OT: 'MythBusters' cannonball sails through neighborhood

They disproved the myth that they know what the hell they are doing.

I just hope they run this in the next Bloopers episode...

Jon

The video will be evidence in the forthcoming lawsuits. Don't expect to see it soon.

Best Regards Tom.

The video will be evidence in the forthcoming lawsuits. Don't expect to see it soon.

Best Regards Tom.

---

I especially like this line: "All proper safety protocol was observed,"

You kinda have to think that if they put a hole in a house almost a half a mile away, there just may have been something a little bit wrong with the safety protocol.

Arr! Stand and deliver ya scurvy yuppies!

--Winston

"We sunk a truck! Let's get the hell out of here!" -- submarine Lt. Cmdr. Matt T. Shermam, "Operation Petticoat"

Damn! You owe me a new monitor and keyboard, Winnie. Tea _everywhere_!

Put it on me tab, peg legged gibbet dangler!

Digital disk records are probably good enough. I figure three regular HD cameras and one or two high speed cameras.

This is one of the better-documented 'OOPS' moments.

Still, *very* impressive performance for a hobby - built cannon. Pan image to see the targets to the east:

?v=1sCeTyAXFUII'm sure glad my fingerprints aren't on this one! :)

--Winston

How did the cannonball get 90 degrees off target?

What a hoot!

What a crock! Listen to the spin on that one. Idiots! Crom, I'm glad I gave up teevee and "news".

You'n me boaf.

-- Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson

The cannonball had quite a trajectory, shooting through the front door of a family's home and sailing through one of the bedrooms before crash-landing into a minivan occupied by a father and his 13-year-old son.

It would be nice if the news could get the facts correct before seding it to print. The mini van was not occupied when the cannon ball went through the windshield. I watched a TV interview with the mini van's owner. Still not a good deal, but at least no one was hurt.

GregO

(...)

It didn't. If this animation is correct, it was only a few degrees +X of the target:

Apparently their backstop, didn't.

Yikes.

--Winston

I mean everyone who was involved in the fiasco.

That animation is sorely flawed. After seeing the video of the path of destruction, they showed a 20 degree misaim? (highly unlikely with EOD there), got the front door wrong (half glass door vs the real solid front door), the mid wall wrong (showing angular side wall entry, not flat hall wall impact, though it did bounce off the side wall), and the entry into the minivan wrong (side window vs back window, as the ball came up the driveway. What else did they get wrong? Typical halfassed media bullshit, just like the ABC "reporting".

Hmm, the side window was blown out of the minivan but the ball hit the driveway going up lengthwise? I doubt the van was parked sideways, so something's funky here.

I saw the map of the area and the target area was north to south, lengthwise and the housing was to the east. I guess if the area is hilly, they thought they could safely fire the cannon at the homes.

Yeah. And imagine what a full-speed ball could do to new homes! This thing was lolling along at a greatly reduced speed after hitting the mountain and bouncing on the pavement, etc.

-- Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson

I suspect they wanted to publish quickly and used 'canned' 3D models which would get the general idea across speedily. Doing a 3D capture on a single-family detached from halfway around the world is a time - consuming process.

However, in general, I agree that the media lie, mostly.

'Probably really a 'horseshoe' drive. Plausible .

20/20 hindsight entry #2876; Spherical things can roll and bounce.

Who knew?

I had a History teacher who commented on the effectiveness of the Civil War 'Napoleon' cannon. He said that one shot 'could collapse this whole classroom'. He said it with a certain gleam in his eye.

Scary man.

:)

--Winston

That looked like fresh 3D to me. DAMHIKT. ;)

Um, didn't you pay attention to the video? I saw nary a horse nor horseshoe drive.

Looking at the circled area on the first map you referred to, I thought they shot lengthwise, which would have put that errant ball into the hills beyond, where no houses lived.

Like, DOH!

YOUR classroom, huh? Why does that not surprise me...?

-- Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear. -- Thomas Jefferson

The canned stuff always has a metallic 'tang' to it.

:)

(...)

Yeah, on reviewing the map, I see that the 'L' - shaped driveway position would place the minivan's passenger window almost normal to the trajectory of the ball, if the minivan were parked with headlights nearly facing the garage door. (REAL Plausible)

(...)

I originally *assumed* that they would shoot north, where most of the 'downrange' lives, as well. Apparently that is not so.

Apparently the range officer felt that the leetle elevations to the east would act as a barrier to the ball:

I am *so* pleased that I wasn't the producer that received the phone call from the 'B' team and then had to relay the message to Adam and Jamie.

I'm ecstatic that I'm not the range officer that made (or OK'ed) the unfortunate decision.

*That* guy is never gonna hear the end of it.

--Winston

Capt. J.B. Henderson: Mr. Sherman, I want my wall back!

:)

--Winston

Um, Tang is orange flavored. Never mind.

Hmm, in the video, it looked as if the van would have been pulled up parallel to the other car in the drive, exposing the -back- window to all stray cannonballs.

This reminds me of the little skeeball game where the ball jumps the ramp and lands in the holes amid a maze of circles with different point values on 'em.

Maybe the range officer wanted to discredit dem Miffbusters and didn't care about his own future.

No kidding. In whatever new job he finds, some day waaaay down the road.

-- A sound mind in a sound body is a short but full description of a happy state in this world. -- John Locke