MYTH: IS IT POSSIBLE TO KEEP A BUS FROM ROLLING OVER WHILE TURNING AT HIGH SPEEDS? Finding: BUSTED Explanation: During the climax of the 1994 action thriller Speed, Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves have to keep a moving city bus from flipping over while making sharp a right turn at 50 miles per hour Reeves' character saves the day by moving the 19 passengers to the right side of the bus in order to shift the vehicle's center of gravity and keep it on all four wheels. MythBusters Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage took the cinematic science for a test-drive by reenacting the nail-biting scene with water barrels in the place of passengers. Lo and behold, when Adam steered the bus with the barrels on the right side of the bus, he landed the turn without any trouble. However, the myth was busted when they redistributed the water barrels to move the bus's center of gravity back to the middle, where it would be normally. Even without shifting the center of gravity to compensate for the sharp right turn, the bus still didn't flip over during the maneuver. Looks like Reeves' character could've saved himself a lot of energy by just sitting down, kicking back and enjoying the bus ride. As seen in "MythBusters: Seasickness: Demolition Derby Special." Next Myth: Can your cell phone interfere with a plane's instruments? » |
advertisement
ON TV
Shop Discovery
|
-
our sites
-
video
mobile
-
shop
-
stay connected
-
corporate
