Breaking Bad Meets Reality - Mythbusters - Science Documentary
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- Mythbusters - S08 E10
Dive into a world where 'Breaking Bad' meets science! The MythBusters team puts iconic Breaking Bad science to the test-Can hydrochloric acid dissolve a bathtub? Is mercury fulminate really that explosive? Watch as we debunk or confirm these thrilling chemistry myths!
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Join the MythBusters in their thrilling quest to debunk myths, challenge urban legends, and test movie scenes in this action-packed TV series! With hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman leading the charge, buckle up for a wild ride as they employ rigorous scientific methods, high-octane experiments, and jaw-dropping explosions to uncover the truth. From epic car stunts to mind-blowing special effects, witness the power of scientific inquiry as myths are either confirmed or shattered. Get ready for an adrenaline-fueled adventure filled with excitement, humor, and the ultimate quest for knowledge. Tune in now and unlock the secrets behind the myths!
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I don't know if this makes Braking Bad older than I thought or the Mythbusters younger than I thought, but in my head, these shows are like 8years apart
I think breaking bad aired in 2008
Was the last really good show
@@dlfrestorationyou could try the expanse i love this one
@@dlfrestoration if you think breaking bad was last good show since 08 you need to stop waiting to be spoonfed content. There are SO MANY fantastic series and movies. Breaking bad was without a doubt one of the best series ever made, but its not the first, last or best imho, it just reminded people what a good story CAN be.
@@kUb_kOb everything since has been woke rubbish sadly
For those of you who want to know what the secret sauce was, it's Hydrogen Peroxide and with sulfuric acid it forms "Piranha solution". At 18:27 on the left jug they didn't censor the "Hydrogen Peroxide" written on there.
I saw that too
Jamie literally revealed it to the smart at 46:50 🤣
@@IanSelvaraj Lots of hydrogen and oxygen could also be just water and nonetheless it was just a little thing I noticed and thought was a tad funny.
Piranha solution is a well known dissolving agent anyway
They almost said it at the end "consists of lots of hydrogen and oxygen " . Though I believe bleach instead of perox. would have done the job
Methbusters
All these years and that pun never occured to me 😐
Yes. Quite.
More like Methbursters!
Thank you
r/Angryupvote worthy comment
I am sure Tuco had his office professionally cleaned after the blast to remove the fine mercury dust. Would not want any long-term brain damage leading to unpredictable behavior during drug deals. Everyone should stay relaxed and focused during those.
😅😅😅👍
The "secret acid" is Piranha Solution btw -
It's made with 3 parts of concentrated sulfuric acid and 1 part of 30% hydrogen peroxide solution, same ratio used in this episode.
It's so dangerous that just mixing it too quickly can cause it to boil and even explode
Yup, peroxymonosulfuric acid
yeah, when they said "the solution is a lot of hydrogen and oxygen" i figure it out it's hydrogen peroxide.
thanks , now i can dispose corpse .
there was an episode of csi vegas where the killer died because they mixed piranha solution to fast
That's what I figured out as well from "lots of Hydrogen and Oxygen". Deduced rather. Not really that many ways these 2 can bond in order to satisfy "the Ultimate Theatrical Effect" requirement the duo has consistently made their trademark...
48:31 Just realised that the names in the end credits all got the Periodic Table treatment. Nice little detail for the Breaking Bad Special.
at 9:53 they also did the "sped-up landscape" shot, just like in breaking bad
HF is actually a weak acid by definition and not as corrosive as strong acids such as Hydrochloric (HCl), however, corrosivity is the least hazardous aspect of HF. The toxicity of HF is the main concern. HF is absorbed through the skin quickly and is a severe systemic toxin.
Many years ago I worked in a lab that used HF in their research and it was kept in plastic because it corroded glass and its toxic properties were what made us respect the horrid stuff.
Yeah, as demonstrated by the drywall's plaster, HF is a BIG calcium fan, and that includes the calcium in your bones.
@@nerd_nato564bone hurting juice
@@DanielThePyroGuy Pretty much. That's probably the best description for HF.
I’m disappointed they didn’t test the production of crystal meth, and the actual quality of the result 😁🤷🏼♂️
I‘m sure they did before the actual myths that made it in the episode
Well, because it's a federal offense mainly 😂 Pretty sure it's one of those things that even pharmaceutical companies aren't even allowed to make
@@spran369 methamphetamin?
Pharmaceutical companies do make methamphetamin as medicition
As example for ADHD and narcolepsy, even for children
The last years it‘s used more often again legally
No no you missed something 🫢 The actual myth is if blue meth is an indicator of pureness! spoiler: it’s not … meth is natural white so you would make it blue by adding impurities 🫨 Myth : BUSTED💥
@@spran369pharmaceutical companies are allowed to produce it and they do
It‘s a used medication for ADHD as example, even for kids
Lmao the part with the 3 others always end up the same :
"So the myth didnt work, so instead we're using C4"
They should have scratched the bottom of tub (like a old used bathtube) , so the acid could corrode it .amazing reaction anyway
yeah. vitreous ceramic that hasn't had any wear is going to resist almost anything
yep beaten up tub, maybe partially rotten floor, also it should have had plumbing (old rusted iron pipes)
"why? well here's Adam on acid" cought me so off guard💀💀13:39
34:54 Poor Jesse had to turn his t-shirt inside out because it had an image on it the producers didn’t like
Vince retconning the show on another show is highly amusing.
36:28
The most common material for bathtubs and shower tubs in *Not America* is enamel-coated steel. For toilet bowls and bathroom sinks, that would be porcelain.
I'm honestly not sure why I was surprised by fiber glass apparently being more common in America, seeing how the people there have seemingly never heard of concrete walls and double-paned windows, which are standards in Europe.
One of my favorites Mythbusters episode, so glad you guys uploaded it
What if???:
1) They could do mercury fulminate something more rigid, when they throw against the wall or floor the deformation of that solid MF will cause a better reaction, it was just a powder, and you have to remember that Tuco's place was made of concrete.
2) Considering that Jesse's house was not a new house, i could bet if that bathtub could be scratched or broken, that scratch could be enough to the special sauce and acid penetrates very good and dissolve it. and as an old house maybe the wet environment under the bathtub could be the best place to drain all that dissolved matter.
Note: obviously Vince Gilligan didn’t put exact proportions not to promote people to do it in real life, like the meth they didn't show the exact formula.
This show's narrator doesn't get enough credit, very nostalgic.
Wooden walls take more in of the shockwave, then brick, so it lowers the chances to blow out the windows. Also asking the specialist how the difference between the powder and crystal form could matter, next to it beign extremely hard to crystalize, would sound like an insteresting follow up on this vis.
I seem to recall someone said ( or I read) that a crystal of it at that size would spontaniously explode. Probbably long before it go to that size.
yeah if its that fragile during creation, then maybe it should've gone of when tuco's goons pressed it down while putting it on the desk.... but hey, maybe they will follow up :)
@@deadbydayinblackYeah I get why they didn't make the crystal. It probably would've been very risky.
That "maybe they should build us a writing robot" quote does not seem to be aging that well
Wdym ?
AI?
Ai can write better then 90% of humans
@@Eh_2_Zed oh, a self-proven point
@@gianclgar that AI is a more effective tool to create media. Yes. Thank you.
Jesse turning up in a t-shirt with a brand or logo so he has to wear it inside out.
Breaking Bad - the most intense TV show I've ever seen to this day. Truly a classic masterpiece
Rest In Peace Grant ❤
It's been how long now? Fock, get over it
It's been how long now? Fock, get over it
It's been how long now? Fock, get over it
It's been how long now? Fock, get over it
It's been how long now? Fock, get over it
"Pirania" solution should be used AFTER SLOWLY mixing ingredients, becose added in that way thay notwhole mixed one ingredient has bigger density that second so only little of mixture on that movie is really mixed... when pirania is maked good after disolving material liquid is clean and transparent, that what we see is effect of separate work of ingredient, "pirania" in use is hot but NEVER should boil... and one more thing "pirania" work weaker and weaker in time so you would not disolve whole body, there always stay some bones
RIP Grant, this show was a huge part of my childhood. It was an awesome way to learn cool thing's growing up.
Dam didn’t know he died
@@djdeemz7651 That was the main reason show was stopped
@@Hyleyswas it related to the show?
@@ooltimu not at all
@@Hyleys it wasn't.
For anyone wondering the special sauce is hydrochloric acid the sol. Is called aquaregia can dissolve even inert metals likegold
I love how this deep high-intensity character drama, is introduced in the Voiceover like a Saturday Moring Cartoon.
"Follow Jesse and Walt as they drop into the craaaaazy world of organized crime. These two get up to all sorts of high jinx ."
"This super secret ingredient that blows off yellow smoke"
Yeaaaah Chemistry nerds will have a pretty solid guess
Chemistry nerds who needed to dissolve a body: *ammoniacal laughter*
The scripting and over the top bad acting will never get old XD
Of couse, the "special sauce" is concentrated hydrogen peroxide, mixed with sulfuric acid gives a "piranha solution". Nasty stuff, good for cleaning organic...residue.
Key to the fulminated mercury and other similar substances being too impact reactive is "screwing up" the process to create crystals (just don't, ever), not fine powder. They made it too perfectly.
I once (ONCE!) used varnish and paint remover on wood in a bathroom. The bath was made from Fiberglass and the paint stripper got on to the bath. The result was Ooopsie! I nearly put a hole in my bath!
Also, being a Breaking Bad special, how about watching someone use ice for the first time? Having heard so much about it, fortunately from the relative safe distance of across the pond, I've always wondered why all that use it rave about it so much. I mean, to turn a God fearing, church going sinless, purer than the driven snow, into someone who can suck a golf ball through a garden hose within days, has to be quite a substance. I pray it never reaches these shores. I have enough on my plate as it is!?!
Large crystals would be much more impact sensitive...
said its almost impossibe to make it to clear crystals
It would definitely be more likely to explode. 50g of it would not blow up a building though, and it would not leave people inside alive if it did. The crystals would also look nothing like they did in the show - you just can't make crystals of mercury fulminate that size (you'd get a few millimetres at best) and it's the wrong colour (closer to that powder's colour).
And purer too
@@slyfoxcoffee9642 I do think its impossible to make in crytallized form.
@@iiiuuj lmao no he didnt, he said its fairly complex
i love how initially Jamie wasn't too thrilled about working with someone like Adam but at this point they have become unlikely allies and Adam can make Jamie laugh. i respect the heck outta both of them and i consider both of them one of my heroes and i like to think this job has helped Jamie come out of his shell a tad and if Adam can make Jamie laugh you know Adam really has won him over cuz Jamies skepticism is one of his finest qualities but i think he extends some trust to Adam at this point to help him be more open minded and laugh off some of the tension that usually comes with skepticism
(sorry about the giant run-on sentences writing buffs)
"The myth was busted"
"Actually in my minds eye the bathtub was made of cheese"
Kudos, Vince... Kudos...
Special SAUS is that 2 hydrogen atoms + 2 oxygen atoms = dihydrogen dioxide, more commonly known as hydrogen peroxide. The combination with sulfuric acid is known as piranha solution is that that?
The process of enhancing sulfuric acid’s reactivity by adding an oxidizing agent is commonly known as “supercharging.” In this Mythbusters episode, they used a “special sauce” of hydrogen peroxide; which is a strong oxidizer, also referred to as “Piranha Solution”.
At 17:15 into the video, the liquid in those bottles did not look like pure sulfuric acid. Concentrated sulfuric acid is very viscous. The thick (oil like) consistency is what gave sulfuric acid its other name, "oil of vitriol." Look it up.
If they used pure sulfuric acid, the pig flesh would almost instantly turn into black carbon, because the acid rips out water from the compounds in the flesh, thus leaving mainly carbon. You would also need a whole lot more acid to dissolve that much pork.
sulfuric acid can also be super saturated to something like 18 mol ..
@@bobthe7778 18 mol/L is concentraded not super saturated. It is the same as 96%
You can get 99.9% but it offgasses a lot. It is also less corrosive as the water helps the reactions take place.
Yeah, it also looks much more yellow. It also seems their definitely not peroxide was kinda meh, it didn't dissolve the carbon goop fast enough.
"we dont want anyone to know our 'special sauce' "
18:27 hydrogen peroxide 30% Cleanroom LP
say my name..
...you're mythbusters
you're god damn right
'Fun' Fact: in Afghanistan ISIS mostly closed down all opium production and switched to growing ephedra. Ephedra is a plant that is used to make crystal meth which is mostly sold ion eastern Europe. The EMCDDA has a great report about this.
ISIS? You mean the Taliban? Much to the dismay of big pharmaceutical corporations, for whom opium is a highly valuable resource and Afghanistan is the producer of 80% of the world's opium. And that also at a time when the opioid crisis was starting to form in the US. I've heard of soldiers having to guard poppy seed fields after the invasion... makes you wonder.
9:29 That's a lost chance to make a "I know a guy who knows a guy" reference
29:10 at this time if the robotic arm was misfired, then everybody in the room might have died not due to an explosion but a heart attack
9:27 i thought he gona say " luckily we found a guy who knows a guy who know another guy" 😂
Yeah, the fulminate was busted since there was no agitator that would cause a minute frictional burst once it was thrown. In the series, the fulminate was supposedly a crystal, where as, in MB, it was in powder form.
To increase the reactivity or strength of sulfuric acid, some possible answers include:
Concentration: Increasing the concentration of sulfuric acid can enhance its reactivity.
Temperature: Raising the temperature of sulfuric acid can increase its reactivity.
Catalysts: Adding catalysts like vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) or platinum can enhance sulfuric acid's reactivity.
Oxidizers: Adding oxidizers like hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) or potassium permanganate (KMnO4) can increase sulfuric acid's reactivity.
Remember to handle sulfuric acid with caution, as it's a highly corrosive and hazardous substance. Always follow proper safety protocols and guidelines when working with it!
Dry wall is called dry wall for a reason 🤣 when it gets wet or liquid is present around it, it soaks it up like a sponge and falls apart which is why your house has to be stripped out and re furbished after a flood or water has gone through the walls.
Yeah, yeah, you call him Breaking Bad guy but we all know he's the cowboy from Pile o' Bullets!
the special sauce is hydrogen peroxide, with the sulfuric acid together creates "aqua regia"
Small mistake H202 and sulfuric acid make piranha solition aqua regia is made with HCL and nitric acid
25:47 "The Throwbot is ready to throw..." Yeah... Not with the axle bent hell out of shape! That's a 5 degree bend right there! 😄
This is complete and utter bollocks..you put the fulminated mercury in a bag on purpose. Walt threw the raw material not in a bag that exploded with the rest in the bag on Tucos desk. You didn't bother testing that though did you
4:34 you need to cut your nails first dude. 😂
I love how Walt's head looks more like Tobias from Arrested development XD
The acid mystery solution was totally peroxide lol
"Inside the tub was sulfuric acid and our special sauce, which, let's just say is lots og hydrogen and oxygen."
...
Lots og hydrogen and oxygen... They really kept that secret sauce very secret xD
Can't tell if they did the acid test right since they kept saying hydrochloric acid instead of hydrofluoric acid. You can buy HCL in the hardware store and it's not that bad. Granted, you're not gonna get 99.99% purity but still, not the same thing. Heck, your stomach produces HCL. The hydrofluoric acid on the other hand IS really toxic though, and I've seen some real nasty orange fumes in some reactions.
funfact : old Chemist in germany tried out to reproduze the cristal meth out of breaking bad , was successful, but got noticed by the police.
he got released after it was confirmed that he had no intention of selling it
That red painted ''explosion proof box'' (39:59) appears quite lightweight and turns out to be made of plywood. (40:14)
Enjoyed the show, though
They missed a trick there. The tub was old and used so probably had scratches through the gell coat which would allow the acid mix to attack the fiber mesh and resin.
Did Adam use galvanized square steel and eco friendly wood veneers when creating the bathroom?
I just find it funny that Aaron paul has he t-shirt on inside out for a chunk near the end.
"Special Sauce"
sounds like the title of a gum guzzling corn
Aw, they didn't check if you can kickstart van engine with 6 homemade batteries...
Edit: the description has mistake: it says hydrochloric acid, but in movie (as well as in Mythbusters) they used hydrofluoric acid.
When he was going over the periodic table stuff, I remembered why I failed science 10 twice
The "special sauce" might be hydrogen peroxide. With sulfuric acid, it forms piranha solution which can dissolve organic materials to water and carbon dioxide.
but in the show they didn't wrap the crystals in the plastic bag. maybe plastic bag prevent enough friction and heat from reaching the substance.
i love how at 5:30 Jamie is putting the dishes with the material onto a tray one by one.
Why not put all the dishes onto the tray and load the tray with all of it on it in one go?
O wait, yeah, time filler, hollywood.
Without all the filler and repeating stuff they've already said, these episodes would only be 20 minutes long too xD
yeah, that i know. But be real: to fill it up with nonsense like that is a bit too much.
@@InevitableMayo
hydrogen peroxide will turbo charge any acid, so likely that is what he is adding to it. especially since his "special sauce" is 30% adds weight to that assumption as 30% concentration is common for reagent grade H2O2.
31:10 Well we finally have a writing robot, it's called AI
Imagine Adam on Acid talking about Acid
I'm disappointed they didn't test the magnet one
Magnets? As in from Season 5?
@@gaffer2602 ye
is it me or did they add a little something something with the mercury fulminate at 40:39 you can clearly see the bags of MF on the right and a cylinder on the left not just a squib
might be a canister of flammable gas to make the explosion look better for tv
oh my god ive been trying to watch this episode for yeaaaaaars tysm for uploading
A charge under the tub even a firecracker
He didnt use the Mercury F to knock them out and escape. I guess he didnt see the show.
There's no half measures but the show is full of half measures.
I think they did it wrong with the explosives do to the impact of the powder together instead of a crystal impacting. The colliding of the crystal may make the explosion work without the shock rocks. But I don't think the crystal should explode with as much power do to the same thing that happens with gun powder (fine = fast bang) (course = slow bang)
The special sauce Jamie is talking about is 30% hydrogen peroxide so they can make piranha solution. It's super scary stuff.
Dude I thought this was a clickbait title and thumbnail. Actually scrolled past the first time I saw it. But it's real. That's nuts!
34:33 i noticed a funny detail.
Aaron had to wear his shirt inside out, i guess there is some sort of copyrighted material there or something.
it looks like there is Darth Vader on the shirt lol
Lol that's why u hate modern TV Shows
Heidelberg is running the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico 😅
Should be called Methbusters for this special
15:10 it is probably hydrogen peroxide and they create pyranha solution
I have never seen this episode before but, based on the goosebumps I got from the intro I know I'm gonna enjoy this! 🤩
i would have liked to see what thatbathtub with satanic sludge would have looked like after 8 hours staying like that
Thanks for uploading episode ❤🎉
TBF they used the crystallised version on the show. It may be more volatile
I don't know this is just a theory and I'm no chemist but with the whole explosion thing perhaps in the process of crystallizing it is condensed and Walt had accounted for that.
Das Quecksilberfulminat wäre beim werfen explodiert, wenn es große Kristalle gewesen wären anstatt Pulver!
es wird als Pulver hergestellt, weil große Kristalle viel zu empfindlich auf Schlag oder Reibung reagieren!
Anyone know what that special sauce used to ‘turbo charge’ the sulphuric acid? Asking for a friend that works for Boeing
H2O2
Leave Boeing alone
@@SinfullyHerau mean the enterprise that killed an employee that was about to expose the company? Sure.
@@luismagarinos3012 Yes, leave them alone, for your own safety.
Yeah, it's just piranha solution. Sulphuric acid and H2O2. I've made a much more concentrated version of it before, since they seemingly used diluted acid and H2O2.
my sister still owns some of the candy from the stoe they used to make the Crystal Meth in the show, such a cool prop.
I have too much of the hf acid.... that's questioning my father's previous life
I'm no chemist and my thought process may be off, but the mercury in the show was crystallized. Now the specialist said this can be done, just not with what they had available for the test. The powdered version obviously was busted, but I think the crystal version might have had a more lively reaction to being tossed. Powder wrapped in plastic and duct tape will just collapse into itself, more or less, where as something in crystal form, even of its in a zip lock like in the show, will shatter. It would have better chance to explode with a harsher breaking of its form.
as a big fan of mythbusters but who also wouldnt wanna sit through lots of boring parts in breaking bad, i have barely seen a single episode of one while i've seen tons of the other and as very often, the experiments in mythbusters do not match what i call "the cleanliness factor". remember when they experimented with pyramids and sawed through an apple and it seemed to show results just based on that alone? well, same here except the other way around: the breaking bad scene with the bathtub plays in some decrepit house. seeing as it still has a bathtub instead of a much cheaper shower, it must be especially old and not just built shoddily, but actually decently after which it became what we can see. the fact that all of this happened instead of it being kept up well should also pretty much guarantee the weakest and cheapest bathtub available being used, as otherwise the owners wouldve most likely paid more attention to it, so in that aspect they had it correctly in the end with glass fiber. one thing that was definitely not correct is that the bathtub was practically in pristine condition. as anyone would be able to attest to who has used an old, weak bathtub, this is never the case. if you rent, this is almost guaranteed. so the bathtubs wouldve been damaged in some ways. this could be thin, superficial tears in the material, but also some slightly deeper holes and maybe a sagging middle part where someone especially heavy may have just tripped and landed on that one time when there was a little too much soap in there and they didnt pay attention. again, i've seen this so many times before at so many people's places (as everyone around here rents), that i'm genuinely surprised how they didnt add this edge to the acid working its magic. a larger surface wouldve helped the reaction by default, but also the damage to the surface wouldve gotten rid of the most difficult part and made the material thinner. i think a good place for them to start wouldve been to get a used bathtub in rough shape and then banged it up some more. it was a drug lord's hideout, afterall, from what i can tell. then the floor. same idea, way too good condition. such a floor wouldve had various small holes and countless little cuts and grooves which wouldve really helped the acid work. also, maybe use more rotten wood? those have some air gaps often and are weaker, too, so a bathtub that was filled to the brim with enough acid dissolve 70kg of pork couldve weighed down more upon it to break through.
ps: in the series it seems that the wrong kind of acid was used, as a massive chunk of flesh fell down, whereas the other materials were much more damaged, i'm not a chemist, but is it possible that there's an acid or base that would achieve sth much more close to that? i get that piranha solution makes for an awesome effect, but maybe it was sth else entirely. aqua regia is well known to dissolve gold and is made of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid, though quite different, it's pretty easy for a chemistry teacher like walter white to produce in copious amounts, i think. and while i know very little of the topic, judging by the fact that the myth busters team arent using it on the pork but piranha solution, i will assume that it works pretty badly with organic stuff like meat and MAYBE better with other things? but again, i'm talking out of my hinie right now. or maybe there's an acid that excels at eating through wood that would be a realistic option?
That is what they used
Chlorine Trifluoride can likely do the job of passing thru the bathtub, and disintegrate the pig, the issue is the rest of the building won't survive the heat, and is way too dangerous to handle.
This is EPIC🔥
13:50 What is interesting to me: Why is Iodine not pronounced io-deen like all other halogens?
I believe it's the American pronunciation
@@laughingoutloud5742 yeah i think thats correct. im aussie and have most of the time over here I've heard it pronounce eye-oh-dean and considering Australian pronunciation generally follows UK instead of US pronunciation that sounds about right. however it seems to be a bit more fluid then something like tomato so u sometimes hear it the other way
I love Mythbusters❤
@28:04 that dummy looks exactly like Tobias from arrested development lol
The world was a better place when Breaking Bad was still running (probably not but atleast i had shit to distract myself)
I thought it is Breaking Bath. They are wasting a hell of a lot of time on some faulty bath and a ceiling. In reality that piece of bath would simply get stuck in the metal grid of such a ceiling. It is all as fake as you can get it. Why did people stay home for this? For real?
I've never recovered from Breaking Bad. It ruined tv for me because there was nothing else to watch, besides Vikings...and that turned to shit after Ragnar died imo. GOT was traumatic as well as the last few seasons sucked monkey balls too lol