think we mean business.

We got a lot of work.

Luckily, we have the big tools today.

All right, let's do it.

All right, let's move some earth.

Tory: What we got here is a front loader.

Whoo-hoo! Big toys for big boys.

This thing is very powerful.

It's got to move a lot of weight.

Let's see what i can break with this.

We're gonna be moving a lot of earth

to get our slope up to our cliff.

Nothing better than playing with big machinery.

Narrator: Although it may look a little bit precarious...

Grant: Whoa-ho-ho!

N-o-o-o!

Whoo! Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo hoo-hoo!

Narrator: The goal here is to build a solid cliff edge,

courtesy of a shipping container...

Enter one portable cliff.

Which a car can then be balanced on.

Grant: This is taking a while.

Kari: Well, it took mother nature

like hundreds of thousands of years,

so, really, we're right on schedule.

Narrator: Beyond the cliff edge,

they're making a sloping escape ramp,

which should make a survivable descent when the car tips over

a little more likely.

Grant: It may look like we've been out here all day, playing.

I mean, I've been up and down this ramp

probably about 100 times, but there's a very good reason.

And that reason is we're gonna be in the car

that goes off this container and down that ramp,

so we want this thing to be perfect.

Narrator: And Grant better hope 100 times was enough,

because with the cliff car delivered and pimped...

Just in case there was any confusion

who was pushing a car off a cliff

out in the middle of the bomb range.

It's "all systems go" for the pre-bird testing...

finding out the precise balance point of the car...

Okay, you guys ready?

No!

[ Chuckles ]

[ Engine turns over ]

Finding the tipping point, in 3, 2, 1.

So, you're just gonna ease forward, right?

Oh, man!

Narrator: Tory's first task

is to carefully drop the front wheels over the edge.

Kari: Okay, slow. You're about to get the tire off.

You can make it. [ Clank ]

I've had nightmares like this. Oh!

Narrator: And once there, the balance-point test can begin.

But it's a delicate operation.

Kari: Okay, slowly, slowly.

A little less on the accelerator.

Narrator: Too little throttle, and they won't budge.

Okay, we're not tipping yet.

Too much, and they'll flip over the cliff

without finding the tipping point.

We got no more traction on the back wheels.

Um... aah!

Whoo-hoo-hoo! [ Laughs ]

And that was too much.

[ Laughs ]

Holy crap. That was scary.

It was, like, one second, we were on the edge,

and then... boom!... We were off.

Whoo-hoo-hoo!

I think we need to do that again.

I think so.

Tory: Good news and bad news. Our safety ramp worked.

We were able to get the car

to go off the cliff and land safely, and we didn't die.

The bad news is, though, i hit the gas too hard,

and instead of finding that teetering point,

we just went off the cliff.

So we don't know exactly where that tipping point is yet.

We're gonna do the test again to find that.

This is gonna be fun.

Narrator: Still to come, bird balance gets bizarre.

Stupid condor!

But next, wrecking-ball baloney hits a hurdle.

Uh-oh. That's potentially very bad.

Narrator: Is this crazy construction site's viral video really real,

or is this myth headed to the wrecking yard?

Well, so far, it's so good...

I love it.

Because scaling up the Newton cradle

with bigger ball bearings appears to be working.

It's scaling beautifully.

But now it's time to go bigger again.

Next up, we're gonna go to a 6-inch-diameter ball bearing.

This is 33 pounds,

and that means that it's 323 times as massive

as these little ones.

Narrator: Like the 2-1/2-inch version,

it's Adam who's in charge of the build...

Another day, another Newton cradle stand.

Narrator: From the stand that, this time,

is more heavily reinforced...

Ha ha! Nice rack!

Narrator: To the ball-securing system.

[ Straining ] Oh, yes!

Wow! That's heavy. [ Thud ]

Jamie: I've been obsessing about this story

ever since i first came across it.

I'm finding it difficult to describe how much fun it is,

so the only thing i could come up with was to just show you.

The little balls...

Bigger balls...

and really big balls.

Need i say anything more?

Narrator: Actually, yes, Jamie.

How about you give us a countdown

to the efficiency test?

3, 2, 1.

Nice. That was a good clean one.

Check out the high-speed? Yeah.

Adam: All right, Jamie, ball 5 went

to 94.1% of the distance of ball 1.

Yeah, that's an additional 3% loss.

I'm still feeling pretty good about this thing.

Yeah, still working.

Jamie: So, is increasing the mass causing us a problem?

Well, we are seeing an increase in losses,

the more we scale these balls up.

But here's the thing... It's not proportionate.

These balls are over 200 times

the mass of the original small balls on the toy,

and yet we're only seeing a total of about a 6% loss.

It's not very much.

Narrator: Although there is drop-off with increasing size,

it's so slight that the bigger cradles still work as hoped,

and that means that full-scale may not be so farfetched,

provided, of course, that real wrecking balls

perform the same as ball bearings.

To find out if a bird can tip a car over a cliff,

the mythbusters first need

to find their car's balance point...

Aah! [ Laughs ]

which is proving harder than expected.

Yay! You guys are safe!

We're alive!

Bad news is, that was a little too "Thelma & Louise,"

so we have to put you back up there.

All right. Yeah!

I didn't think you'd disagree.

Kari: After a somewhat epic but really fun failure,

we decided to change our methods.

We actually put the car back into place,

and now we're going to inch that car forward.

Narrator: So, with the car engine off...

Okay, we're ready.

All right, begin the tipping-point test.

The forklift will instead gently ease it forwards.

[ Clank ]

Tory: [ Laughing ] Oh, oh. Okay, stop, stop, stop.

But will it have the required control?

Right about 5 1/2 feet. How does it feel?

There's no tipping.

Okay, give them just another tiny little nudge.

[ Creaking ]

Oh! Oh!

Whoo-hoo! Whoo-hoo!

Narrator: Well, so much for plan "b,"

because, like plan "a," the car is tipped too soon.

And without finding that tipping point,

they can't bring on the birds.

All right, plan "c."

We're actually gonna use a strap this time

so that if we go too far off the edge,

we can pull the car back to the tipping point.

Hope this one works.

Narrator: With resets taking too long...

Tory: Can't tell you how many times

i get myself into these situations.

The guys are hoping that the strap system

will let them find the balance point a little more quickly.

Kari: Give it little bump. Give me your angry inch.

But, as it turns out,

it still takes an entire afternoon

of pushing and shoving...

All right, now pull it back to 5 1/2.

I'll tell you when to stop.

Before they think they've cracked it.

Tory: Grant, we are at the point of no return.

Kari: After a lot of tinkering and a lot of trial and error,

we have found the exact tipping point.

I feel like we're gonna go at any second.

I think, at this point, with even a breeze,

that car is gonna go over.

Don't make any sudden moves.

So, now, when the guys start to sway and move their weight,

i think they're gonna go over the edge.

Ready? Let's do it together. 1, 2, 3.

Oh! [ Creaking ]

Ohh!

Whoo-hoo!

Yes!

Stop, stop, stop!

Narrator: Finally, they've hit pay dirt.

Okay, i think we found our teetering point.

Wobbling at the 6-1/2-foot mark, the car was so finely balanced

that a slight lean from Grant and Tory

was enough to send it over the edge.

But could a landing bird also tip that balance?

Tory: Now, it took us a long time

to get our car to that perfect balance point.

But after seeing how easy the car went over the edge,

i think if a bird were to land on the front end of the car,

we're definitely going over.

Well, in that case, let's unleash the beasts.

Later on "mythbusters"...

Adam: World's largest Newton cradle in 3, 2, 1.

But next...

Can a bird tip a car off a cliff? "Hoo" knows?

Narrator: In wrecking-ball baloney...

I'm confused. [ Chuckles ]

Adam and Jamie's shop tests using giant ball bearings

have been a hit... [ Balls clacking ]

Adam: I don't get tired of that sound.

This is what everyone will be wanting for Christmas this year.

Narrator: Which means it's time to go full-scale...

where the first thing on their shopping list

is five identical wrecking balls,

which, somewhat unexpectedly, turns out to be impossible.

But all is not lost.

There is nobody who has five identical wrecking balls.

Well, you know what that means.

I think i do.

We're gonna have to build our own.

How do you want to do it?

Big steel balls filled with concrete?

That could work. Shall we try it in scale first?

Sure. All right.

So, our full-size wrecking balls

need to be identical for two reasons.

First, it's because that's what you see in the video.

But second, and more importantly,

their mass needs to be identical

because that gives us the best energy transfer possible.

Not only their mass, but also their surfaces

have to be as round as we can get them.

So we've got to make our own,

and we're gonna use the building blocks of real wrecking balls...

Steel and concrete.

Before we go to full scale,

we're gonna try a scale experiment

with the simplest arrangement of this possible...

A steel sphere filled with concrete.

So, i have sourced some 6-inch hollow steel balls.

I'm gonna drill a hole in them

and fill them with ceramically hard plaster

that matches the compressive strength of concrete.

I'm gonna build a Newton cradle out of that,

and it really ought to give us a good guide

as to the viability of our concept for the large-scale one.

Narrator: And once the filling has hardened,

everything's set to see if they work.

Here we go.

Uh-oh.

Hey, Jamie, you better come take a look at this!

What's up?

Check this out.

Doesn't last very long.

Clearly, we're gonna have to come up with something

other than just filling our wrecking balls with concrete.

Yeah. That's kind of dead.

Jamie: This is just what i was afraid of.

These mild-steel balls are filled

with an ultrahard gypsum-based product,

but they're still not passing enough energy through

to do the job we want.

They're absorbing it somehow.

Personally, I'm bummed.

Now, i know that when you look at the high-speed shot here,

it looks like the energy transfer

you expect from a Newton cradle is actually happening.

Ball 1 goes down, ball 5 comes up.

But here's the thing that makes a Newton cradle awesome...

The energy transfer continues. Tick, tick, tick.

What I'm getting from this isn't tick, tick, tick.

It's tick, tick...

And everyone seems to want to go home.

I don't know what we're gonna do.

Narrator: With real wrecking balls unavailable

and the most simple do-it-yourself design

falling flat,

what this myth needs is a brainstorm.

So, giant Newton cradle. How do you want to do it?

Well, we've got this problem, right?

This is gonna be probably 20 feet high.

I mean, we can't forge these solid steel.

There's just no way.

And yet we can't have just a big sphere

that we fill with something like concrete.

It is a slow start, so let's speed things up.

Their goal is to design a wrecking-ball stand-in

that transfers energy better than their earlier effort.

Jamie gets a bolt from the blue.

Oh, oh! I know.

All you need is a plate to go right through the middle.

And then we get some metal spheres

and weld them top and bottom,

then fill the rest with rebar and concrete.

Don't they make buoys that are made of steel?

Yeah. That's the ticket.

Then we get one of those,

we put the plate in the middle, we end up with something

where it's a solid-steel transfer from ball to ball,

but no one could look at them and say,

"that's not a wrecking ball."

Like that. That is perfect.

I think we've got a plan. Let's do it.

Eureka! They've cracked it!

But for the rest of us, here's a graphic.

They're going to take a 28-inch naval buoy and cut it in half.

Across the center, they'll weld

a 3-inch-thick hardened-steel plate

that should be able to transfer the energy of the swing.

Inside the buoy, they'll add rebar and concrete,

just like some old-fashioned wrecking balls.

That leaves two questions.

With five in a row, will it work?

And can they build them?

Well, with a delivery of buoys, the guys get that ball rolling.

Jamie: These things are gonna get cut in half.

Then we're gonna weld the plates right down the middle.

[ Chuckles ]

This thing is gonna be the center of our wrecking balls.

It's a 3-inch-thick piece of specially hardened steel

that we've chosen because it's gonna be the contact point

from ball to ball.

And because it's really hard,

hopefully, it's gonna transfer the energy

just like the Newton's cradle does.

We're also gonna weld structural stuff that we need onto it,

like a bunch of reinforcing bars,

and the rest of the space will be filled with concrete.

Narrator: It's definitely an "all hands on deck" -type build,

even if a couple of those hands get distracted.

[ Hammers banging musically ]

But once Adam and Jamie chime back in,

their fearsome spheres...

Kind of hybrid of real wrecking balls and giant ball bearings...

Take shape fast.

And off we go.

And while the concrete fill starts chaotically...

Slow down!

Uh, stop.

It's not long before the team...

don, i need you to get the vibrator ready.

Has this part of the build in the can.

A little messier than i thought.

[ Laughs ]

Isn't that the title of your autobiography?

Lovely. Look at that.

And after two weeks to cure,

plus a quick paint job, they're all set.

But will they actually work?

Adam: After a couple weeks' work,

this is either 10,000 pounds of awesome

or 10,000 pounds of failure.

Coming up next on "mythbusters"...

A wrecking-ball-size Newton cradle!

Narrator: But the question is, will it work?

Please don't try what you're about to see at home.

We're what you call experts!

Yeah!

[ Horn honks ]

Narrator: A precariously balanced car

is no laughing matter,

but can a landing bird really send you over the edge?

Kari: So, we're back at the bomb range.

Now, it took a really long time

to get our car perfectly balanced on our cliff.

Grant: Ohh!

But now that we've done it, it's time to bring in some birds.

[ Whistle tweets, hawk cries ]

We have our expert, Jim, coming in

to use progressively bigger and bigger birds.

[ Chuckling ] Should be really interesting today.

So, essentially, this myth is all about leverage.

Now, imagine that this block is the cliff

and this brick is the car and this rock is the bird.

Because of leverage, out here at the edge,

a small bird can land there

and cause the giant car to go over just like this.

Narrator: That's the theory.

But will bird 1, a classic yet humble pigeon,

provide enough leverage?

[ Pigeon cooing ]

All right, so, now we're gonna start testing with the birds.

But we're gonna test it a little bit differently this time.

We're still gonna put the car on the edge of the cliff,

right where it's balancing, just ready to fall over.

Should've paid more attention to the sign... "cliff ahead."

But, this time, we're gonna tether the car,

so, that way, if it does go off the cliff

by the weight of the bird, it doesn't go down the hill,

because... let's face it... we don't want to hurt these birds.

We don't care about ourselves. We just don't want to hurt the bird.

Narrator: With Grant and Tory sitting anxiously

in the hot seats of their balancing car...

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Kari: This is it. Okay.

Come on. Bring on them birds.

Narrator: Jim flips the birds, and...

Grant: Okay. The birds are in place.

Yep, and we haven't gone over the edge.

There's not a hint of tippage.

But to be sure, the guys shoo the birds down the hood...

Go away, go away.

Shoo, shoo. Go. Get out of here.

Don't you have a park to poop on?

Because the further they are from the fulcrum,

the greater the chance of a tip.

Two pigeons, not happening.

Nope. We are not going over the edge.

Ain't that the truth.

The two pounds of pigeon is just not enough

to cause their balanced car to tilt up and over,

which means...

Think it's time for a bigger bird!

Okay, so, we didn't get any tipping from the pigeons,

so we're gonna move on to hawks.

Now, not only are we gonna get the extra weight

but also the momentum of the hawks' landing.

I still don't think it's gonna be quite enough to tip the car.

You guys ready for the birds?

It's time to let the hawks go.

All right, hawk number 1, ready to deploy.

Narrator: Murray lands in a hurry...

But there's no wobble to their wheels.

That didn't send us over the edge.

All right. Bring out another hawk.

Doubling the mass to almost five pounds

does seem to make a difference.

I could see the hood kind of bobbling there.

But it is still not enough.

All right, that's two hawks at the end of the car,

and we have not gone over the edge.

Kari: You're not going over.

We did not fall over.

And when two hawks fail...

You got some work to do. Are you ready?

It's time to bring in the big guns...

The giant eagle owl.

You know, in many cultures, the owl is the harbinger of death.

Harbinger of death?!

Thanks for the encouragement, Jim.

And with those wise words, it's go time.

All right, let's see if this owl will send us over the cliff.

He's big. He's really big.

Aah

we survived! We did!

He's at the edge of the car, and we did not go over the cliff!

Yep, once again, the car's balance is unaffected,

even with this 7-pounder right at the front of the hood.

Well, if the owl is not gonna do it, i don't know what is.

Narrator: Grant, for one, is not that surprised.

Okay, so, why don't i think this works?

Well, imagine that you're at a playground

and you have a perfect seesaw.

Theoretically, if you have a mass, which is the bird,

landing far enough away from the pivot,

it should be able to move the seesaw, no problem.

The only problem here is that this seesaw weighs 3,000 pounds

and it's on a metal pivot,

and the bird isn't heavy enough

and it's not landing with enough force

to cause it to move.

Narrator: In other words, it's gonna take an even bigger bird

to tip this car.

And for that, it's back to the shop.

Tory: Do you hear that? [ Imitates bird screech ]

That's the call of the wild. Ca-caw! Ca-caw!

Narrator: Adam and Jamie's wrecking balls are ready.

Let's move them out. All right.

Now they just need to be strung up

into the world's largest Newton's cradle.

Jamie: This is our location.

It's a dry dock in vallejo, California,

and we've used it a number of times before for experiments.

Check this out.

[ Cheers ]

I don't mind saying I'm hyperventilating.

So, why this location?

Well, for the wrecking-ball-scale version

of the Newton's cradle, we need to be able

to suspend the balls at quite a height.

Now, we could do it on top of a large building,

or we could do it by suspending them

over a big hole, like this one.

Narrator: As well as the big hole,

the dry dock also comes complete with its own cranes.

But unlike the video,

the guys won't be swinging their balls from them.

Adam: Now, in the clip, our wrecking-ball Newton cradle

is actually suspended from five adjacent tower cranes

next to each other.

And there's two problems with this picture.

One is they don't use tower cranes to swing wrecking balls.

And, two, we were never, ever going to find five tower cranes

that we could park right next to each other.

So this "i" beam

and four others quite similar to it

are going to be a figure-8 structure

which we are going to hang

our wrecking-ball Newton cradle from.

We're just about to weld it in place.

That's it. That was fast.

Let's get it in the air. Yeah.

Narrator: With the frame secured

so that it juts out over the dry dock,

the guys then need to attach their wrecking balls to it...

[ Chuckles ]

I'm gonna go over here.

Which, given their combined weight of over five tons...

Aren't they pretty?

Is something which is easier said than done.

Jamie: Given that each of these balls weighs about a ton,

it's gonna be quite a process

to hoist them and maneuver them into place,

so I'm gonna be on the ground with a forklift

and I'm carefully gonna cradle them

and pick them up and put them in place...

Okay.

How does it look up there?

Looks beautiful!

While Adam is overhead on a boom lift,

arranging the slings and the cables.

And we'll carefully scooch them all in so they precisely fit,

because if this thing is gonna work,

that's the way it's gonna have to be.

I think it's good!

Adam: It looks perfect!

Narrator: And once that's sorted,

the guys get on with the finishing touches.

Jamie: Does that add something to them?

Totally.

Yeah, it makes them pop a little bit, huh?

But some viewers may be wondering

why there's not two strings attached.

Why, oh, why, you might be asking,

are we hanging these wrecking balls from single cables

when every Newton cradle we've thus far built in this episode

hangs from two cables in a "v" formation?

That's because this is the arrangement

that we see in the clip.

We are testing the circumstances of the clip first.

And only if that doesn't work do we go to two cables.

Narrator: With the string theory sorted,

everything is finally ready for a test.

All right, you ready? [ Chuckles ]

I've been waiting for this, you know?

I know. Me too.

The world's largest Newton cradle,

test number 1,

in 3, 2, 1!

Oh! Ohh. Ooh.

Ooh. Uh-oh.

Uh-oh. We had a little rig settling there.

Yeah.

It wasn't very exciting, though.

No. It wasn't.

It was one hit.

Yeah. A one-hit wonder.

Narrator: A one-hit wonder, indeed,

and not a good one, at that.

But all is not lost.

I don't need this high-speed camera

to tell me that one was, shall we say, lackluster.

Where did the energy go?

The middle of every one of these balls

is a big hardened-steel plate!

Well, some of the energy was absorbed by the balls,

but some of it was absorbed by our framework actually moving.

The amount of force from ball 1 hitting ball 2

moved our entire multi-thousand-pound framework.

So we've secured it and we're gonna go again.

Narrator: With the framework secured to within an inch of its life,

it's onwards and upwards, because, this time...

I think that's good!

They're pulling ball 1 back as high as it will go,

to try to maximize the energy of the swing.

Single string. Maximum pullback.

In 3, 2, 1.

Come on.

[ Adam laughs ]

That was a hell of a hit.

It was a hell of a hit and a very sad, sad story.

They're all just sort of swinging together.

[ Sighs ]

That's kind of a letdown.

That is a real letdown.

Yep, despite ball 1 hitting ball 2

with an impact in excess of 150,000 psi,

there's still no ca-ching to the swing.

Hear that? [ Bonk ]

[ Laughing ] That is the sound of failure.

[ Laughs ]

This thing is so awesome! I wish you could see it!

Unfortunately, all we've got to show for it

is some swinging shiny balls.

They're not tick-tick-ticking

like the Newton cradle of our dreams.

Sorry.

Narrator: No need to be sorry, Adam,

because this myth's grand finale is still to come.

Narrator: A pigeon cannot cause a precariously balanced car

to tip over the edge.

But could a much, much bigger bird?

[ Bird screeches ]

[ Slide whistle ] Aah!

All right, despite what they say about working with animals,

those birds were really cooperative.

But since we don't have access to any bigger flying birds,

i think we need to come up with another plan.

Tory: Yeah, and it's starting to get

a little dangerous for these birds.

What if we went with a model helicopter?

We get one that's the same weight

as the biggest flying bird

and have it land on the front of the car.

That's a great idea.

Not only can we match the mass of the bird,

but we also get the downforce from the rotors,

just like the bird flapping its wings.

Awesome.

Narrator: Weighing over 20 pounds,

the California condor is majestic...

A far cry from the "mythbusters" helicopter stand-in.

But while it won't win any prizes for elegance,

what's key is that the condor copter

weighs the same as the real deal.

So, I've slightly altered an r.C. Helicopter

to emulate the heaviest flying bird in north America.

It should not only be the same weight,

but, also, it should represent its flight path

when it lands on top of the car.

Narrator: And that flight path

is something that's been studied by Grant.

Now, i found something very interesting

about the way large birds land.

Check out this video of our giant owl.

See how he swoops down right before he lands?

He rears up and then lands very softly.

He's minimizing his landing speed,

minimizing that momentum that he imparts on the target zone,

and that's exactly what we're gonna want

our helicopter to do on the hood of the car.

Narrator: Well, with the boys all buckled up...

All right. Time to go to work.

And expert pilot wolf witt champing at the bit...

[ Motor revving ]

it's time for this myth to lift off.

That bird is just trying to psych us out right now.

I know! Oh, no! Here it comes!

The very precise landing route that the heli must adhere to

is making life very difficult for pilot wolf.

Get away, you stupid condor!

And when the wind kicks up, things get harder still.

Oh, he's playing games with us!

But, eventually...

The eagle has landed.

Oh! He did it!

He did it, and we didn't go over!

Whoo! Yes!

We survived! Yes!

You're still there!

20 pounds, just like the condor,

the biggest flying bird in north America.

Still didn't tip the car.

Narrator: So, to get that elusive drop-off,

the team is finishing up

with some poultry in motion. [Poetry]

We want to see, bird-wise, what it takes to get that car to tip off the cliff.

So i spent all morning training 80 of my best hens

to land gently on the hood of that car.

They're going to, single-file, line up at the front

and work their way back until it finally goes off.

Okay, you guys ready?

We're ready.

No laughing.

Narrator: Each hen weighs a pound and a half.

They just sit and play dead. It's incredible.

So, by keeping tally of the number on the hood...

How many you got on there?

Five. Oh!

Bird down!

The guys will know how much weight it would take...

22.

I'm starting to get a little nervous.

To unbalance the car.

60!

Can you believe this? 60 game hens.

That's 90 pounds, man.

90 pounds, and still we are hanging on to the cliff.

Yet, incredibly, even with all 80 hens on there...

That's like a small person standing on the hood.

The car still doesn't go.

Kari: I know. This is getting stupid.

Totally stupid.

But Tory came prepared for this eventuality...

[ Whirring ] Aah!

I don't like it! I don't like it!

Grant: Oh, my god! That's crazy!

And brought a 20-pound robotic Turkey,

which dances and jigs until...

Oh! Oh, god!

[ Laughter ]

[ Both laughing ]

[ Whirring continues ]

Oh, my god! That was crazy!

I wish you could see

the trail of bird destruction behind you.

You have to make that stop! It's so creepy!

All right, it is not looking good for this myth.

The movie version where a tiny little bird

just kind of... dink!... Lands at the end

and the whole thing goes... Looking a little busted to me.

Tory: The good news

is we got birds to get the car to go off the cliff.

The bad news is it took over 80 birds...

140 pounds, to be exact.

And the only way that would happen

is if a pterodactyl were to land on the front of your car,

and we all know that that's not gonna happen.

Narrator: And what that means is this myth is busted.

At least, now we know why the chicken crossed the road...

To get out of the way of the falling car!

Narrator: The mythbusters' giant Newton's cradle

started with a song...

* five homemade wrecking balls *

* one huge steel frame *

* huge, empty dry dock *

* and a wrecking-ball Newton cradle *

narrator: But ended with a dong.

[ Clank ]

Jamie: That was a hell of a hit.

And a very sad, sad story.

But there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

So, check this out.

Even though this is hardened steel,

the areas where the balls are impacting

have become flattened from the impacts.

And it's not just here.

It's throughout all of the balls,

which means that they're all kind of squashing

like hamburger patties.

The amount of force here is something on the order

of 500,000 times as much as what's happening

with those little balls on the desktop toy.

So, clearly, lack of energy is not our problem.

Narrator: Which means the problem

may be the single-cable system causing the balls to lose focus.

[ Sighs ] That's kind of a letdown.

So, having restrung the balls with an extra cable,

things are looking up.

So, with some preliminary playing

with the five wrecking balls on the two lines,

Jamie and i are actually seeing

somewhat of a radical improvement in their behavior.

Oh, oh, oh! That's a little more positive.

We're actually not just seeing a tick and then a "buh."

We're actually seeing a tick, tick, which is...

It makes me cautiously optimistic about this next test.

Jamie: So, why would two strings per ball

work better than a single string?

Well, the Newton's cradle is all about efficient energy transfer.

So if any one of these balls is a little out of line,

that's gonna mess up the efficiency.

The two strings will help keep these all lined up perfectly,

and, hopefully, that will improve

what we're seeing from this device.

Narrator: Well, there's only one way to find out.

Adam: Wrecking-ball-size Newton cradle, "v" formation cabling.

In 3, 2, 1!

Go, baby!

Yes! One...

[ Clank ] Two...

Three.

Ish...

Four. [ Chuckles ]

It's another disappointing result.

But at least there was some improvement.

Jamie: That was a little bit better.

While our single string gave us a 30% throw-out on ball 5,

our double-string version gave us a 45% throw-out

on the same ball.

Now, that's nowhere near the desktop version,

which gave us 98%,

and it's nothing like the clip.

But before this balls-up gets concluded,

there's one last thing to try...

Ball 1 pulled back to the Max.

Two strings, Max pullback.

In 3, 2, 1/

narrator: It really is now or never, and...

[ Adam laughs ]

it's never.

That went quite a ways.

And now it's all done.

So cue one of the mythbusters' mottos...

Failure is always an option.

Adam: There goes one of our cameras.

Jamie: As far as we're aware,

this is the largest Newton's cradle

that's ever been built.

And it is a Newton's cradle, because it's demonstrating

exactly the same physical properties

that the small one does.

But as we get larger and larger, it becomes harder and harder

to rein in the physical losses of energy in the system,

from the balls to the cables to the overhead structure.

While it is a Newton's cradle,

it's just never gonna be as perfect as the little ones are.

So, where do we stand?

We set out to replicate what we saw in that clip,

and nobody can say that we didn't give

a wrecking-ball-size Newton cradle

[grunts] The best possible chance of succeeding.

But it didn't look anything like the clip.

No. This one is totally busted.

Yeah, it's busted.

Narrator: And it's busted not just because

their best-case-scenario balls failed to fire,

but also because the viral video was nothing but cgi.

Jamie: Hey, you know, we ought to start our own demolition company.

We got wrecking balls, we got explosives...

Adam: Absolutely. Whatever you want.

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