Did MythBusters Really "Bust" Breaking Bad?

We've all heard that MythBusters "busted" Breaking Bad. Sure. They dissolved a pig, in only 5 minutes. But they said they "busted" acid eating through the bathtub and floor. Or blowing up Tuco's lair by throwing fulminated mercury. But did they, really? In this Breaking Bad S.T.E.M. Take we go through the details of what MythBusters did, and find the case they made to be... unacceptable! There were about a dozen serious flaws in their argument. This video explains why the tests they did had no chance of working. But why their failure to work does not mean they "busted" Breaking Bad. Then it offers suggestions on how to make the tests work, and if those fail to work, then at least the experiments will have been fair tests. That is inherently speculative, and would require trying to fine-tune highly corrosive chemicals, in highly dangerous and abnormal volumes and temperatures. Or in the other situation, would involve a highly dangerous tinkering with impact sensitive explosives, which might not be possible without self-detonation. But this is not rocket science. That is what the MythBusters were doing, with their "secret sauce"! It is just making the case for what chemicals we might expect should actually work. And why what they did should not have been expected to work in the first place. Which made them unfair tests. -------------------- Related Videos    • Does The Chemistry In Breaking Bad Actuall...   (MythBusters Breaking Bad Special)    • What Mistake Really Got Gale Fired?      • Was Walter White's Rant At Victor Nonsense?      • What Is All The Stuff In The Superlab? (Ep...   (Superlab Series) -------------------- Table of Contents 00:00 Trailer 00:24 Intro 03:14 Myth Busting 04:28 Bathtub - Busted? 06:02 Counter-Proposal 10:13 Objections 12:36 The Drain? 15:47 In Walt's Defense 17:09 Mercury Fulminate 18:10 Explosion - Busted? 19:33 Summary 19:55 Outro ------------------- Minutiae and Missed Opportunities I missed the opportunity to splice in clips from SNL / Lonely Island's "Threw It On The Ground", or to point out "a little tweak of chemistry" is a meth pun and splice in Tweak from South Park. Hindsight is 20/20. I did not address putting the "secret sauce" in the counter-proposal acid. That would hyper-aggressively boil, much as it does for the sulfuric acid. But my point was to avoid boiling. Likewise I did not address galvanic coupling to accelerate it. I did not address that they only let the 36 gallon test run for ~5 minutes, not giving time for the sulfuric acid on the floor. I did not get into what the under-space of a paneled bathtub looks like to illustrate how acid can pool between the tub and the floor. I did not address mortar beds. I did not bring up surface fractures from the wear and tear on a tub that is not brand new. I know Jamie Hyneman's head gear is wrong in the thumbnail. That was intentional. There is another non-"Busted?" version in the video where it's right. Likewise with Adam Savage being dressed wrong in the fake fleeing scene with Walt and Jesse. ------------------- Disclaimer This is analysis for tests the MythBusters did and speculative alternatives for fictional scenarios portrayed in Breaking Bad. These are highly dangerous. Some aspects are actually illegal to attempt without being licensed. This video is not a sound basis for actually attempting what it describes. It will very likely get you killed or result in serious injury. Nor is it intended to be used in any sort of illegal "disincorporation" of bodies. There may be any number of hazards which have not been stated or anticipated. Do not attempt to imitate or perform any of it. This video is not disparagement of MythBusters. It is taking the experiments seriously, and critiquing them on rigor and first principles. In some cases it is disputing interpretation. For example: The 50 gram versus 250 gram difference sounds "massive", where one is "busted" and the other is not. But due to the cubed power nature of volume, and the high density of mercury, this is only a small difference in the size of the prop being thrown. Excerpts from Breaking Bad, owned by Sony Pictures Television, Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould. MythBusters is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Info graphics were made with A.I. assistance using Gemini and manually edited. They are intended as approximate illustrations of principles, and likely inaccurate in minute details, such as arrows with flow paths. Realistic but obviously fake images were labeled that way and involved Photoshopping. ------------------- Support me on Patreon:   / renaissancestem   Ko-fi Donate: https://ko-fi.com/renaissancestem PayPal Tip Jar: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/XS... Instagram:   / renaissancestem   Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/renaissances... Twitter: https://x.com/STEMRenaissance