Mythbusters Power Robotic Dolphin With DeWalt Drill
Written by Ben Jackson
Tuesday, 08 January 2008
Around here, a lot of us are big fans of the Discovery Channel program, "Mythbusters". The five people that make up the Mythbusters team (plus a seldom seen "build team") are on a never-ending quest to test whether cultural myths, urban legends, proverbs, or even scenes from popular movies are actually possible in real life.
This intrepid team of modern-day Mr. Wizards started out as a special effects company for movies, so the team is well-versed in brainstorming creative mechanical, electronic, and artistic solutions to whataever challenge they are up against. And since the hour-long show has been airing on Discovery Channel once a week for over five years now, they've been through plenty of challenges!
Since so much of the show involves building "things" to test whatever myth they are going up against, they are all particualrly apt tool users and are regularly shown operating practically every category of power tool imagineable.
However, they've also been known to utilize tools in unconventional manners, even as a power source for a few of their robotic devices. In a recent episode, the Mythbusters were testing the myth of whether or not sharks were afraid of dolphins. Apparently, annecdotal evidence suggested that dolphins have a natural ability to naturally keep sharks at bay and protect humans who may have entered shark-infested waters. How altruistic! In order to test this myth, they needed real life sharks and dolphins to interact. Howwever, if something went wrong (as in, the shark eats the dolphin), it would surely cause an uproar in the animal rights community. So their solution was to use real sharks, but create a fake robotic dolphin.
Mythbuster Adam was charged with designing the body of the fake dolphin, while Jamie (who's "the boss") was responsible for creating the mechanics neccesary to simulate the tail movement of an actual dolphin. To do this, he cleverly used a cordless DeWalt drill as the high-torque source of rotational power for the fake dolphin's tail movement. Check out this video clip to see how this came together: (If you are reading this via email or RSS subscription, you may need to visit the actual site in order to see the video)
Awesome! Turns out, contrary to everyone's expectations, sharks (Great Whites, no less) did seem to be deterred by the presence of the fake DeWalt-drill powered dolphin. Given the fact that it was not a real dolphin, it'd be innacurate to call their test absolutely conclusive.
Be sure to check out our favorite celebrity tools users, the Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel every week (check your local listings). If you like tools, you'll probably dig the show.
busting the asbestos myth written by Sam , May 22, 2008
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Around here, a lot of us are big fans of the Discovery Channel program, "Mythbusters". The five people that make up the Mythbusters team (plus a seldom seen "build team") are on a never-ending quest to test whether cultural myths, urban legends, proverbs, or even scenes from popular movies are actually possible in real life.
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