What explosive is Adam Savage referring to that resulted in scrapping an episode of MythBusters?

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Drill_on@reddit

Hi, actual MythBuster here. You will never know. For reasons that are all over these posts. Just to clear a little up though. This was not a novel discovery, this is readily available information but at a time when the dark corners of the internet were harder to run across. The discovery was reported and the footage is one of two sets of footage destroyed before it left America. Footage was processed completely in Australia but some never made it. MythBusters constantly battles with the value of the information they put out. At the core it is entertainment. The information about an explosive existing is one thing. Leveraging a popular global platform to spread that information for a few bucks is another thing.

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Jespoir@reddit

Actual Mythbuster?

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Drill_on@reddit

Yeah. We still count on the reboot. Brian Louden

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Jespoir@reddit

Very cool! You did great work on the show. Thanks for being active here!

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Drill_on@reddit

Love when this sub pops up as active. Wonderful seeing the legacy of MythBusters still out there!

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Extension-Goal1945@reddit

I still watch episodes to this day. Appreciate you being part of it

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sykosoft@reddit

May I say that it’s completely random that I come to THIS thread, and see you, of all people, so let me say thank you for being an active member of the community!

I’m actually here because of curiosity about the binary explosive episode and sear have for THAT brought me to this thread. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ and then I found an actual Mythbuster by being curious about an episode that was scrapped and reading the comments! Cool.

Thank you again. I’d love to just even see an anniversary special where everyone gets together to do a few BIG things. And give some love to Grant. LLAP Grant. There’s a plaque in the Neutral Zone Studios (Star Trek TOS Fan Set) with his name on it that makes perfect sense since he starred in it. We miss you man.

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HIMARko_polo@reddit

Thank you! Watched a lot of Mythbusters during Covid lockdown!

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Nostalgia-lofi@reddit

glad to meet you! Love it that you're active here

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Drill_on@reddit

Thank you. Love this sub!

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ScoobyDoubie@reddit

What was the second set of footage?

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Drill_on@reddit

A syndaver (a synthetic human cadaver that contains enough structure and tissues to effectively simulate human injuries) being hit head on by a taxi I was driving. It was graphically realistic. The level of gore was similar to something out of a video game like Mortal Combat but the actual moment was what would really happen. Not two things that should be battled with in anyones mind. Captured in glorious high speed.

I occasionally still have a flashes of the moment I hit a person with a car. Not saying it wasnt valid and amazing but not airable material and not something we wanted off set producers to have.

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ScoobyDoubie@reddit

What was the myth for? Bodily injuries based on the speed of the car?

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Drill_on@reddit

If jumping decreased injury. Odds are you won’t make it but an inch or three but I would ALWAYS try. Reducing the friction against the ground causes you to completely change the pattern of injuries and they are nearly as many but with a respectable reduction in severity.

We rigged Buster in shoes then jumping and then did the syndaver and shoes and re-thought ourselves. Mind you this was all with a low hooded sedan. Im curious how a more flat impact would be effective.

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Plateau9@reddit

Former 911 paramedic. It’s actually fairly common for auto vs pedestrian patients to be, literally, knocked out of their shoes. Particularly on asphalt. The shoes can show you the point of impact.

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ndGall@reddit

Wait… Does this mean that the old internet joke about “he’s dead - his shoes came off” actually has some basis in fact?

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JonatasA@reddit

What I hear is that people steal the shoes.

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Drill_on@reddit

The problem is all four options are valid possibilities. 1) alive with shoes 2) alive without shoes 3) dead without shoes 4) dead with shoes.

So while the saying can be true it doesn’t serve as a good predictor and really isn’t that valid if you ask me.

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Drill_on@reddit

I ran both emergency and transfer! I had a number of missing shoes but only single feet. I put a lot into this myth as it was really interesting to me.

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jacobydave@reddit

Damn.

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sketchyAnalogies@reddit

I looked up Syndaver.... my goodness they look like Eldritch horrors!! The uncanny valley starts to kick in. Seeing footage of one getting hit by a car sounds kinda awesome, but definitely not suitable for TV lol

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Drill_on@reddit

It was fascinating! I don’t think anyone would expect a body to move and in particular stretch the way it did during impact. The tissues have ripping forces, elasticity, strengths all the same as ours. So to picture a human body doing what we witnessed is mind boggling to think about.

While the horror will haunt your dreams in person and up close the syndaver gives off creature vibes more than human.

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sketchyAnalogies@reddit

Oh yeah I found pictures on Google images. Idk what is worse, the red circles of muscular eyelids... Absolutely terrifying, or when there are eyes present that are just... Off. It's human but it's not. I think a big thing is probably lack of emotion? It's just so sterile and stoic. It looks like a lab specimen rather than a person... which is true. It just looks lifeless and devoid of a soul. The rest of the body is unnerving, but not all that bad.

Y'know, it really makes me empathize with the veterans. If a simulated cadaver is that bad.... I can't imagine seeing your friends taken out by a grenade or mortar and all the other horrific things that happen in war.

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RedRedKrovy@reddit

I work EMS. One of the worst runs I ever made involved a lady getting hit and drug by a car on the expressway. It hit her in the back and basically her body wrapped around the front of the car. Waist down was under the car and waste up was on the hood. From the waist down it looked like someone took a cheese grater to her. I was literally stepping over hunks of smeared body fat as I approached her. Figured there was no way she was alive and then realized her jacket was moving in rhythm and not with the breeze.

Luckily she was unconscious. She was dead but her body didn’t know it yet. We lost a pulse about a mile out from the hospital. Knew it was a lost cause from the start but did our job regardless.

That’s one run among many that I’ll never forget. It was Valentine’s Day, 2015. Her and her SO had been arguing and she demanded he pull over and let her out on the side of the expressway. In his anger he did it but felt guilty so he got off at the next exit and came back but by then she had already been hit. It was dark and no one knows if she was trying to get hit or if she was just trying to cross the expressway.

Sorry, I don’t mean to be explicit but shit like this is always rattling around in my brain waiting to pop out and remind me PTSD is a real thing and I should probably listen to my wife and go see a therapist.

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starsfan18@reddit

First, thank you for the work you do. You make a real difference in people’s lives regardless of the outcome of any individual call.

Second, please listen to your wife and find a good therapist.

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OlyScott@reddit

Thank you very much for doing the right thing. People would have died.

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Drill_on@reddit

This was before my time but the production crew were amazing people who truly cared about what they produced and put out. I have a ton of love and respect for them.

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C130IN@reddit

I guess we can add this to the list of “Busted”?!?

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Evan64m@reddit

So does this mean the cannibal mouse scene was processed and finished but removed before broadcast?

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Drill_on@reddit

It was likely onboarded and logged.

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N4BFR@reddit

Thanks Brian. Keep enjoying St. Croix.

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Draskuul@reddit

I'm guessing this was along the lines of the hydrogen peroxide and acid 'discovery' in the Breaking Bad bathtub acid episode.

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Frankie_T9000@reddit

Exactly. They did the responsible thing and didnt broadcast.

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TepChef26@reddit

The general consensus I've seen was it was Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP). It's a high explosive that's not only laughably easy to make with one trip to a grocery or hardware store, but it's also nitrogen free. Which means, in the days the show was being filmed, it wouldn't have been detectable by most explosive scanning methods.

Seriously though, yes it's incredibly easy to make but DO NOT TRY IT! It's got approximately 70-75% power of the same weight of TNT. Also it's very volatile, can be set off from heat, friction, static electricity, etc.

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The_mingthing@reddit

If you leave Isopropyl alcohol in an open bottle for 10 years it can form in it, and blowup when you pick up the bottle...

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murphsmodels@reddit

There's a difference between laboratory grade isopropyl alcohol and the bottle you have at home. Home stuff is extremely diluted.

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JonatasA@reddit

Iso is used to clean eletronics in almost pure form, 93+ or more I believe. It dries quicker which is essential.

Now I now why it is controlled in some markets. I thought it was just to push Ethanol (which, IMO, is far better).

A heads up to anyone reading just in case. Do not drink it, although it is an alcohol, it is not the orgnsic alcohol used in beverages. I believe it is the one that tuns into acetone in the bloodstream.

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Extension-Goal1945@reddit

Recovering alcoholic here. I can confirm, drinking it is not a good time

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Ginger_Grumpybunny@reddit

This thread prompted me to look at the bottle I have. 99.9% according to the label, which also indicates that it should be used within 12 months of opening (but doesn't say what happens if kept longer). I'm not sure when I opened the bottle - I think about 4 years ago. It's about 3/4 full and now smells like acetone. Should I be concerned?

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JonatasA@reddit

I thought the expiration date was 24 months. It is for ethanol.

Isopropyl always smelled of acetone to me. Be careful.

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The_mingthing@reddit

Why would you want diluted iso?

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decktech@reddit

Because it disinfects better, is less dangerous, and cheaper.

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jastreich@reddit

I have bought up to 98% Isopropyl alcohol at normal drug stores. I use it for cleaning resin, as I 3D print stuff. I always thought the resin was the dangerous part of the hobby. I knew about the dangers of fumes, but didn't know that it could become explosive. I always kept the bottles sealed already -- but I'll be even more careful with it going forward.

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JonatasA@reddit

Oh, 3D printing resin. I thought you were talking about Epoxy resin. I hear people use acetone to remove those (it also damages plastics).

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A_Rented_Mule@reddit

I just checked to make sure, and I have a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol in my cabinet right now. I seem to remember having up to 95% previously. These are standard plastic bottles from Walgreens.

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firelock_ny@reddit

Wouldn't the isopropyl alcohol evaporate from an open bottle?

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The_mingthing@reddit

I was convinced so too. Apparantly not, as a bottle left for 10 years exploded in a lab in norway earlier this year.

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JonatasA@reddit

How much isopropyl? A friend has a small bottle for when I installed his CPU.

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The_mingthing@reddit

Small amounts of crystals are nasty. How old is it?

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

I believe that's the actual probably with isopropyl alcohol. Fumes at the right concentration are easy to ignite and you can get a fire ball.

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

IIRC it's not isopropyl alcohol. It's high concentration hydrogen peroxide, cause it's mainly formed from a reaction of acetone to hydrogen peroxide.

And that was kinda the thing with the panic over this stuff back in the day. Normal cuts and scrapes hydrogen peroxide won't really do the job, and isn't really a risk.

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The_mingthing@reddit

Iso propy alcohol will turn into TAPA over a long enough exposure to oxygen(air).

An old bottle of Isopropy alcohol exploded in a lab in norway last month.

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cspinelive@reddit

That seems unnerving. There’s gotta be bottles under bathroom sinks all across America just waiting to explode.

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Agreeable-Win-614@reddit

Triacetone… is that super glue?

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JonatasA@reddit

Tioacetone is apparently the worst smelling chemical there is.

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ceojp@reddit

Super glue is cyanoacrylate.

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TikToxic@reddit

This sounds like something that would show up in the Anarchist's Cookbook. It also sounds like something that you'd be lucky if you only lost a few fingers when things inevitably go wrong.

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diogenesNY@reddit

The Anarchist's Cookbook was notorious for its misinformation and very dangerous incomplete or mis-explained techniques. The book, while fun, was a serious hazard to the user.

Far more mayhem could be gleaned from an early 20th century 'Farm Manual' or a book like Henley's Formulas with everyday details on many things that would be considered scandalous today.

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Espresseaux@reddit

That, or even publicly available Army manuals on improvised weapons and survival.

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TepChef26@reddit

It's quite possible it was tbh. It's been used in a few terrorist bombings through the years.

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Real_Nugget_of_DOOM@reddit

Poor Man's James Bond for sure, and there were a number of recipes in the Cookbook - the "canon" version missed some, but the bootlegs definitely had this one in it.

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pr1ntf@reddit

Ah, yes, Textfiles.com

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No_Nobody_32@reddit

From memory, it did - but the recipe given had a few errors in it, too.
(A friend who taught demolitions in the army went through his copy and annotated the errors with a red pencil).

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Efficient_Fish2436@reddit

My science teacher did the same thing back in highschool in the 90's. His opinion was if we were going to make something... We better do it right and not kill ourselves.

Man those were wildly different times.

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pcmraaaaace@reddit

Didn't realize it's such common materials that people most likely already have in their homes. And could inadvertently mix them together. I guess there are other steps/methods and what not but it's useful knowledge to avoid mixing things together accidentally. Especially to avoid incidents such as that occurred at the university of Bristol way back ago where a student realized the mistake & called in the bomb squad to dispose of the accidental creation of the mixture.

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Margali@reddit

Household supplies are nasty, one of the most common fuck ups is combining bleach and ammonia to clean better, generates a very toxic gas. This combo was used in a book to murder someone, and I don't have the stats any more but back in the 70s it killed on average 5 people per year.

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Herkimer_42@reddit

Worked at a small time amusement park a couple decades ago and the dumbest/laziest of our guys decided to mix up 'something special' instead of cleaning out one of our ponds of algae. It ended up being some ammonia based cleaners he poured into a chlorinated pond before I could stop him. I remember that cloud to this day.

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Margali@reddit

Stupidity

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UglyInThMorning@reddit

It makes hydrazine and chlorine. Hydrazine is nasty shit.

It does not make mustard gas or phosgene, which are the most common things I see people say it makes online.

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Margali@reddit

I ran machine shops for and coordinated hazmat for a chemical company, I know very well what it makes 🧚. If I want to be really nasty I have this thing I can do with ammonia and iodine...

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smcdark@reddit

Purple haze!

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weirdoldhobo1978@reddit

I'm a former pool operator/supervisor and would constantly drill my crew about clean bucket discipline (i.e. not using the same bucket to distribute different chemicals) because you can accidentally make poison gas, burn a hole through the pool deck (or yourself), etc.

Use one bucket, rinse it, set it aside. Grab another bucket for your next chemical.

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Margali@reddit

Yup.

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IntergalacticKeggar@reddit

I had this summer where I was going over to my friend's house and he was into firecrackers and one time we lit a pen on fire in the backyard. There was one day where I got the idea to just mix a bunch of household chemicals. Luckily, we either never got around to it or we got lucky with what we mixed.

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Margali@reddit

Probably got lucky👍🧚

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PhilzeeTheElder@reddit

My old bosses Step Dad died from dumping Muratic acid in a drain that was full of Bleach.

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Margali@reddit

Muriatic acid is hydrochloric acid, nasty.

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Absentmindedgenius@reddit

I feel like this is the reason you can't bring a bottle of water on an airplane anymore. Despite how unfeasible it would be.

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conquer4@reddit

You can now: https://youtu.be/nyG8XAmtYeQ?si=--42JrIP1KwdlPaE

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TooManyDraculas@reddit

I actually remember this being explicitly the reason for why bottles of water were restricted. The fear was you could carry two chemicals needed to mix it in separate water bottles. Then mix them on the plane, shake, and suicide bomb.

That's not how that works. But especially after the "Shoe Bomber" attempted to use home made TATP in an airport attack. The media and airport security authorities went a little nuts over "hydrogen peroxide bombs" and how anyone could make them at any moment with stuff you could buy right in the airport!

It wasn't an accurate read, but it did lead to specific restrictions.

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SahuaginDeluge@reddit

apparently discovered by (Richard) Wolffenstein

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driftdiffusion4@reddit

This reminds me of how stable C4 was in C4 cooking episode.

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MNLT_Sonata@reddit

As far as I am aware, we will probably never know. I recall him mentioning in a few panels at conventions that one of the reasons the episode was scrapped was because of just how easy it was to get a hold of the materials to make the explosive. They didn’t want information like that available to the public because of how potentially dangerous it could be.

I do recall the Mythbusters saying they’d what they’d learned with the FBI and the ATF, but I highly doubt the information they shared is publicly available.

All in all: I have a feeling this material will never be known publicly, and it’s probably for the best that it isn’t.

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Caffeinated_Davinci@reddit

How do you have twice the upvotes of a common that actually described what it was, and half the upvotes of the full explanation?? This site baffles me, a non-answer is more highly rated than an answer and only slightly lower rated than the absolute correct answer. No wonder I don’t come here often.

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JonatasA@reddit

I don't know if I upvote or keep the downvote to make your point even clearer.

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MNLT_Sonata@reddit

Odd thing to bitch about on a 4 month old comment, but you do you, bud.

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Caffeinated_Davinci@reddit

Yet another example of the toxicity that is Reddit and why I don’t come here often. You do the community proud /s

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MNLT_Sonata@reddit

If you truly hate the community so much, please, feel free and delete your account.

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CaptainGetRad@reddit

Highly likely to be in the anarchist cookbook

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ExcaliburZSH@reddit

shared with the FBI and ATF

Who responded, “we know, it’s scary”

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Ginger_Grumpybunny@reddit

I think they made the right call. If I knew, I wouldn't tell either.

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BenisTheMule@reddit

Flour

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CuriouslyContrasted@reddit

Almost certainly TATP. Which is the compound often referred to as the reason most bomb makers are missing fingers and hands. Very unstable.

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Jumpy_MashedPotato@reddit

Good Lord thats a stupidly unstable molecule. How the hell do you even handle it??

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Dancingbeavers@reddit

In a bomb suit, with robotic arms, from behind a blast shield?

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jared555@reddit

The scary thing is it isn't even close to the most unstable.

https://www.science.org/topic/blog-category/things-i-wont-work-with

I believe there was one on that blog that detonated a mass spectrometer or three

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Efficient_Fish2436@reddit

Like it's a volatile and dangerous explosive. Or get your idiot cousin to handle it.

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gellis12@reddit

Very carefully. And if you're lucky, you'll live to tell about it.

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MelsEpicWheelTime@reddit

https://youtu.be/n8un5LjtNNo?si=OonKZIJti02B9fEl

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stoned_brad@reddit

Dear FBI- I might at some point google this. Just to be clear, I have ZERO intentions of ever making this. I’m just a huge fucking nerd that tends to go down some deep rabbit holes on Reddit, Wikipedia, YouTube, etc. Thank you for your time.

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TheEnd1235711@reddit

This is well known.

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drbooom@reddit

A small munitions company I consult for, responded to an RFQ to supply various explosives to be used for a muon detector experiment. The explosives would not be detonated, just be placed on top of a muon detector.

Cool, we would order the various explosives, and make the rest that are not commercially available. The 5 kilos of lead styphnate was a challenge, but could be done.

Then they wanted 5 kg of TATP. WTF? I sent back a response, does this need to be dry?

Them: Yes.

Me: Fuck no.

After some negotiation, they would accept a wet sample.

We then as spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make 5 kilo of TATP remotely, bring in the muon detector, do the experiment, remove the $$$$$$$ muon detector, then blow 5 kilo of wet TATP in place, inside the blast pit. All without anyone being exposed. This one experiment swallowed the entire budget and then some.

We didn't get the contract, and the funding agency ended up removing TATP from the list of explosives to be tested.

That stuff is nasty. Dry, it can be set off by cosmic rays, I'm told. And the difference between 'moist' and 'dry' is very narrow.

Stay away!

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DRKMSTR@reddit

Hello FBI.

Yes there are countless explosives one can make with the chemicals found in most households.

Yet somehow we just don't blow each other up.

It's almost like we live in a functioning society.

Just wait until some "FBI Informant" suddenly discovers some easy composition and blows something up. Endless false flags and forced terrorism to justify bottomless budgets.

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EmperorsChamberMaid_@reddit

I'm intrigued what it could be, that is so readily available but not common knowledge. Surely the materials needed to make explosives have similar chemical makeup, i.e, I can't see it being a super powerful explosive from using Chocolate powder and cheese.

I always assumed some cleaning chemicals and baking powders or salts.

I also wonder if the product has since been made a lot harder to obtain, or whether these key ingredients are still readily available and we're none the wiser.

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Evan64m@reddit

According to a lot of other people in the thread and a google search that might have put me on a watchlist it’s definitely TATP

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toomanyhobbies4me@reddit

Chocolate powder and cheese…

Correct, two things that should never be mixed together!

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_night_cat@reddit

I was surprised by the flammability of powdered coffee creamer

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threedubya@reddit

Many fine dry powders will burn/explode if thrown in air and lit .flour ,sugar

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No_Nobody_32@reddit

Yup, it's why there usually are some major fire suppression systems around areas that where dust is a common thing (like grain silos or fertiliser warehouses).

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bluehawk232@reddit

That's what I would find funny if there was a news story with the headline household object can easily be made explosive according to mythbusters then you go to the store the next day and see Cheetos and M&M's have been pulled from the shelves and are like wtf were in those.

Was a gag in Brooklyn 99 when Holt put cheese puffs in a car and it exploded and told Jake you shouldn't eat those

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Jumpy_MashedPotato@reddit

Well this thread is a VPN and duckduckgo kinda thread ain't it...

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TheGleanerBaldwin@reddit

Why? Its not like the government can't follow that.

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Jumpy_MashedPotato@reddit

Yes but one method requires a lot of effort for them to follow and the other may as well just be telling them you're doing it yourself.

If it were trivial to break they wouldn't be constantly trying to outlaw encryption.

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TheGleanerBaldwin@reddit

Not really, a warrant and now they know, because find a VPN that actually doesn't track you, even if they say they don't.

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blockninja898@reddit

I don't think we'll ever know. With how Adam has described it in the past, it was something relatively easy to obtain and the explosive power was a LOT bigger than anything they were expecting. As far as I know, not only did they agree to never tell anyone what it was, they also reported their findings to the government and destroyed all footage and notes associated with it to make sure it never got out.

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The_BSharps@reddit

It’s crazy how simple it is! I heard you just mix vinegar and baking soda.

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HIMARko_polo@reddit

don't forget the dish washing liquid!

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The_BSharps@reddit

And some people have added food coloring ‘allegedly’.

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BelowAboveAvg@reddit

Please. The "government" already knew about it. What do you think the ATF does? Wait for TV shows to tell them about a compound first made in 1895 and used in the failed shoe bomb attempt 2 years before the show's premiere?

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FNAKC@reddit

Probably that jet fuel can't melt steel beams

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Competitive_Deal8380@reddit

Can people please stop asking this question. I understand natural curiosity but there was a reason they decided this shouldn't be public information

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ds-c@reddit

Everything is public information. That’s not the reason people should stop asking. The basic idea of searching before posting is why people should stop asking as it has been asked SO MANY TIMES. Myth busters didn’t want this getting out many years ago when finding the info would have been more difficult. Now it doesn’t matter.

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