The MythBusters The MythBusters

MythBusters Episode 61: Deadly Straw

Premier Date: September 6, 2006

A piece of straw can penetrate all the way through a palm tree if propelled by hurricane-force winds.

busted

Propelling a piece of straw at a palm tree at a distance of 50cm at 320mph (the world record for recorded wind speed at ground level), the straw only managed to penetrate the tree a quarter of an inch. Even firing at the tree while it was bent (to increase the size of the pores in the surface of the tree) at point blank range added no additional distance into the tree. A piece of reed was tested as the sturdiest organic object that might be mistaken for a piece of straw. At both ranges, the reed only managed to go about two inches into the tree. Additionally, Jamie tried a piece of piano wire, and at 50 cm, it flew not only through the tree but through a sheet of plywood on the wall behind it, partially embedding itself into the cement wall.

Wind alone can blow the feathers off of a chicken.

busted

Even wind speeds faster than those ever recorded could not remove any of the feathers of a tethered chicken. The whole bird would more likely be blown away completely.

Polygraph tests indicate that all living things share some form of interconnected consciousness.

busted

Tests were done by connecting plants to a polygraph’s galvanometer, and then employing actual and imagined harm upon the plants or upon others in the plant’s vicinity. The galvanometer showed some spurious readings (showing some kind of reaction about 1/3rd of the time), so a much more accurate EEG machine was used. When Grant and Tory used a machine that dropped eggs randomly into boiling water, the plant had no reaction. Additionally, Tory’s leukocytes had no reaction when Kari shocked him with a stungun.