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Mythbusters on hiatus Thursday, July 24 2008

A week without the Mythbusters. How will we know if we can drink our diet soda while refreshing our breath with Mentos?

See you soon.

This week was supposed to be a repeat of the whirlpool episode, but instead viewers were shown a mini-marathon of Deadliest Catch. Deadliest Catch is another of Discovery's fascinating reality shows. They follow fishermen catching king crabs in the Bearing Sea. It's an interesting show, that you can't help but be drawn into. One can only assume this was to bring in the season premier. So, even though we missed Mythbusters, Deadliest Catch was a wonderful fill in.

The episode of mythbusters we missed this week, however, was also a fascinating one. Jamie and Adam created a whirlpool tank to test if a boat could be pulled in, then Adam strapped on a wet suit and climbed into their homemade whirlpool tank to see if it would suck him down. They found that it wouldn't suck down the boat, but Adam went for a ride they sent his lunch to the bottom.

Even though a whirlpool can't generate a vortex large enough to pull down a ship, a swimmer, especially combined with the effects of dizziness and disorientation, could drown.

In order for the whirlpool to have the kind of suction it would need to sink a ship, it would have to be significantly stronger than any maelstrom ever recorded.

MYTH BUSTED with the note that sucking a person down is PLAUSIBLE.

The second myth was in the hands of Tory, Kari and Grant. They tested to see if a snowplow passing by at high speed could displace enough air on one side to flip over a passing car.

For this test they borrowed a giant plow and let it rip. They soon discovered however that even in a worst-case scenario - an unusually large plow passing by a light, top-heavy sports utility vehicle at highway speeds - could not generate enough air pressure needed to cause the vehicle to even visibly rock.

MYTH BUSTED

Hopefully Discovery won't leave us hanging again next week. If they do, you can still look forward to the first week in August for the season premier and Shark Week.