Were Any Myths Deemed Too Simple to Test on MythBusters?

Tested member Morgan Crisp asks Adam, "Are there any MythBusters myths that countered laws of physics that were dismissed for being too simple? Or myths too simple for testing?" Thank you, Morgan, for your question and support (and sorry, everyone, for the ambient noise)! Join this channel to support Tested and get access to perks, like asking Adam a question:

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[tested]

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[EricLinstone]

There was an episode of Mythbusters where they tested the myth that poppy seeds can cause you to fail opiate drug tests. And what they found out was that the tests were bad and that the companies that make them lobby hard to keep them in use. Even though they can send innocent people to jail.

[iainmcculloch]

"I'm done being mad. No, I'm not done being mad, I'm just done being mad on camera!"
I can really empathise with that.

[glitchy]

My theory on dowsing is that finding water for wells in early times was a good paying trade, and dowsers likely had a good understanding of what geological features to look for, but kept that to themselves by using some bogus technique that couldn’t be replicated in order to guard their trade. It’s obvious that it fooled many people, so no surprise that the technique spiraled out of control from there.

[justageneraluser]

Adam: "No one ever wants to ask about my lecture on dowsing but this question is close enough and I'm taking this opportunity."

[flyingskyward]

I still remember an interview with a dowser, he claimed that he had a 90% success rate and literally the next sentence he said there was water under 95% of the land around here.

[Alia-bcrc]

I just realized the nature of Mythbusters that doesn't try to appease their ego by damning other people is one of the reason that makes the show so endearing to me.

[tomwileman]

If you point the sticks in one direction there will be water in that direction at some point just gotta walk further 😂

[mattjohns]

The pyramid thing comes from a scientific journal in the 60's or 70's that ran a pyramid power article on April FIRST one year.

[SharpVCN]

Seeing Adam answer the question in the first minute and then go on tangents about things he’s clearly just passionate about is so endearing to me.

[burnblast]

"My old show 'Mythbusters'"

Suddenly feels the years bear down

[dvklaveren]

I want to say thank you for the pyramid myth, because it illustrated exactly the difference between motivated thinking and scientific thinking. If you wanted to believe, then the initial result of the pyramid preserving the apple would have been convincing, but if you think like a scientist, you repeat the experiment and show it was something about the set-up that was wrong.

It really taught me how to apply my thinking, not just in science, but also in social circumstances.

[SamZinski]

I bet Jamie is very glad that Adam's so willing to talk about Mythbusters this much, just for his own sake

[ThePigKnight]

“Billy what was your favorite Adam Savage interview?”
“The one where he called dousing bullshit for a time.”

[bobrichey]

I was an aid worker in Iraq and we’d see those “detectors” being used when we went to meetings in government offices and just kind of sigh.

[PatrickStarfishman]

Atsc founder Jim McCormick was sentenced to 10 years in 2013. Some may reasonably argue the sentence was too short but he did at least face justice for his fraud.

[gildedbear]

On dowsing: It is SUPER important to understand that there is subterranean water almost EVERYWHERE on land. Even if the surface is arid and has no rivers or streams. It's not everywhere, but in general the question is not "is there water" but rather "how deep is the water and how easy is it to get to" (also, "what's the refill rate" but we can leave that aside for this).

That means that anywhere a dowser says there is water will likely have water even if the dowser is just guessing.

That being said. There ARE signals on the surface that there is shallow water. The color of leaves/grass, the mix of plants, the smell in the air, the softness of the ground, that area always stays muddier than the surrounding area, the temperature of the ground, maybe even the insect activity. The human mind is capable of knowing things without even REALIZING that it knows those things. (did you know that there is a correct order for adjectives in English (actually, not just English, but you're reading this in English so we'll keep it as that)? Were you ever taught that in school? Doesn't "big red ball" sound more correct than "red big ball"? weird that you can know a thing without realizing that you know it, right?)

It's entirely possible that the HONEST dowsers (the ones who have some level of success and truly believe) just have knowledge of how to read the terrain without realizing that they know how to read it. Of course, then there are also the dowsers that just work in an area that has a lot of shallow water so they get lucky all the time. Then there are the ones that play the part, but don't believe, and so check hydrological maps before they dowse. And then there are the ones who don't believe and are fully aware that they are just taking people's money.

The human brain is a pattern matching and story telling machine. But it doesn't really concern itself with whether those patterns that it finds or stories that it tells are real or not.

Trust the person who can say WHY there should be shallow water at that spot, rather than the person who says it's there because of sticks.

[thetheflyinghawaiian]

I'm a hydrogeologist and unfortunately my step dad hires dowsers for his property. His well is in a terrible location on top of a hill, so of course he barely gets anything... But he blames the well driller, while the dowser gets all the praise for "finding water." The reality in the east coast is that you'd be hard pressed to drill a well that DOESN'T produce water.

[al-asadi]

I lived in Syria during the early years of the war and would see those sticks being used by military checkpoints outside cities, and of course, they didn't stop any bomb violence. Thank you for shining a light on this and I hope the people responsible get the justice they deserve.

[stupidthefish]

This went from “was there any myth you didn’t test because it was an easy “do it at home” myth to “DOWSING ISN’T REAL!” In about 2 seconds