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Jun. 7th, 2006 09:50 amI was telling [info]maeritrae about this in comments this morning, and I realised, it needs sharing with the world.
So, the US military tests airplane windscreens for impact-resistance by firing dead chickens at them, right? The idea being, no bird bigger than a chicken is likely to strike a windscreen. The joke goes that the British took the idea and used the chickens to test impact-resistance on high-speed trains, but the trains kept failing the test. When they showed their results to the US military, the general turned to them and said "Gentlemen -- try thawing your chickens."
The Mythbusters (a group of special effects experts who test the likelihood of urban myths) decided to see if the joke was true or not by testing whether frozen chickens did significantly more damage than thawed chickens. Surprisingly enough, until you get to really low speeds, they don't -- which confirms the joke as a "myth", since firing frozen chickens wouldn't be any more destructive than firing thawed ones.
As we were making lunch after watching this episode, Bernard said he thought they should have fired cooked chickens at the windscreens too.
"Yeah, because cooked chickens often travel at 34,000 feet," I said, ignoring the fact that the Mythbusters totally would have done that if they'd thought of it, just because blowing roast chickens out of giant pneumatic cannons is cool.
At this point he constructed an elaborate scenario for my benefit, wherein a luxury airplane was serving a roast chicken dinner to its passengers when it depressurised, SUCKING the chicken out through a window and sending it careening (eventually) into the windscreen of another airplane.
Seriously, if it's between the giant spider and my brother, nine times in ten I will take the giant spider.
So, the US military tests airplane windscreens for impact-resistance by firing dead chickens at them, right? The idea being, no bird bigger than a chicken is likely to strike a windscreen. The joke goes that the British took the idea and used the chickens to test impact-resistance on high-speed trains, but the trains kept failing the test. When they showed their results to the US military, the general turned to them and said "Gentlemen -- try thawing your chickens."
The Mythbusters (a group of special effects experts who test the likelihood of urban myths) decided to see if the joke was true or not by testing whether frozen chickens did significantly more damage than thawed chickens. Surprisingly enough, until you get to really low speeds, they don't -- which confirms the joke as a "myth", since firing frozen chickens wouldn't be any more destructive than firing thawed ones.
As we were making lunch after watching this episode, Bernard said he thought they should have fired cooked chickens at the windscreens too.
"Yeah, because cooked chickens often travel at 34,000 feet," I said, ignoring the fact that the Mythbusters totally would have done that if they'd thought of it, just because blowing roast chickens out of giant pneumatic cannons is cool.
At this point he constructed an elaborate scenario for my benefit, wherein a luxury airplane was serving a roast chicken dinner to its passengers when it depressurised, SUCKING the chicken out through a window and sending it careening (eventually) into the windscreen of another airplane.
Seriously, if it's between the giant spider and my brother, nine times in ten I will take the giant spider.
