"Jamie want a BIG boom..."
Posted on 03/26/2009 4:54:43 AM PDT by Abathar
YOLO COUNTY, Calif. -- A big explosion, in the name of science, scared a lot of people in a small California town.
It all began with a test from by the crew of the TV show Mythbusters, but their test produced a bigger bank than they expected.
"It was a boom that was just -- I had never heard anything like that before, it was really wired," Sherril Stephens told TV station KCRA.
The explosion was so big, Stephens said it knocked her off the couch and broke her front window. Nearly the entire town of Esparto, Calif., poured into the streets to see what had happened.
"Course all the neighbors ran out into the street. We didn't know what was going on," said Paul Williams, who heard the explosion.
Some people said they thought it was a plane crash, others, a house explosion. All they could see was smoke and dust rising into the sky about a mile from town.
"It felt like a house blew up, straight up," said Williams.
Residents later found out that the Discovery Channel show was trying to literally "knock the socks off" a mannequin with explosives. The 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate was bigger than they expected.
Chief Barry Burns, of Esparto Fire Department, had several firefighters on hand for the explosion. He said he made the decision not to notify anyone in town for safety sake.
"Mythbusters is supposed to be a really popular show. Everybody would have been out there. We would have had to cancel it because it would have been too dangerous," Burns said.
Stephens' window was replaced that same day, compliments of Mythbusters.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
"Jamie want a BIG boom..."
seems to me letting people know in advance would have been nice. or why not just go out to the middle of nevada?
I think their biggest was when they vaporized a cement truck.
Now that blowed up good.
Can’t wait to see THAT episode...
When in doubt, overload.
It’s gotta be better than trying to catch a fart in a jar while laying in the bath tub.
It was the fire departments choice not to warn them, they were afraid too many people would show up and they would have to stop it for safety reasons.
“We are professionals...do not try this at home.”
My favorite is still the one where they sprayed non-dairy creamerand lit it. The explosion even scared them.
It was fun to watch Jamie jump when it blew up, and they were a mile away when it happened.
I rest better at night knowing that there continues to be scientific experiments confirming that igniting explosives still blows stuff up.
Science Never Sleeps. Keep up the good work!
“...in the name of science...”
Science? Please, these guys are hacks. Sub-par engineers laugh at their ridiculous assumptions.
But did the socks come off?
I liked that show, my father could have stepped in to replace Red and he wouldn’t even need a script.
If they used 500# of real explosives they probably had to hunt around to find the feet to see if the socks were still there or not.
I’m gonna watch that episode...
You are right. The “Science Content” is usually stupid. But at least they are trying!
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