Mythbusters: Star Trek Gorn Cannon (video)

[pokerfan]

By popular demand, the team puts the gorn cannon myth to the test. Can you really build a cannon out of bamboo, sulfur, charcoal and diamonds if you need to blast a Gorn like Capt. Kirk on Star Trek?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OclaRDU0fNg

[mix]

1. That's just a preview, did they do it? It doesn't say.

oops, i guess i'll have to tune in 12/28

[pokerfan]

2. It's a secret

[mix]

3. I say it's possible, why go to all that trouble if it doesn't work? nt

[pokerfan]

5. Kirk did it and he's not that smart

I expect that they will have trouble getting the mixture right and controlling the burn rate. Then they will give up and load the thing with store-bought powder. Bamboo is fairly strong but sealing the breach might prove to be an issue. I predict that they will have a hard time achieving the pressures involved to propel fist sized chunks of diamond anywhere close to lethal velocity. (I want to know what they use to simulate fist sized chunks of diamond.)

[madinmaryland]

4. Gorn!!1!!

:D

[edbermac]

6. Can you really build a starship without a toilet?

They must have, I never saw one.

:hurts:

[petronius]

7. They used transporters - every time Riker got that real dreamy stupid look on his face,

he was beaming a dookie out into space. Well, either that, or he was trying to look 'thoughtful'...