Running head: MYTHBUSTERS 1

Myth Busters

Eh Na

Ivy Tech Community College

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InTASC Standards Rationale Page

Standard # 4: Content Knowledge

The teacher understands the centrals, tools of inquiry, and structures of the discipline(s) he or she

teachers and creates learning experiences that make these aspects of the discipline accessible and

meaningful for learners to assure mastery of the content.

Name of Artifact: Myth Buster

Date: September 19, 2017

Course: EDUC 224: Scientific Inquiry

Brief Description: This article summarizes a Myth Busters S12 E10- Breaking Bad Special from

YouTube, the investigate processes used test and see if this idea from the show is a myth or if

you can really use hydrofluoric acid to eat through a bathroom and human being.

Rationale: To document my understanding of Content Knowledge, I choses my Myth Busters

paper, because it shows my understanding of central concepts and tools of inquiry. This is show

an example of how to simplify complex scientific concepts so that they are meaningful to

leaners. This activity could be used in my classroom to engage learners in a variety of big

concepts.
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Title: MythBusters S12 E10- Breaking Bad Special

URL: http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4hywxc

Publication Date: June 23, 2016

This episode Breaking Bad Special of Mythbusters was publicly on June 23, 2016. In the

show, one of those being the body disposal of a major drug dealer in Jesse Pinkmans bathroom

using hydrofluoric acid. Also, Jesse places the body in the bathtub on the second floor and pour a

couple gallons of hydrofluoric acid over the body. Minutes later, a partially-decomposed body

came crashing through the ceiling and onto the main-level floor. The acid had eaten through the

bathtub, the floor, the ceiling, and most of the body. They decided to test and see if this idea

from the show is a myth or if you can really use hydrofluoric acid to eat through a bathroom and

human being.

First, Adam and Jamie went small-scale and got tiny samples of everything. In the show,

they were said, the acid ate through: wood, cast iron bathtub, steel, drywall and pig meat in place

of a human. Because of the dangerous nature of acid, they went to a lab where a specialist could

help them pour over the acid in a contained area. Once all of the simples were submerged, they

waited to see their results. They finally conclude that the acid did not completely decay any of

the samples they had. This pose their next question is what is the acid of choice for decomposing

all of these items? Adam and Jamie make the accommodation and bring in sulfuric acid and

another substance they call their Special Sause because they cant say the combination on

television. This show prefers not to tell people how to decompose bodies. Feeling more confident

about the power of this acidic combination. They go out to the middle of nowhere and build an

elevated mock bathroom with a plastic tub underneath. This is for safety precautions, so the
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fumes cant affect anyone and they can catch what acid may fall through the floor of the

bathroom. A hazardous material cleanup company is also hired for safety measures.

The part that I like about in this show is was the first step of their experiment is to put eh

pig in the bathtub. They decide to use three times more acid then Jesse does in the show, so they

use three gallons of sulfuric acid and three gallons of their special sauce. After they watching

from a television many feet away from the actual site, they can see a lot of smoke and through

the camera. Although the acid did some damage, the pig was not fully decayed and the bathtub

and floor were not decomposed at all. The Team goes back and asks Vince for advice. According

to the Vince, the team made assumptions about how much acid Jesse really used and what type

of bathtub was used. They do another test at the lab in order to see which type of bathtub is the

most reactive to the acid, and between cast iron, enamel coasted steel and fiberglass. Fiberglass

was the winner. They switch out the cat iron tub for the fiberglass and add 30 gallons of acid for

much quicker and destructive reaction. The pig was completely gone and melted into black goo

and the acid poured over the edge burning the tub and the flooring. Overall, it still did not eat

through the bathroom tub and floor. The myth is very busted.

I am understanding of scientific inquiry, myth busters team did exactly what I predicted

they would. They came up with an initial question- can hydrofluoric acid eat through a human,

and bathroom floor like it did on the show Breaking Bad? The claim was coined by the creator of

the show and they believed that it could indeed act as it did in the show. Then the team did

experiments and test collected enough evidence to prove their claim wrong. Instead of giving up,

they went back and asked new questions, made modifications accordingly and even asked for

some assistance when they were stuck. Assumptions were made, but they were guided in the
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right direction and made the corrections they need to. I believe they did exactly I think of

scientific inquiry.

A scientific concept presented in this episode was the group of elements on the periodic

table called Halogens. Adam gave a mini-lesson in the episode about them and their reactivity

with other elements based off of the atomic number. The lower the atomic number, the more

reactive it is a substance. when you drawing their conclusion about why hydrofluoric acid did not

do it job, Adam made a point to say that fluorine has the lowers an atomic number of the

Halogens, which make one assume it would cause the most damage. This brings on the next

concept of acid. A Halogen combined with hydrogen and water makes an acid, because of the

strong bond between the two elements the hydrogen does not want to be released as easily when

bonded with fluorine making it less corrosive than expected.

This information makes perfect sense to me because Ive heard these ideas in a chemistry

class before and I learned about Halogens, acid, and the periodic table. I can understand how

hydrogen bonds with the group of elements and how it forms certain acids. The first question for

watching this episode is what does the Special Sauce combine with sulfuric acid to turbo charge

the effects of it? this is understandable why they cannot provide the information to millions of

views. I was curious to find out what it was they did so much damage to the pig. If we search on

YouTube, there is a video where Adam and Jamie were in a conference and were asked about the

special Sauce. Jamie states, it was sulfuric acid and blur in a bath tub and it makes something

called piranha (Jamie & Adam, 2013). I also noticed that when they were testing the different

types of the bathtub with sulfuric acid, fiberglass was very reactive and disintegrated a lot of

more than the others. Thats why they chose to test with a fiberglass bathtub for the second

experiment. My question is; why did not they test the bathtub after the first experiment failed
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with hydrofluoric acid? They only used a cast iron tub to test the hydrofluoric acid, then they

moved onto sulfuric acid. Instead, in think, they should have tested a different kind of bathtubs

first. According to the faculty at Columbian University, fiberglass can be dissolved by

hydrofluoric acid (Lee, 2008). I do not think this is not their modification the right way.

Overall, this Myth Buster's episode was a great example of scientific inquiry. It opened

mind to questioning and going back and changing the claims and question. I also saw what kind

of damage making assumptions can do. It can hinder the outcome of the entire experiment.

Along with making assumptions not fully exhausting every carriable in an experience can also

change the outcome. When we do experiments, it is important to try to look at all of the different

variables in the begging, instead of the middle. That way all of the possibilities are known

upfront and something isnt missed like it was when they did not test a fiberglass tub with the

hydrofluoric acid. There are many different ways to do experiments but as long as there is a

question, claim, and evidence to support or disprove the claim. I believe this experiment can be

viewed as successful.
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Reference

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (Fe 2013). Guidelines for the Safe Use of

Hydrofluoric Acid. Harvard University. Retrieved from

https://chemistry.harvard.edu/files/chemistry/files/safe_use_of_hf_0.pdf

Jamie & Adams Dragon*Con 2013 Panel. (September 6, 2013). You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h1jVCRVqJM