Tesla Earthquake Machine.

I concur (and have made similar comments previously).

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the show, but this particular episode was about Tesla and the short Bio seemed to paint him as a "Crackpot". Maybe it was produced and directed by the ghost of Thomas Edison?

I think the Mythbusters were unclear on the concept of this one.

While Tesla was certainly a brilliant man, the more you read about him you'll find he was also a crackpot. Tesla fits the characterization of "a thin line between genius and insanity."

Paradox?

A)you are correct, but it doesn't make you a genius.

B)Everything I say is a lie.

Yahlasit

Can't anyone just make a machine to where we can just shake things up a bit?

Is that too much to ask for?

Gotta go with redfred.

After all, the name of the show is "Mythbusters" and they do investigate Urban Legends.

Urban legend - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's all in good fun. Go with it, or ignore it.

Based on the comments, no one has actually seen the episode.

And if they were the least bit mechanically inclined, would have noticed that an understanding of the fundamentals, which would not have detracted from the "entertainment value", was missing.

I saw it much earlier. I don't remember anything glaringly dumb about the episode. The squad of silly helmeted feet on the back yard suspension bridge was certainly unusual and if memory serves me, dismissed as not pertinent to Tesla's machine. What do you think was missing?

Their science and engineering is sometimes a bit dodgy, but they do a great job showing the fun and excitement.

I'd guess most engineers have gone through a "blow it up" stage.

Where "blow it up" includes smash it, shoot it, melt it, dissolve it, electrocute it etc.

My girlfriend refuses to watch mythbusters with me as I tend to go into rants and raves about how unscientific they can be. Though sometimes they go to ingenious lengths to do something correctly, more often than not they miss some glaring aspect of science.

Last nights repeat in australia was stupid, can sound trip an avalanche, I would have thought it obvious that sound could easily be a trigger if it was ready to go .. so could an ant walking on it probably.

The other part was more annoying, can your tongue stick to a cold pole .. well duh!! They even proved that one the geniuses.

I used to be annoyed about their fuel conservation ones, I remember one where they used 2 identical cars and made comparisions. I suggest there is no such thing as 2 identical cars.

If you go to Discovery.com, you can see additional material. Often, it includes the missing stuff from the show. Other times, it's just more entertainment.

As stated above, it's entertainment, not a college lecture.

"not a college lecture" pity - it's actually quite useful in analysis of where they went wrong and what they don't know / comprehend / have not researched / misinterpreted / failed to target in tests..... Which is both educational and entertaining if you like irony.

What is interesting and illuminating, is the number of times you hear the results put up as definitive proof of something, by what you (previously) thought was a qualified person.

So there you go; it has 2 good uses.

Though probably not the one's Discovery Channel intended.

İf they don't keep it interesting to the general public - off the air they go!

I didn't see the one on Tesla but one of my favorites was the snow plow episode...or actually the revisit of it. Their final solution of constructing basically a giant knife blade and strapping it to a rocket sled was just a little over the top...I don't think you can really compare a knife travelling 500 MPH to a snow plow but you gotta admit it did the job!

As you point out, some of their approaches are not exactly scientific and their engineering approaches are sometimes a little out there but it makes for good entertainment for the masses.

I saw one episode where they wanted to see if a mouse really does scare an elephant.

They used a white mouse for their experiment.

They concluded that a mouse does frieghten an elephant.

I call it inconclusive. They introduced a WHITE mouse. Why not a GREY mouse, something the elephants are familiar with. They could have introduced a WHITE cat or dog and gotten the same results, or even rolled a white golf ball across their path. There aren't very many WHITE animals running around in Africa and anything unfamiliar would have caused them to veer away from it.

I would love Tesla's reported achievments to be true- we all love a hero- but the stories over the years are probably exaggerated. That said- if Tesla really had something, I am pretty sure that the myth busters would not have a clue about what has been lost, if said lost details were the diff between work/no work.

Think of it as a little science, candy coated with entertainment, so the layman can swallow it.

If they do not keep it entertaining, they will be replaced by some mindless "reality" show or worse. As it is it stimulates youngstrers to research and maybe even consider a career in science or engineering... I remember playing with model airplanes and rockets. Kids do not have those outlets today, only video games etc. They are being inspired to become zombies. How many of you have hired a new young engineer lately only to find their only interest is sitting in their cubicle and texting their buddies or surfing the web or IM'ing?

It has been suggested to me that the HAARP is what Tesla had envisioned...

I saw the episode, and felt that their conclusion was bunk- seeing the results of the beam moving as much as it did once they finally got the frequency down pretty much proved it to me that if a couple of novices at frequency generation could generate that much result, then Tesla a master of frequency could definitely get more potent results. Although I think creating a earthquake itself would be much more difficult, a more controlled materials structure like a bridge, or brick building could definitely be rumbled.

Some time since I saw the episode, but as I recall, they got the 1927 Carquinez strait bridge moving pretty good with a rather small package. The bridge is gone now, so no replication possible.

That is precisely what I am talking about, although they did comment as they were walking away "Imagine if we had used a 100lb (Mass?)".

Some event or effect can occur, that leaves an impression, or makes you curious as to why it took place.

Such as a large bin vibrator on an empty grain hopper car that, if "adjusted" properly, can make the air mass in a large building resonate in harmony. This effect is "breathtaking".

I'm just saying the guys spent too much time with air tools, I bet they could have ROCKED that bridge!

Last nights episode they explained that they do a great deal of preparation before the show that sometimes takes weeks.

So they are doing the research.

Last night it was being launched from a slide and landing in a small pool of water 155 feet away.

They were only able to acheive about 65 feet but they did prove the accuracy of being able to do it.

They concluded it a myth and they called the people that did the youtube video and they said their stunt was photo shopped.

There are many subtle and some glaring errors in the Mythbusters approach and methodology, but this is "entertainment television". I would be very disturbed if it were billed as an educational program on a PBS channel, but can only be mildly annoyed/amused by its current status.

The attempt to find the resonance of a bridge with the little foot-bots was surprisingly silly. The later attempt with a frequency controlled linear motor and oscillating mass started to yield some interesting results before they halted the experiment. Anyone who has seen a Tacoma Narrows bridge film should understand that sufficiently large forces are needed to excite resonant modes in large structures. Energy added to the resonant modes MUST exceed the energy lost or dissipated or the resonance will not increase.

Misc comments:

Although Tesla seemed to understand electrical and mechanical resonance, the reality is than not all systems have an under-damped resonance. Many circuits and mechanical systems are well damped with no pronounced resonant modes. This seems to be one area where genius crossed the line into crackpot territory.

The resident Mythbusters EE provides some isolated expertise in electronics, but is sadly deficient in many other areas. This may be due to intentional dumbing-down for the masses by the show producers or it could be the shows loose approach to science has dumbed-down the EE himself.

Adam and Jamie are not scientists or engineers, so their results and conclusions cannot be assumed to meet high standards of accuracy and repeatability. They do TRY to be thorough which is better than most entertainment television currently produced.

Mythbusters appeared to understand the resonance concept better when they tested breaking a wine glass with sound (electronic and voice generated).

The different resonant modes and the magnitude of motion the Tacoma Narrows bridge survived before completely failing is pretty amazing.

Try not to take entertainment television too seriously

I saw a documentary on Tesla on the History Channel the other day.

Edison invented the light bulb but shortly after Tesla invented the Florescent Lightbulb.

There was one item that Tesla invented but someone else patented it 10 years later. I don't recall what it was right now.

He also envisioned aircraft with lasers firing from them before the invention of the Wright brothers.

He was a brilliant.

Probably heresy to mention Joseph Swan invented the first successful incandescent light

Also worth exploring is Edison's employees behind "inventions".

What Edison was outstanding at, was media persecution of all inventions/inventors he could not claim/control. Edison and Tesla fell out, so much of what is "loony" about Tesla, is spin to prohibit investment in Tesla's work. The electric chair debacle illustrates this skill.

But, at the end of the day, the world runs on more Nikola Tesla innovation than Edison.

Not loony - just painted that.

Other topics mentioned;

Gas-discharge lamp

Georges Claude

But again you cannot expect a US media "infotainment" production to be "factual" in the face of the money behind the 'urbane legend' - as Tesla learned, poverty is the outcome.

I don't know. I just got my information from the documentary.

I seemed to me that the entire thread was inspired by that documentary. I've never read up on Tesla so what I learned about him was from that documentary.

the Tesla books I have state that Edison had an accomplice who worked in the patent office, and that when a new patent application came in from a relatively unknown inventor, he would run over with all the info, and present it to Edison. This criminal would then sit on the application approval until Edison had a chance to build, experiment, tweak, understand the invention, and then Edison would be granted the patent, and the originator would get "I'm Sorry, Edison already did that one."

x 1000

Tesla at least was well known, and had support from George Westinghouse et al, and wouldn't be put down so easily.

He is a fascinating character if nothing else.

Chris

I did not see that episode, but I don't think that much scientific or engineering knowledge is necessary to prove the destructive potential of oscillations.

Earthquake machines rule and scientists drool!

Unredundant, I just saw that episode and was similarly discontented. Resonating frequencies CAN cause entire bridge to vibrate and collapse! It happened! Look up the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw jump to 2:14 and you will literally see STEEL and CONCRETE moving like a wave! Bridge builders learned from the Tacoma Narrow's bridge collapse and have since then built "Truss Bridges" that are resistant to these very kinds of resonating frequencies/amplified standing waves. The Mythbusters tested Tesla's earthquake machine on a "Truss Bridge" and so they felt vibrations (which they didn't expect to see by the way) but did not witness the amplification of the standing wave and the subsequent collapse of the bridge. The Mythbusters are usually great i just wish they didn't get frustrated and drop this project so quickly. But i commend them for trying and most definitely consider them to be scientists since "knowledge without mileage is bullcrap"