Group+1+Script+Draft


 * // DAVID //** **// SIMONE //** **// DEANNA //** Narrator

Today, our mythbusters try to reveal the secret and conclusion to a deadly magic trick....


 * clip of Batman scene***

All: So...where did the pencil go?

In order to determine this, we are going to try to recreate the scene. However, we will not be using a real human skull for this experiment, because we can't find anyone who is willing for some reason

So instead, we will be using a coconut, which can actually withstand the same amount of force as a skull before it will break.

The table in the movie seems to be made from a reasonably soft material, soft enough to just stick the pencil in. Out of the many types of wood, particle board seems to just let the pencil stick in.

We are working under the assumption that if the pencil went into the guy's head, it went through the front part of the skull. We are well aware that everyone assumes that it went through his eye, but 1. that is no fun to test, and 2. we don't actually know for sure if that is what happened to the pencil.

PHYSICS TIME! As we know from Newton's third law, every action force has an equal and opposite reaction force. For example, if you were to punch a wall, the wall would technically "punch" you back because it is exerting the same amount of force. That's why it hurts. It is the same sort of idea with this experiment. When our "human skull" is smashed into the pencil standing on the table, it will exert a force on the pencil. The pencil will exert a force of equal magnitude on the coconut, and this force will all be concentrated on the tiny little area of the pencil where the impact takes place. Since this large force is being exerted in this tiny area, the pencil may be able to actually pierce the coconut.

However, the pencil will also exert a force on the table due to the force being exerted on the pencil from the coconut. As with the coconut, the force is concentrated in one spot and may be enough to actually cause the pencil to go through the table. It depends on which material can withstand more force, the skull or the table.

Although, if it turns out that the coconut and the table can both withstand the force from the pencil, then the pencil will be sandwiched between the coconut and table. There will be downward force on the pencil from the coconut and upward force on the pencil from the table. This force could become too much for the pencil to withstand and the pencil may snap. But which one? Or is it something we didn't even think of?

This is what we will be investigating. We all think that due to the amount of force, the pencil will snap in half because it is not strong enough to withstand the force of the coconut and table, and it is a new, full-length pencil, so there is even more of a chance that it will snap.

We figure the pencil won't have enough force to go through the table and it won't have enough force to pierce the skull, so it will just break into pieces.

I guess we'll see. Let's go think about this.

So how are we gonna recreate this force?
 * Deanna and Simone**

Why don't we just pull a joker and smash that sucker? I don't know... We probably won't be able to create an accurate enough force like that. What about using a catapult contraption? Like one where an object is swung by a heavier counterweight.

That probably wouldn't work well in our case because catapults usually launch objects, and what we want to do is smash something. By the time the skull is about to make impact, the counterweight will start going on the opposite direction because of gravity.

Well, why don't we just use gravity then. It's consistent, and we know the value of the acceleration of gravity, so we can do it.

Sounds good, looks like we're dropping it. ...Now we just need to calculate a force...


 * David smashes door open runs in and trips***

K guys, I've calculated the force.

Oh. Yay!

That's convenient. How?? So basically, I just used the formula F=ma∆h

But in order to do this... I needed a mass, an acceleration, and a height.

For the mass I figured it's probably our lucky henchman guy's head, and the joker's arm and hand.

How on earth did I figure this out? Well, for the dude's head, I just looked up the average mass of a full grown man's head, which I found to be 4.8kg. That gave me one piece of the mass. Then I had to find out how much a human arm and hand weigh. I found that one arm and hand make up about 5-6% of your body weight, so I looked up Heath Ledger's body weight, since he played the joker, and he weighed 182.5lbs.

Then I found out that he was left handed, although in the scene (***WHA BAM***) he pwns the dude with his right arm, so I picked a lower percent to multiply by: 5.2% actually. After multiplying and converting I got 4.3kg, so our total m=4.3+4.8 =9.1kg

Next is the height. So I found Heath Ledgers height, 6'1. The henchman is a little bit taller, so I put him at 6'2, which is 1.8898m. Then I went measured a couple tables, and found a consistent height of 0.76m. Finally I found the height of a new pencil to be 0.18m.

To get ∆h, I took the dude's height minus the table minus the pencil to be 0.95m

That leaves the acceleration. In order to get that I used d=vt+1/2at^2

To get the time i just watched the clip a bunch of times (***WHA BAM, WHA BAM, WHA BAM***), timed the smash, and averaged the times. I got 0.278s.

Then i rearranged the equation to solve for accleration.

a=2d/t^2 (v1=0)

I used ∆h as d, then I got 24.6 m/s^2

So when we take all this junk and plug it back into the original equation we get 212.67 N.


 * TAH DAH***

Cool beans. So how're we gonna recreate this force... you ok dahvid? Huh.. ok? Yeah... ***collapse***
 * David out of breath***

Should we call someone?

Nah just leave him. We've got mythbusting to worry about. So if we're just gonna drop the coconut, we're gonna have to make up for the slower acceleration of gravity, and the light weight of the coconut. Well I guess we can just put some weights on the coconut, but that won't be enough to compensate. We need to drop it from somewhere high. How about the great hall?

That'll be perfect. I think the balcony is about 6m tall, so we just need to figure out the right weight. ... My physics senses are telling me that we need to make the coconut weigh about 3.2 kg.

Yes mine too. Alrighty then. Let's put this to the test.

...Guys?... **(only show hand reaching up in camera shot)**
 * Deanna and Simone walk out***


 * Show epic coconut drop and other less epic clip***

Awesome!!

Just look at that! The table is smashed, the pencil is intact, and the coconut isn't even cracked!! So how did this all happen??

The coconut must have hit the pencil at such an angle that it just launched the pencil off the table. (unscathed as Manuel pointed out)

And obviously the table couldn't withstand the Joker's awesome smashing power!

Therefore, I think we can declare this myth


 * (all) BUSTED**