Fact or Fiction: 20 of MythBusters' Best Investigations

Back in 2002, producer Peter Rees pitched the Discovery Channel on a show that would test various stories, rumors, urban legends, and myths. Since then, two charming special effects specialists, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, have tirelessly debunked and confirmed these very same myths on "Mythbusters."

1. Spilled gasoline can be ignited with a cigarette.

TRUTH: A cigarette can ignite gasoline (the ignition temperature of gasoline is 260-280 °C, while a cigarette produces 260-300 °C when lit).

2. Metal piercings on the body increase the chance of being struck by lightning.

MYTH: To "attract" a zipper, you need a piercing the size of a doorknob.

3. A fertilized octopus egg swallowed while swimming can mature in the stomach.

MYTH: An experiment showed that octopus eggs die in the human stomach long before they mature due to unfavorable conditions.

4. A sinking ship creates a strong vortex that can pull a person under water.

MYTH: It can't. Although a small boat, the Miftanik, was used, neither Adam nor Jamie were pulled underwater, despite being directly above the sinking vessel.

5. If you eat poppy seed cake, a drug test will show that you are under the influence of drugs.

TRUTH: Poppy seeds may contain some opium alkaloids. Therefore, if a drug detection device is sensitive enough, it will work. The presenters confirmed this by eating poppy seed buns and failing a drug test.

6. If you eat a lot of fizzy candies and drink a lot of cola, an explosion will occur in your stomach.

MYTH: The carbon dioxide released during this reaction isn't enough to cause a stomach ache. However, it would certainly cause pain to the person doing it.

7. A bunch of balloons can lift a four-year-old child into the air.

TRUE: It's possible. It would take 3,500 balloons.

8. During a thunderstorm, a person can be struck by electricity through a telephone while talking.

TRUE: The demolition crew placed a ballistic gel dummy in a chair and attached a telephone receiver to its ear. They then triggered a simulated lightning strike—a 200,000-volt discharge—that struck the model house housing the dummy. A discharge from the telephone receiver's microphone struck the dummy's mouth, detonating the gunpowder placed inside as a trigger. The fuses in the dummy's voltage meter blew.

9. A sandwich is more likely to land butter side down than butter side up.

MYTH: A comprehensive and unbiased test revealed no statistically significant difference in whether sandwiches landed butter-side up or butter-side down. The ratio of butter-side down to butter-side up was 50/50. However, when a sandwich is pushed off the table, it usually only flips once and lands butter-side down.

10. A sunken ship can be raised using ping-pong balls.

TRUTH: It's possible! Balls were recovered from the bottom of the Miftanik-2, although they had to be pumped into the vessel along with about 27,000 tons of water, which is impractical.

11. A coin dropped from a skyscraper can reach enough speed to kill a pedestrian below.

MYTH: A coin can't kill. Due to air resistance, a coin can't accelerate continuously. After falling 100 meters, its speed remains virtually constant. And at this speed, a small coin's mass is insufficient to pierce human skin. If fired from a gun, it might cause some damage, but it won't kill.

12. You can fly on a deck chair by attaching meteorological balloons to it, and then land safely by shooting the balloons with an air gun.

TRUTH: It's possible to take off and then come down. Adam Savage took off in his contraption, consisting of a lawn chair and 16 weather balloons, and safely reached an altitude of 22.5 meters. He then shot down one of the balloons and safely descended to earth. This myth was also confirmed by documents from the Air Transport Agency.

13. If you are buried alive, you can stay alive.

MYTH: Jamie risked his life to test this myth. Although he survived 50 minutes in the unburied coffin, he only survived 30 minutes after the coffin was covered with earth. Suffocation from lack of oxygen will result in death if the coffin is not crushed by the earth. It was the risk of the coffin's possible collapse that forced the experiment to be terminated after 30 minutes.

14. Urinating on a live metal fence will result in electric shock.

PARTIALLY TRUE: There will be a shock. But that's only if the person is close to the fence. At a greater distance, the urine stream breaks up into droplets, preventing the current from flowing, so there will be no shock.

15. A household electrical appliance falling into a bathtub full of water is fatal for the person in it.

TRUTH: The current flowing through the ballistic gel dummy's "heart" proved fatal to most electrical appliances tested (toasters, hair dryers, radios, etc.). It was proven that the use of residual-current devices (RCDs) prevented electric shock both when the RCD was installed in the electrical system and when the RCD was used in the appliance itself (a hair dryer equipped with an RCD shut off almost instantly when submerged in water).

16. The "5-second rule" applies to food dropped on the floor.

MYTH: For those who don't know, the "5-second rule" states that it's safe to eat food dropped on the floor and picked up within five seconds. In reality, there's virtually no difference between the number of bacteria collected in two seconds and five seconds.

17. A wine glass can be broken using your voice.

TRUTH: Using an amplifier and speakers, the demolitionists broke a crystal glass. And rock singer Jamie Vender managed to break the glass with just his voice, without using any equipment—definitively confirming the myth.

18. You can fry something in a solarium.

MYTH: Of course not! The UV rays from tanning beds can only cause sunburn.

19. By shooting the lock with a pistol, it can be opened.

MYTH: Neither the 9mm pistol nor the .357 Magnum opened either a padlock or a mortise lock.

20. If you jump at the last moment in a falling elevator, you can soften the impact and survive.

MYTH: The speed of a human jumping is too slow compared to the speed of the falling elevator, and the impact is cushioned too little. Furthermore, it's very difficult to predict the exact moment of impact. The best advice in such a situation is not to jump, but to lie down on the floor of the elevator.