An Interesting Experiment

In a given year, countless experiments are conducted in a variety of settings around the world.  These experiments may be conducted in schools of higher education, corporate laboratories, government facilities, and, finally, in the back of cars parked along Sunset Strip.  In many cases, the people conducting the experiments are paid handsome wages and receive fringe benefits.  In other cases hospitalization may be required.    

My favorite experiments are the ones where “researchers” in white lab-coats purposefully make regular everyday stuff explode.   On a recent episode of MythBusters, for instance, the “mythbusters” caused a plain-old hot water heater to explode and launch itself right through the roof of a mock-up building.  I actually found myself sitting there on my sofa whooping and clapping after watching that. 

I have no doubt that the folks on the MythBusters television show receive handsome paychecks and royalties extending far into the future for their “work.”   Pretty cool when you consider that they spend whole days trying to light ships on fire with mirrors and shooting frozen chickens at airplanes from giant air cannons.

As the saying goes: “That’s entertainment!”

Perhaps my all-time favorite experiment is one I read about some twenty years ago.  In the experiment, a bucket filled with sand is placed directly in front of a large mirror.  A high-powered rifle is then aimed and fired at the bucket of sand.  Interestingly enough, the mirror will not shatter.  Instead, the sand in the bucket stops the slug cold.  You can dig the slug out of the sand if so inclined. 

Were this the end of the experiment, I would be sorely disappointed.   But there is more.

In the next step of this experiment, a bow is used to fire an arrow at the bucket.  In this case, the arrow handily skewers the bucket and shatters the mirror.  As I recall, this can be explained scientifically, but that is hardly the point.  The lesson here, plainly enough, is that if you have any reason to suspect someone may shoot you with an arrow, don’t stand in front of a mirror.

--Mitchell Hegman