Best MacGyver Hacks and Stuff

Really, this post is for me. It’s just notes that I can use for future “things”.

Best MacGyver Hacks

Running up a wall using a pole (explanation).
Seeing in the dark using a camera and IR lights. MacGyver uses a digital camera and IR lights. The IR lights project light that humans can’t see, but a camera CAN see. This image then feeds into small video screens in front of his eyes so he can see in the dark (but the baddies can’t see).
DIY centrifuge. MacGyver needs a quick lab to analyze some crime scene blood (I think). The lab gets destroyed so he builds this home made centrifuge to spin the blood. The best part—it’s totally real. https://youtu.be/isMYGtCFljc
Photo phone. MacGyver is trapped in a house. He wires a microphone up to a light so that it turns on an off with the same frequency as sound. The other people are outside the house with a photocell connected to a speaker. This picks up the variations in light and produces sound. It’s real.

Least Plausible MacGyver Hack

Charging a phone with a Leyden jar. MacGyver needs to power a satellite phone. He builds a totally real Leyden jar (basically a capacitor) to store electric charge from a lightning strike. He then discharges this through the phone so that it will run. The theory is fine, it just probably wouldn’t work.
Stun gun on a slot machine. MacGyver needs a distraction. He grabs a taser and hits a slot machine. Blamo. The machine goes wild and starts giving out money. I mean, it’s possible—just not likely.

Technically, This Could Work

Jump out of window with a body bag and a fire extinguisher. Use the extinguisher to inflate the body bag as they fall out of window. The bag inflates and they land on the bag to cushion their landing. Yes, it could work. No—don’t actually try this.
DIY sextant. A sextant really just measures angles. You can build one from a protractor with a weight hanging down. The accuracy won’t be great, but it works. If you want to find you longitude, this is tougher. You need a watch and some other info.
Just about all of the explosions. Most of the explosives that MacGyver creates are based on real chemical reactions. However, the effect would either take too long or not be that powerful.

Most Scientific MacGyver Hack

See through walls with wifi. It’s real.
Creating anti drunk pill – based on dehydrogenase.
Injectable foam to stop bleeding – https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2697428/The-injectable-foam-stop-soldiers-bleeding-death-battlefield.html

Favorite MacGyver Calculation

Favorite MacGyver Joke/Reference

Normal means perpendicular. MacGyver tells Jack to put a bar normal to a wall in a trash compactor. Jack doesn’t know that normal means perpendicular and ends up hurting his arm.
The parsec is not a unit of time, it’s a unit of distance.

Best MacGyver Hacks to Try at Home

Rhett Allain's Stuff