Tell me about concrete gliders.
November 17, 2011 7:02 AM Subscribe
I have a question about the concrete glider episode of Mythbusters.
I LOVE Mythbusters, but have a question:
In case you haven't seen it, Adam and Jamie try to build working models of a glider out of concrete. Adam's glider looks like a large leaf and is much heavier, and Jamie's glider is much lighter and looks like a styrofoam toy glider. The contest is to see who can achieve the best glide to drop ratio.
The show makes it look like Jamie's glider will win, but it doesn't. It takes a nosedive, while Adam achieves nearly a 4:1 (I think) glide/drop ratio.
However:
Adam uses a zip line and Jamie doesn't, and I can't help but wonder that if Jamie had used the zip line (or if he had not added to the nose of the plane at the last minute), his glider would have won.
Did anyone see this episode? Am I way off base here? It seems to me that from a scientific standpoint, both should have been launched using the same method.
Thanks for your help
I LOVE Mythbusters, but have a question:
In case you haven't seen it, Adam and Jamie try to build working models of a glider out of concrete. Adam's glider looks like a large leaf and is much heavier, and Jamie's glider is much lighter and looks like a styrofoam toy glider. The contest is to see who can achieve the best glide to drop ratio.
The show makes it look like Jamie's glider will win, but it doesn't. It takes a nosedive, while Adam achieves nearly a 4:1 (I think) glide/drop ratio.
However:
Adam uses a zip line and Jamie doesn't, and I can't help but wonder that if Jamie had used the zip line (or if he had not added to the nose of the plane at the last minute), his glider would have won.
Did anyone see this episode? Am I way off base here? It seems to me that from a scientific standpoint, both should have been launched using the same method.
Thanks for your help
You're right, they should have used the same launch method if they wanted to see which glider worked best, but as far as I can remember (and as is the case with most of the Jamie vs Adam competitions), the point of the contest is not to see which technique is the best, it's to answer the question "can a concrete glider fly?" more efficiently by having two separate approaches to the same problem.
In short: What they are testing is "is it possible?", not "which one works the best?".
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:23 AM on November 17, 2011 [3 favorites]
In short: What they are testing is "is it possible?", not "which one works the best?".
posted by EndsOfInvention at 7:23 AM on November 17, 2011 [3 favorites]
It's been way too long since I seen the episode to remember exact details.. but..
I think you're confusing the competition with how they went about scientifically proving if a concrete glider can fly. Adam "cheated" and he won (and if you watch the show enough you notice that usually one of them cheats in their little competitions).
Both gliders probably gave them enough data to determine whether to call it busted or not. Wikipedia says they said it was plausible. "After the test, the MythBusters decided that making a concrete glider is possible, but highly dangerous and impractical since the brittle concrete would shatter once it hits the ground."
It's a saying they were working with, right? "Like a lead balloon, you cannot make a concrete glider fly." Those kinds of things don't have details. We take from the saying that a concrete glider cannot fly on it's own because it's too heavy.. but a concrete glider can fly if made of as little concrete as possible and supported with a zip line.
posted by royalsong at 7:23 AM on November 17, 2011
I think you're confusing the competition with how they went about scientifically proving if a concrete glider can fly. Adam "cheated" and he won (and if you watch the show enough you notice that usually one of them cheats in their little competitions).
Both gliders probably gave them enough data to determine whether to call it busted or not. Wikipedia says they said it was plausible. "After the test, the MythBusters decided that making a concrete glider is possible, but highly dangerous and impractical since the brittle concrete would shatter once it hits the ground."
It's a saying they were working with, right? "Like a lead balloon, you cannot make a concrete glider fly." Those kinds of things don't have details. We take from the saying that a concrete glider cannot fly on it's own because it's too heavy.. but a concrete glider can fly if made of as little concrete as possible and supported with a zip line.
posted by royalsong at 7:23 AM on November 17, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by puritycontrol at 7:16 AM on November 17, 2011