Mythbusters may well be the best science show on US TV, and I find that as sad a condemnation of American media as any I can think of. They have lousy controls, they have appalling methodology, and they seldom prove what they think they've proved. Heck, they seldom even TEST what they think they're testing.
One simple example: For shark week they tried to duplicate what the shark from Jaws could do. The book and movie state that Jaws is the largest Great White ever recorded. So, for their experiments, they very carefully duplicate the abilities of the average Great White. WTF? Do some statistics to determine largest likely based on known sampling, or use the current records for largest ever recorded, if you want to test the hypothesis that Jaws could do what was stated. DON'T design tests for a much smaller creature and think that proved anything.
This is completely typical of how they go about doing things. Scrapheap Challenge (or Junkyard Wars) was a much better introduction to science and engineering than Mythbusters, because the final product was put to the test and had to actually work.
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One simple example: For shark week they tried to duplicate what the shark from Jaws could do. The book and movie state that Jaws is the largest Great White ever recorded. So, for their experiments, they very carefully duplicate the abilities of the average Great White. WTF? Do some statistics to determine largest likely based on known sampling, or use the current records for largest ever recorded, if you want to test the hypothesis that Jaws could do what was stated. DON'T design tests for a much smaller creature and think that proved anything.
This is completely typical of how they go about doing things. Scrapheap Challenge (or Junkyard Wars) was a much better introduction to science and engineering than Mythbusters, because the final product was put to the test and had to actually work.