Mythbusters Stunt Goes Awry

[BossTamsin (imported)]

I'm sure they took every reasonable precaution they could at the time. I'm gonna guess they were firing at the same point on the bomb range where they've fired cannons before. Which says that nobody involved in the shoot (neither the hosts, nor the professionals that are usually on-scene) guessed that rather than burying itself in the surrounding hills, the cannonball would bounce and travel that kind of distance. It's one of those 'one in a million' shots from everything presented.

Sadly, they've announced that they're not gonna be airing the footage of that particular shot. I think they should, not for lurid purposes, but to better show WHY people shouldn't be doing stuff like this at home, and how badly things can go wrong, even for professionals.

[punkypink (imported)]

yea i think they really should air it.

[JesusA (imported)]

Sorry about that cannonball....

The story in today's San Francisco Chronicle not only has a dozen photographs of the event, but also an excellent map showing the path of the cannonball:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... /2011/12/0

8/BAN31M9Q81.DTL

[Dave (imported)]

There are certain things in life that you take more than "reasonable" precautions. Not that reasonable precautions are a bad thing. In most cases, that's all that is required to be safe. AND this isn't meant as a criticism of anyone.

I used to work with hydrogen which is not only pressurized to (usually) 2000 psig but explosive at concentrations as low as 4% up to 96%. Plus we mixed it with powdered coal and oil at high temperatures (think 450 deg C or 842 Deg F). Powdered coal is like not only explosive but electrically conductive (and then it explodes)

Now that requires extraordinary and unreasonable precautions...

I've had a few things explode next to me but never hurt anyone. We took more than reasonable precautions.

Think of it this way.

If the light burns out, you replace it. If the file cabinet gets old and breaks, nothing much happens but you replace it.

If the $20,000 piece of equipment that is required to make another 3 years of experiments falls to the floor and breaks or the damn thing explodes, then you have no job.

WORSE, if your technician or you yourself loses a part of the anatomy or have to spend time in the hospital, terrible.

And therein lies the difference between reasonable and extraordinary (a much better word than unreasonable because harming another person or destroying valuable equipment is not good).

Shooting a cannon capable of sending a projectile 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile requires more safety measures than they used. Consider that it flew through walls and into cars and off roofs. Hindsight says that it required more safety.

To come back to everyday things, why do we wear pads on skateboards? Helmets on bicycles? airbags in cars? Put GFIs in bathrooms?

Because we learned from our mistakes.

[A-1 (imported)]

Myth busters?

Now we need to re-name them the ...CANNON BALL-BUSTERS...

[punkypink (imported)]

oh interesting, it was tory, grant and kari who were in charge of this one, not adam and jamie. Wow, that thing cleared a hill and smashed thru the house's rear wall? Is that house made from bricks? Or is that wood? That is a lot of energy in the weapon, it's pretty amazing.

[Losethem (imported)]

I occasionally travel down the road this cannonball went across (Tassajara Road) and I can tell you that it is most certainly not the low rent district. It's an area of hilly terrain that was rural 30 years ago, but has since been built up with pricey homes. The firing range used to be out in the middle of nowhere. I'm surprised they allowed all those houses to be built up around a firing range. This is the area is to the south of a community called Blackhawk that was once home to US football commentator John Madden, though that isn't where the cannonball went. The range is closer to the city of Livermore, just off of I-580. The range is located between the A and the Santa Rita Jail in this map (http://maps.google.com/maps?q=tassajara ... a&t=m&z=13).

Kudos for the stars of the show coming out and talking to the local media and offering an apology to this stunt gone awry. They have said the show they were filming won't air, but I think they should air it as an example of even how under controlled conditions things can happen.

--LT

[Dave (imported)]

There was a special show on recently that said that the mythbusters building has moved about 5 times (I think it's five, could be more) because the neighbors complained about booms, bangs, smoke, and all sorts of unneighborly things.

I think Alameida gun range (or whatever it is called) is going to quit testing cannons and other things without many more safeguards. I just have that feeling...

[punkypink (imported)]

It's still a very one-in-a-million thing to have happened though. The cannonball cleared a whole damn hill. It's not the sort of thing that you expect to happen you know? Years ago, the military I served in had an incident during a live firing exercise where some numpty of a gun commander got the elevation settings wrong, and what was originally a perfectly adequate hill serving as a safety buffer for a 105mm artillery range, was completely cleared by the round fired. It went over the hill and into a rice paddy beyond it. Paddy field was soft and waterlogged so the round did not detonate on impact and was later cleared by EoDs.

[Losethem (imported)]

There was a special show on recently that said that the mythbusters building has moved about 5 times (I think it's five, could be more) because the neighbors complained about booms, bangs, smoke, and all sorts of unneighborly things.

I think Alameida gun range (or whatever it is called) is going to quit testing cannons and other things without many more safeguards. I just have that feeling...

The issue is that the Alameda County (California) Sherriff's

range used to be out in the middle of nowhere

and everything grew up around it in the past 2 decades. The houses should never have been allowed to be built right behind the embankment of the range. Still, this is the first issue they have had.

I'm not sure if there are other ranges that are more rural they can use that are close enough to the production facility for the show.

--LT