Episode
MythBusters: Franklin's Kite
Overview
The build team attempts to discover electricity by flying a kite in a thunderstorm. Do innocuous legumes really increase gas? Is it possible to break wind so much that you can suffocate to death?
Details
- Series
- MythBusters
- Season
- Season 4
- Episode
- Episode 5
- Air date
- 2006-03-08
Episode context
Franklin's Kite is Episode 5 in Season 4 of MythBusters. It aired on 2006-03-08.
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Episode 4: Helium Football
This time around, Adam and Jamie test a myth that footballs filled with helium will fly farther and hang longer than ones filled with regulation air. Are teeth strong enough to withstand the force of a bullet?
Episode 6: Cell Phones on Planes
If you fill a normal raft with helium can you fly? Tory and Kari tackle a conspiracy theory familiar to many frequent flyers. Can your cell phone interfere with a plane's instruments?
More episodes from this season
Episode 3: Archimedes Death Ray Revisited
Challenged from fan mailbags to retest the "Archimedes Death Ray," Adam and Jamie accept. In turn, fans and a M.I.T. team were invited to perform this challenge.
Episode 7: Bullets Fired Up
Can celebratory gunfire kill when the bullets fall back to Earth? Grant, Tory and Kari quench their thirst with another round of "Vodka Myths."
Episode 2: Shredded Plane
Is the photo of a light plane, with precise, clean tears on the side, genuine? Was it the work of the jilted lover, who took to her ex's plane with a chainsaw and a taste for vengeance?
Episode 8: Myths Re-Opened
The team revisits myths explored from "Split Arrow," "Confederate Rocket," and "Bulletproof Water."
Episode 1: Paper Crossbow
Is it possible to make a deadly weapon out of nothing more dangerous than newspaper and underwear? Grant, Kari and Tory unscrew the cap on some more vodka myths.
Episode 9: Mind Control
Adam and Jamie do a little painting and detonating when they try to blow open a home-improvement myth. Grant, Tory and Kari explore if it is possible to manipulate someone's mind remotely.
Episode 10: Exploding Pants
Tory, Kari and Grant investigate the spontaneous trouser combustion. Do gas companies and car manufacturers deliberately conspire to make gas-guzzling cars so that they can split the cash?
Episode 11: Crimes and Myth-Demeanors (1)
Are Hollywood break-ins complete hocus pocus? The team tries to tiptoe their way around a laser system before facing the mother of all safes.
Episode 12: Steam Cannon
Did Archimedes build the world's first "supergun," a cannon powered by steam? Adam's mom thinks a typical modern breakfast cereal has less nutritional value than the box it comes in. Is Mom right?
Episode 13: Whirlpool/Snowplow
Somewhere on Earth is there a massive whirlpool sucking whole ships and their hapless crews to a watery grave? Can a passing wintery road sweeper displace so much air that it flips an oncoming car?