Mythbusters and bad math.

Oops. Missed the target and put a projectile into someone's house.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/07/BA1D1M99V5.DTL

Wow, that could have ended so badly.

I JUST saw that on the local morning news!

I guess the home made cannon worked well.

So was the myth busted?

dean1484 wrote: So was the myth busted?

Not sure, but at least one house and a mini-van was.

dean1484 wrote: So was the myth busted?

Yes. A nice Indian family was asleep at 4:15 in the afternoon.

Wow. None of my homemade cannons ever worked that well. Glad it was no worse than that, but I too have to ask: what was the whole family doing asleep at 4:15 PM?

914Driver wrote:

dean1484 wrote: So was the myth busted?

Yes. A nice Indian family was asleep at 4:15 in the afternoon.

I've had jobs that required working graveyard shift and sleeping in the afternoon.

afternoon nap?

It could happen.

Holy crap, I heard this on NPR on the way to work, and assumed the damage was exagerated. They made it sound like it went through a house and hit a minivan outside that house. The linked article makes it sound much much worse. They were very very lucky not to kill or injure some one. I hope this isn't the end of Mythbusters when ever one within 20 miles sues for emotional distress.

Expert: "User fifteen grains of powder per ounce."

Mythbusters: "Right, fifty grains of powder per ounce."

I'm glad nobody was hurt. My son loves that show, and I think that the Mythbusters have done more to popularize science in this country in the last 10 years than anybody else.

I'm really glad no one was hurt. Imagine if it killed someone. Would almost surely mean the end of the show. Glad they had insurance!

akamcfly wrote: afternoon nap? It could happen.

Hey, who here hasn't had a nooner?

Is there really a neighborhood within 700 yards of the bomb range?

914Driver wrote:

akamcfly wrote: afternoon nap? It could happen.

Hey, who here hasn't had a nooner?

with the kid in the bed?

Yeah, that's the odd part. The story comes across as the whole family, includng the kid, was snoozing. Strange on a school day. Well, maybe they'd just gotten off the plane from a trip to the ancestral home and were jet lagged or something.

I have to admit, if I was buying a house and a bomb disposal range was 700 yards away I'd be thinkin' long and hard about signing on the dotted line. I once lived in a n'hood that was ~1/2 mile from a granite quarry and they set off explosions a few times a week. Once someone put the decimal in the wrong place, used way too much explosive and a ~10" chunk of granite went through the roof of a house about two blocks from mine. The woman was home at the time, she said it came through her kitchen which she had just vacated maybe 5 minutes earlier.

Can a homemade cannon fire a shot though a neighborhood and only damage a home or two and a Toyota Van?

Myth Confirmed!

Yeah, what was the myth they were trying to bust? That a cannonball can damage a Toyota van? Or the house?

Famos last words, "watch this". My grandpa & uncle were trying out grandpas new black powder rifle. Uncle; wonder what would happen if you put more powder in? Grandpa; I dont know...Grandpas sholder looked like sombody hit him with a sledge hamer...

Dr. Hess wrote: Yeah, what was the myth they were trying to bust? That a cannonball can damage a Toyota van? Or the house?

They built a cannon out of a tree. Who thought it was a good idea to fire it at a bomb range and not an artillery range is up for debate.

There, the 6-inch projectile bounced in front of a home on quiet Cassata Place, ripped through the front door, raced up the stairs and blasted through a bedroom, where a man, woman and child slept through it all - only awakening because of plaster dust.

Riiiiight...

They slept through all of that.

Didn't they already do the whole 'weird homemade cannons' a while back? I know for a fact they made one out of leather that didn't work so well and I thought one was made of wood also. EDIT: yes they did a tree cannon back in 2003, it exploded and the projectile was never recovered.

Just how much noise does a cannon ball make as it goes through building material? Enough to wake someone?

I see a myth needing busting here!

Curmudgeon wrote: Didn't they already do the whole 'weird homemade cannons' a while back? I know for a fact they made one out of leather that didn't work so well and I thought one was made of wood also. EDIT: yes they did a tree cannon back in 2003, it exploded and the projectile was never recovered.

I really don't think it's possible to get too much "homemade cannon" action. I think they've left the door open for a sequel. Though it might be best if they moved the site to a more remote location.