| A scuba diver can wear a tuxedo underneath his drysuit, go underwater, resurface, strip off his scuba gear, and be able to present the tuxedo perfectly. (This was inspired by the pre-title sequence of Goldfinger.) | Confirmed | Adam and Jamie donned tuxedos after meeting with an image consultant to learn about the particulars of black-tie formal dress. Adam boarded a boat to serve as a comparison standard, while Jamie put on a drysuit and took a 40-minute scuba dive to rendezvous with him. Once Jamie climbed aboard, removed the suit, and brushed himself down, both his tuxedo and Adam’s were found to be in presentable condition for a party. |
| A car’s tire pressure can significantly affect its fuel efficiency. | Confirmed | The Build Team ran a car through a test course with regular tire pressure, extremely overinflated and deflated tires, and slightly overinflated and deflated tires, and measured the resulting fuel efficiency for each. The data showed that lower than normal tire pressure resulted in significantly more fuel being consumed, due to a larger amount of surface area in contact with the road to increase friction. Higher than normal pressure did improve fuel efficiency; however, the Build Team discouraged the idea of overinflating tires due to the hazards involved and negligible cost savings. |
| A laptop can stop a point-blank blast from a shotgun. | Plausible | Using a 12-gauge shotgun, the Build Team fired a load of birdshot at a 4-year-old laptop in a leather bag from point-blank range, with a block of ballistic gelatin behind it to stand for the owner’s body. The birdshot easily punctured every area of the laptop that was hit and damaged the gelatin severely. In a second test, they targeted the battery – the component with the highest density – and found that none of the pellets would go through it. The team classified the myth as plausible, since only a very lucky shot would be stopped. |
| A hair weave can stop a .40 caliber bullet. | Busted | The Build Team replicated the conditions of the news story on which the myth was based, firing at a ballistic-gelatin head through a car’s rear windshield from 8 feet (2.4 m) behind it. The bullet easily penetrated the head’s hair weave and exited through the front, pulling some of the hair with it. The team hypothesized that in the actual shooting, the bullet may have ricocheted off a metal part before coming to rest near the victim’s head, giving the illusion that the weave stopped the bullet. |
| A refrigerator door can stop a spray of 9mm bullets. | Busted | The Build Team fired numerous 9mm bullets at a modern refrigerator door stocked with items commonly found in refrigerators. Every shot easily penetrated both the door and a block of ballistic gelatin placed behind it, indicating lethal impacts. They achieved the same result with a double-walled steel refrigerator door from the 1950s. What is the best way to limit the spread of germs created by sneezes? |
| It is easy to take candy from a baby. | Busted | Adam and Jamie measured the amounts of force required to simply pick up a lollipop versus taking one from a baby. They tried snatching the lollipop from babies of various ages (6–18 months), and found that the babies would actively fight to keep the candy. Younger ones tended to use brute force to hold on to the lollipop, while older ones used different tactics such as crying and moving the candy out of reach. Picking up the candy required 0.08 pounds-force (0.36 N), while taking it from the babies took an average of 2.01 pounds-force (8.9 N), indicating that the latter is actually harder to do than the former. |
| If a bottle of beer is put in the freezer for long enough, removed while it is still liquid, and given a sudden shock, the beer will instantly freeze solid. | Confirmed | The Build Team left bottles of beer inside a freezer for various times, ranging from 120 minutes to 180 minutes, before removing and striking them. They found that 180 minutes of cooling time was necessary to allow the instant freezing to occur. The most likely explanation is supercooling, in which a liquid, beer or otherwise in a very clean container can be cooled below its freezing point, but will rapidly form crystals and freeze if it is disturbed in any way. |
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