MythBusters (2004 season)


The cast of the television series MythBusters perform experiments to verify or debunk urban legends, old wives' tales, and the like. This is a list of the various myths tested on the show as well as the results of the experiments.

Episode overview


No. in seriesNo. in seasonTitleOriginal air dateOverall episode No.

Episode 9 – "Explosive Decompression"

Frog Giggin'

Rear Axle

Episode 10 – "Chicken Gun"

Allegedly, British rail companies borrowed the titular gun from NASA for testing windshields for high-speed trains, but were shocked and confused at the amount of carnage the gun did. When they asked NASA what they were doing wrong, they were told to thaw the chickens before firing.
Myth statementStatusNotes
A frozen chicken launched in a bird strike simulation can penetrate aircraft or train windshields better than a thawed chicken.Busted
First, Jamie and Adam designed and built an air gun with a barrel big enough to handle chickens. Jamie re-used and enlarged the design he used when designing the "improved" 7Up vending machine that was featured in a TV commercial - a tank of compressed air connected to a barrel by a butterfly valve that could release the air in an instant. They then designed foam sabots for the chickens to make sure they were propelled properly out of the gun and procured a used Piper Cherokee fuselage and several spare windshields to shoot at.
With the blessing of pumpkin chunking world champion Bruce Bradford, they proceeded with their initial test. Not only did both frozen and thawed chickens go through the windshields every time, but on their test shot, a frozen chicken broke the pane of Lexan they had set up to protect the windshields. They declared the myth busted - but then realized they had made a big mistake: Piper Cherokee windscreens are not rated for bird strikes.
They then came up with another test - time of impact - and tested it by firing the chickens at metal plate viewed with a high speed camera. They found that the impact times were exactly the same and thus declared the myth busted, but this verdict was later overturned in the Myths Revisited episode when they found that the penetration was still different.
After their initial verdict, they also fired a pumpkin at one of the windows, which went through both windows, through the Lexan glass shield and came to rest several meters away.

Killer Washing Machine

Octopus Egg Pregnancy

Episode 11 – "Break Step Bridge"

Rowing Water Skier

Toothbrush Surprise

Episode 12 – "Sinking Titanic"

This myth is so widely passed around that it even made it into Time Magazine's "numbers" section at one point.
Myth statementStatusNotes
A goldfish's memory lasts only three seconds.BustedJamie trained his goldfish to recognize color patterns and complete an obstacle course under water. They remembered what Jamie had taught them over a month later and easily completed the same course without Jamie's prompting. However, Adam's fish suffered from a filter malfunction and they were not getting enough food.

The Mad Trombonist

This myth was later tested on "Myths Redux"

Sinking Titanic

It was noted during the episode that the story of Charles Joughin, the Titanic's chief baker, contradicted the myth. He testified in a 1912 enquiry that he held onto the stern railing of the ship as it went down. As the ship went under, he stepped off; his hair did not get wet, much less himself get sucked under with the ship. However, the story does hold some credence, as many ships emit a large amount of air, as they sink. This massive amount of air, rising to the surface, creates a situation, whereby there is loss of buoyancy, in the air bubbles and anyone caught in this will sink, hence the belief that the ship is 'pulling' a floating person down with it.
Later, while preparing for the Ping Pong Salvage myth, the Sinking Titanic myth was re-tested and re-busted as Adam pointed out.

Episode 13 – "Buried in Concrete"

The myth revolved around Jimmy Hoffa, a union leader who unexpectedly disappeared, and the rumors that surrounded his disappearance. Among one of the myths was that he was buried under the infamous ten-yard bump in Giants Stadium, a rumor that persisted in various forms of media.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Jimmy Hoffa was buried in Giants Stadium.BustedAdam and Jamie tested several areas on the field held by rumor to be Hoffa's final resting place. No readings were found consistent with a cavity left by a body which had rotted away.

Daddy Long-Legs

Jet Taxi

This was the first myth in which the MythBusters were neither able to confirm nor bust the results due to logistics reasons. According to the episode, upon arrival at Mojave Spaceport, the insurance company responsible for the aircraft backed out at the last minute, citing possible foreign object damage to the plane. However, BBC's Top Gear was able to independently test and verify this myth.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Jet wash from an airliner can overturn a taxi if the vehicle passes behind the jet as it goes to full throttle.Partly PlausibleAdam and Jamie tried overturning a used taxi they had purchased, but were unable to get the car to flip. They could not Bust the myth for two reasons. For one, they were unable to acquire proper jet engines for insurance reasons, and had to settle for a pair of far smaller jet engines than were allegedly used in the myth. For another, a news article confirmed that a taxi in Brazil was blown off the road by a Boeing 737 which was taking off. While it is unlikely a car will pass so closely behind a jet taking off, it may flip over in the jet wash if it does pass that close.

This myth was re-tested and Confirmed in the Supersized Special.
Additionally, during the Storm Chasing Myths special, jet engines were used to simulate high wind speeds. Cars were used to demonstrate the power of the winds that both storm chaser's vehicles would be up against. All of the vehicles were shown blowing a considerable distance from the jet engines with significant damage done to both just from the winds alone.

Episode 14 – "Myths Revisited"

This was the first episode where the MythBusters retested earlier myths that had been commented or criticized by fans or had not performed as per their original expectations and test spinoff myths related to earlier myths. The episode also introduced Tory Belleci, Scottie Chapman and Christine Chamberlain and became the first episode to extensively feature Build Team members or Mythterns. This is also the first episode to officially use the Busted/Plausible/Confirmed system; previous episodes were a bit looser and only had Busted as a consistent verdict.

Breakstep Bridge

This myth was retested for the episode but ultimately did not air in the US version—although the Robin Banks-narrated Discovery Europe version did include it. This myth is also included in the DVD version of MythBusters Outtakes.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Soldiers marching in unison can cause harmonic oscillation in a bridge and cause it to collapse. PlausibleThe first time the myth was tested, the miniature bridge was flawed enough in its design to get an inconclusive answer, but with this test, just testing the natural resonance frequency of a simple wooden bridge, resulted in a plausible conclusion, but it is very improbable.
of the test on the Discovery Channel website.

Chicken Gun

Ice Bullet

Cell Phone Destruction

Aerosol Bazooka

Exploding Implants

Peeing on the Third Rail

''Goldfinger''

Episode 15 – "Scuba Diver and Car Capers"

Car Capers

Episode 16 – "Ancient Death Ray"

The MythBusters take on a myth from antiquity, where it is claimed that Archimedes constructed a solar-powered weapon by reflecting sunlight onto Roman ships. The result of the test sparked so much controversy, especially in engineering circles, that an entire episode was dedicated to a 2006 retest. In 2010, the myth was revisited again in the "President's Challenge" episode, in which United States President Barack Obama challenged Adam and Jamie to make a third attempt using more manpower. To date, this and JATO Rocket Car are the only myths to have been tested three times on the show.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Archimedes constructed a death ray by reflecting sunlight onto, and thus igniting, Roman vessels.BustedTo have any effect, the mirror would have to be impractically large, and even then, the temperature of wood was only raised a few degrees. On the Discovery website, however, a challenge was thrown out to the viewers to come up with an experiment to prove it plausible, and so far, a few of the entries seem to have done so. When all the tests were completed, the myth was conclusively busted.

Skunked!

The smell of skunk musk can be removed with...
Myth statementStatusNotes
...tomato juice.PlausibleAdam and Jamie had significant problems attempting to get a skunk to spray them. So they took the skunk to the women's restroom and cornered it to try to get it to spray. Finally, after being sprayed, Adam and Jamie covered themselves in tomato puree. Neither the two MythBusters, nor their builder Scottie, could detect the odor of skunk after they had been covered with the tomato juice.
...beer.BustedFor the rest of the tests, Adam and Jamie tried to eliminate the skunk odors from the women's restroom. After trying to use beer to clean up the mess, Scottie claimed that the beer covered up some of the smell, but the skunk odor was still there.
...a douche.BustedScottie was still able to detect the skunk odor as well as the beer.
...a custom mixture.ConfirmedA mixture of soap, hydrogen peroxide, and baking soda proved to work best for actually eliminating the aroma of skunk musk. The precise formula may be found in.
...commercial cleaners.ConfirmedFor the final test, Adam had to use synthetic skunk odor because the custom mixture had completely eliminated the skunk odor. Scottie says it worked, but says that there was a hint of skunk in the air, and that the custom mixture was more effective.

What is Bulletproof?

Adam and Jamie test whether some things that are mythically held to be bulletproof are actually bulletproof – included among them was an assertion by Jamie in the first season on their Lexan barriers being bulletproof.
Bullets can be stopped by...
Myth statementStatusNotes
...a book.BustedA hardcover book of at least 400 pages can potentially stop a.22 rifle shot, but anything stronger would shoot completely through.
...a deck of playing cards.BustedThe deck failed to stop any bullets.
...a Zippo lighter.BustedThe lighter failed to stop any bullets.
...a quarter-inch polycarbonate shield like that used by MythBusters.BustedThe shield failed to stop any bullets.
...an inch-thick polycarbonate panel rated bullet resistant.PlausibleThey tested using a four-sided box made of bullet-resistant polycarbonate laminate. The panels stopped.22,.357, &.44 magnum bullets, but a.30-06 Springfield shot from an M1903 Springfield penetrated both front and rear portions of the box.

Episode 17 – "Elevator of Death, Levitation Machine"

This myth is fueled by the story of an elevator attendant found alive but badly injured in an elevator car that had fallen 75 stories down a shaft in the Empire State Building after a B-25 Mitchell bomber crashed into it in 1945.
Myth statementStatusNotes
It is possible to survive by jumping up at the last moment before a freefalling elevator hits the ground.BustedThe jumping power of a human being cannot cancel out the falling velocity of the elevator; the elevator car would have struck the bottom of the shaft at around, while a human being can only jump at around, not enough to make a significant difference in the impact force. The best speculative advice from an elevator expert would be to lie on the elevator floor instead of jumping. Adam and Jamie speculated the attendant survived because the tight elevator shaft created an air cushion. This, together with spring action from slack elevator cable, could have slowed the car to survivable speeds.

After finding a bowling ball in the abandoned hotel in which they were testing the myth, Kari decided to test out a "mini-myth" of her own.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Dropping a bowling ball on a tiled floor will shatter the tiles.BustedThe ball did not shatter or even crack the tiles after Kari dropped it. After spotting Kari's failed test, however, Jamie took the ball and bowled it at some wall tiles on the other side of the hall, and the force of that impact did shatter the tiles that were hit.

Levitation Machine

Adam and Jamie try to build a hovercraft from vacuum cleaner parts, and after finding it plausible, decide to compete against each other in a homemade hovercraft racing contest. Adam, along with Tory and Christine, built the heavier Lillypad Flyer, while Jamie, Scottie, and Kari worked together to make the Hyneman Hoverboard.
Myth statementStatusNotes
An average person can build a home-made makeshift hovercraft on a budget of under $500.Partly PlausibleWhile they did cheat and go slightly over-budget, both Adam and Jamie built two separate functional hovercraft. While Adam's "Lilypad Flyer" and Jamie's "Hyneman Hoverboard" were both rather impractical, they worked nonetheless. It was also disputed whether or not the hovercraft could be properly labeled as levitation machines.

Episode 18 – "Beat the Radar Detector"

Adam and Jamie tested a construction-related myth, and put several other objects said to be able to act as a parachute to the test.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Holding a large sheet of plywood will slow a fall from a building enough to make it survivable.BustedThe fall was almost completely uncontrollable and the impact was still deadly. Even under the best possible conditions, the fall was not survivable. In fact, the plywood actually made the fall less survivable, as not only did Buster hit the ground at a slightly higher speed than when he fell without holding anything, but the plywood also broke in two over Buster's body when he hit the ground, which would undoubtedly have inflicted additional injuries. Even when the myth was stretched to custom-built constructions of the five individual plies of the plywood, neither Adam's nor Jamie's designs were any improvement.
Opening an umbrella will slow a fall from a building enough to make it survivable.BustedThough different umbrellas did slow a fall, the impact was still deadly. A real parachute was also tested, but found to be unable to properly arrest a fall from only. The best an umbrella can do is hold the person somewhat upright, causing less damage to the head.

Beat the Radar Gun

This is the first myth entirely tested by the Build Team.
It is possible to legally beat the police speed radar and/or lidar by...
Myth statementStatusNotes
...jingling a set of keys.BustedThe keys had no effect at all.
...dangling a disco ball from the rear-view mirror.BustedThe disco ball had no effect at all. It is also illegal to have anything large and obstructive hanging off the rear-view mirror.
...dangling CDs from the rear-view mirror.BustedThe CDs had no effect at all, and are also illegal in California.
...covering the hubcaps in tin foil.BustedThe tin foil did not have any noticeable effect.
...covering the entire car in tin foil.BustedThe tin foil acted as a large reflector and actually enhanced the detection ability of the radar.
...jamming the lidar by lining the front license plate with light-emitting diodes BustedThe LEDs were not strong enough to interfere with the lidar.
...jamming the lidar by covering the entire car with LEDs.Not testedWhile the idea did come up in the brainstorming phase it was too impractical to test on the full-scale car.
...jamming the radar by bouncing microwaves at it.BustedKari's magnetron failed to jam the police radar.
...shooting scraps of tin foil behind the car as chaff.BustedThere were too many rogue variables to get the system to work properly, particularly wind. The car was still detectable and the chaff did nothing to disrupt the radar. This solution would also likely result in a much stiffer penalty for littering.
...spinning a wheel of mirrors on top of the car slower than the actual speed of the car.Partly BustedTory's device actually tricked the radar into displaying the car as going one or two miles per hour slower, but not enough to help. The device itself was highly impractical. Unlike the rear-view mirror attachments, the roof mounted device was actually not illegal in California.
...painting the car matte-black to absorb the radar and light beams.BustedThe matte-black paint did nothing to reduce the detectability of the car.
...painting the car with special radar absorbing paint, like a stealth aircraft.Not tested/not practicalThe special paint is loaded with iron and goes on like frosting. It was so heavy that the toy car used in the preliminary tests could barely move. It was never properly tested on the full scale car, because it would be more expensive than just paying off any speeding tickets.

Episode 19 – "Quicksand"

Appliances in the Bath

Exploding Tattoo

Episode 20 – "Exploding Jawbreaker"

Inspired by incidents that left two children - Cameron DeHall and Taquandra Diggs - with what were later diagnosed as chemical burns after Jawbreakers blew up in their faces. It had also been reported that DeHall had heated his Jawbreaker in the microwave. The Diggs family and several other victims' families had already sued Nestlé for medical bills resulting from plastic surgery as well as pain and suffering. The lawsuits were later settled outside of court for an undisclosed amount.
Adam and Jamie, with help from Tory and Christine, tested the myth in a number of ways. When Jamie cut a Jawbreaker open using a band saw, he found that the way the candy is built creates the potential for a temperature differential. Specifically, the various layers can heat at different rates, creating a scenario where a layer can expand, cause pressure on the outer shell and make the candy unstable. If the candy was compressed - including in someone's jaws - the candy could explosively burst and its almost molten centers could cause painful burns.
Myth statementStatusNotes
A Jawbreaker can explode when bitten after being heated.ConfirmedFor the first test, Tory constructed a pair of jaws with steel teeth that could bite with the average human's bite force After trying various combinations of heating, cooling and pressure, a Jawbreaker did indeed explode when bitten, catching Christine on her temple and neck and Adam on the arm with burning candy as the "jaw rig" they had set up was not enclosed by safety screens. Adam seconded Jamie's opinion that the candy retains heat well on impact and likened it to napalm.
A Jawbreaker can explode when caustic soda is added and the mixture is heated.ConfirmedThis second test came from an idea that Adam touched on that caustic soda, which is often used in the cleaning of food-processing equipment, could have made Jawbreakers more likely to explode. To test it, Jamie, Adam and Christine prepared four samples of caustic soda and added ground-up Jawbreaker to two and ascorbic acid to the other two and then added water and heat to different halves of the matched pairs.
The heat treatment consisted of microwaving them for five minutes - until the caustic soda and crushed Jawbreaker mix combusted into what Adam described as a "burning cupcake" that left a batch of hot ash. The caustic soda, ascorbic acid and water mix also turned very hot. Adam then suggested taking their remaining crushed Jawbreaker/caustic soda mix in the toaster oven to simulate radiant heat - and it resulted in the mixture smoking and then bursting into flames, leaving rock-hard residue.
The plastic packaging of a Jawbreaker can make it more likely to explode if it is heated and then bitten.ConfirmedAdam also suggested finding out if the plastic packaging of a Jawbreaker can make it more likely to blow up, and to test it, they ran a test similar to the first one, first heating a Jawbreaker while still in its bag to simulate radiant heat and then putting it in the jaws. While it did not explode, they examined it and found that it was still weakened enough to potentially explode, which led them to confirm this aspect of the myth as well.

As a finale, Jamie created a more literal exploding Jawbreaker by removing the core, filling it with gunpowder, adding a fuse and then detonating it.

Static Cannon

Killer Deck

Episode 21 – "Pingpong Rescue"

Adam and Jamie explore the possibility of raising a ship with ping-pong balls, originally conceived in the 1949 Donald Duck story The Sunken Yacht by Carl Barks.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Ping-pong balls can be used to raise a sunken ship.PlausibleEven though it took an impractically large number of ping-pong balls, when enough of them were piped into the Mythtanic II, the boat rose to the surface. However, it took far fewer balls than they expected. In addition, this technique is of dubious legality—if containment of the ping-pong balls were to fail, the 'rescuer' would quite probably run afoul of environmental-protection laws.

Carried Away

The Build Team takes on a gag used in many comedic works, where a baby or small child could be lifted into the air and fly away unintentionally when given helium balloons.
Myth statementStatusNotes
A 4-year-old child can be lifted by a bunch of party balloons.BustedA large number of balloons would be required to lift an average four-year-old girl of just a few feet off the ground, so the myth could not have happened unintentionally.

''See also Larry's Lawn Chair Balloon from Pilot 3.

Episode 22 – "Boom-Lift Catapult"

AC vs. Windows Down

Adam and Jamie tackle not so much a myth as what they call an "urban puzzle". The debate arises because both methods of cooling influence a car's fuel efficiency—air conditioning requires a lot of power to run, but at the same time, open windows create drag. This myth was revisited in "MythBusters Revisited".
Myth statementStatusNotes
Running a car with air conditioning on is more fuel efficient than running with the windows down.Partly BustedTests were performed under varying conditions— versus ). Also, the 55 mph test was using a computer to estimate fuel efficiency based on air intake, not actual fuel consumption, and showed A/C was more efficient. The 45 mph test consisted of running the tank until it was empty, and showed open windows were more efficient. This experiment—or one like it—is sometimes cited by the Magliozzi Brothers on Car Talk when presented with this question.

Episode 23 – "Exploding House"

Talking to Plants

Needle in a Haystack

Adam and Jamie competed against each other in a contest to bust an old adage. While Jamie teamed up with Christine and Scottie in a machine known as Earth, Wind & Fire which burned the hay to leave the needles behind, Adam, Kari, and Tory used the Needlefinder 2000, a machine that relied on water to separate needles from the hay. Each team had to locate four needles among ten bales of hay—three of steel of varying sizes and one of bone. Adam's team won the contest, in great part because his team's machine "processed" their haystack more quickly.
Myth statementStatusNotes
Modern technology can render the phrase "like finding a :wikt:needle in a haystack|needle in a haystack" obsolete.Partly BustedWhile it is possible to find a needle in a haystack, even using specialized machines to do so takes a considerable amount of time, particularly since bone needles cannot be picked up by magnets. The task is difficult enough to still make the saying viable.

Episode 24 – "Ming Dynasty Astronaut"

The MythBusters take on a story, taken from the 1945 book Rockets and Jets by Herbert Zim, describes a Ming dynasty astrologer named Wan Hu and determine whether he really was the first astronaut in space as a result.
Myth statementStatusNotes
A 15th-century astrologer from China made it into space on a throne powered by 47 bamboo rockets.BustedThe combined heat from all 47 gunpowder-powered bamboo rockets caused them to explode, nearly destroying the throne and doing significant damage to the stand-in astrologer before it ever got off the ground. A throne, powered by 47 modern I-power rocket engines shot violently to one side, due to uneven firing, and weight balance, and did not have the thrust to lift the chair far, or into space. When the testing of this myth was finished, Buster, which had been badly burned and severely damaged, had to be remade.

Free Energy

By far the most popular of the submitted myths are those regarding perpetual motion – it was claimed in an interview by Adam that there was enough material to create three seasons of busting potential free energy machines. One test, cut for time and shown on "MythBusters Outtakes" involves coils of baling wire being used to siphon off electricity from nearby PG&E power lines in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Adam, Jamie and MIT electrical engineer Dr. Geo Homsy tested whether real free energy can be obtained using the following, which tended to involve more well-known ideas:
Myth statementStatusNotes
...a "G-strain amplifier" by sucking power from the curvature of space.BustedIn a day-long comparative experiment, the G-strain amplifier was hooked up to a battery and motor and pitted against a control - simply a battery connected to a motor - and the amplifier petered out first. Adam declared that the amplifier ought to be referred to in perpetuity as a ring oscillator and that they ought to sue the people who charged for the plans.
...a Minto wheel or temperature wheel.BustedAdam and Scottie successfully constructed a Minto wheel and got it to turn, but it was extremely slow - and the fastest machine that Adam was able to research as powered by a Minto wheel was only 1 RPM - enough to fan sheep, as Adam said.
...a radio wave energy extractor.BustedThis was a rare design in that it included parts as well as designs. It was claimed that if the box was assembled and connected to a antenna, it could power a clock radio. However, while radio waves can be converted to electricity, the assembly only produced half a Volt, meaning three would be needed to power the display of a digital watch and thus making it impractical.
...the Bedini Motor or Energizer.BustedThe motor did not achieve its theoretical overunity because the motor drained more power from the battery than it recharged and returned.

Killer Ceiling Fan

The myth of decapitation by jumping into a ceiling fan has two versions, both of which were tested: jumping up into the blades from below and jumping forward so as to carry the neck into the blades from the side To test this, Kari and Scottie bought a regular house fan and also an industrial fan, and then they and Tori encased pig spines and latex arteries filled with fake blood inside busts of Adam and added human craniums. They then added rigs for both scenarios.
Myth statementStatusNotes
A regular house fan can cause decapitation.BustedHouse fans do not have the power even to inflict serious injury while spinning at top speed — they are more likely to break first. During their tests, the "jumping kid" scenario produced hardly any injury, while the "lover's leap" scenario resulted in the wooden fan blades breaking against the neck.
An industrial fan can cause decapitation.BustedIndustrial fans are capable of inflicting severe lacerations when jumped into from below and caused a potentially lethal arterial severing when jumped into head on, but is still not powerful enough to take a head off.
For a finale, in an attempt to replicate the result, the Build Team created a razor-sharp, stainless steel fan powered by a lawn mower engine for the "lover's leap" scenario. Even that did not achieve decapitation, but it did cause lethal and horrifying injuries - deep cuts, sliced arteries and cracked vertebrae - that compelled Adam to put it in the "MythBusters Hall of Fame."

Episode SP1 – "Viewers-Choice/Christmas Special"

In this episode, Adam and Jamie test holiday-related myths while revealing the top-10 myths as voted upon by fans of the series. Clips were shown from each of these segments, in reverse order from #10 to #1.
  1. Tree Cannon
  2. Jet Assisted Chevy
  3. Escape From Alcatraz
  4. Stinky Car
  5. Barrel of Bricks
  6. Larry's Lawn Chair Balloon
  7. Pop Rocks and Soda
  8. Beat the Breath Test
  9. Chicken Gun
  10. CD-ROM Shattering
Holiday Myths:
Myth statementStatusNotes
A frozen turkey can explode if it is dropped into a deep fryer pot too fast.BustedWhile it will not explode, the turkey can cause the boiling oil to splash all over the place if it is dropped into the deep fryer improperly.
Placing a silver spoon in a bottle of champagne will make the bubbles last longer.BustedThe spoon actually reduces the fizziness of champagne. In a blind taste test when compared to several controls both Adam and Jamie ranked the spooned champagne the lowest in terms of fizziness.
A falling icicle can kill a person.ConfirmedAn icicle over in length falling from about completely penetrated a steak, showing it is possible for an icicle to kill a person.
A clothed snowman melts slower than a naked one.ConfirmedIn the 80 °F San Francisco summer heat, the naked snowman melted considerably faster than the clothed snowman. The clothes on the Adam snowman protected it from the heat and acted as insulation to help keep the temperature of the snow from rising.
A urine stream can freeze in the cold of winter.BustedWhen tested in a freezer at, the fake urine stream the MythBusters used did not freeze in midair.
Lighting a fire in a fireplace with a chimney can make a house colder.ConfirmedThe living room was heated and the nearby kitchen remained unchanged, but other, more distant, rooms got almost 3 °F colder.

Mini Myth – "Busting the Egguinox Myth"

Egg-uinox

The Egg-uinox myth was perhaps too short to air in any episode, as it was easily and conclusively busted.
Myth statementStatusNotes
An egg can be balanced on its ends only during the spring and fall equinox.BustedThis is a Chinese folk belief, sometimes called Li Chun egg balancing after the first day of spring in the Chinese calendar. There is nothing special about the spring and fall equinoxes that allows an egg to balance on end. A person with enough dexterity can do it on any day of the year. Hard boiled eggs balance better than raw eggs, however.