Premier Date: November 12, 2008

It’s better to hit the ground running. busted The MythBusters tested this idiom in a literal sense by applying it to running, bicycling, and driving. They wanted to see if you can be faster when your legs or wheels are already moving at the start of a time trial. For running, Kari, Tory, and Grant each ran 30 feet from a standstill, then after dropping from a trapeze bar while running in the air, and finally after riding a zipline to the starting line. All of them were faster when running from a standstill. For the bicycle, Tory made a rig that allowed him to elevate the rear wheel and drop it, spinning, onto the ground. This made the bike unstable and was slower than a dead start. Finally, the team raised the front wheels of a car off the ground while Kari revved the engine. The front end was then dropped, but once again, a dead start proved to be faster.

You can’t polish poop. busted Adam and Jamie visited a zoo to obtain a variety of feces to try to polish. They tried to pick the most polishable candidates and baked them to remove the moisture. Adam tried to shine his poop with a buffing wheel, while Jamie reasoned that using a wax polish would result in a shine. Adam eventually sought the advice of an outside expert, who showed him that it was possible to apply a shine to dirt with a tedious technique. Applying this technique, Adam and Jamie were able to obtain very polished poop without using any foreign materials like polish.