I’m going to change up my posts on MacGyver hacks. I’m going to limit the focus on things that I can significantly talk about. So, suppose there is some hack involving a belt that loops around a pole and something happens. It might be a great “hack” – but if there’s no fun science to discuss, I will just skip it.
Also, I’m not going over any of the chemical explosions.
Radio Squeal Device
MacGyver does something to a radio to such that it creates a high pitched squeal – a type of sonic weapon. Is this plausible? Yes.
Since a radio has both a microphone and a speaker, it’s possible to set up an audio feedback loop. Here is a short video showing this.
Actually, this demo leads to some interesting questions. In particular, what does the feedback frequency depend on? I think that the frequency of the squeal depends on both the audio properties of the speaker AND the mic. If you change either one of these, the frequency should change. This would make a great science fair project.
I’m way behind, but I figured it would be best to go over the new stuff while it’s still fresh. Don’t worry, I’m still going to do the old stuff.
Episode 301: Improvise
A whole bunch of DIY stuff
(various, mostly real)
I don’t know how much stuff to go over at the beginning of the episode. Clearly MacGyver has been working hard in this village and there are all sorts of DIY stuff. Let’s just leave it at that.
Water pump
(mechanics, real)
So, you need water from a well – right? That’s where a water pump comes into play. Let’s just talk about pumps in general. There are really two types of water pumps. There is a suction pump and a spinning pump.
For the suction pump, air is removed from a tube above the water. This reduces the pressure on top of the water. There is still air pressure pushing on the rest of the water – and this air pressure (from the atmosphere) pushes the water up the tube. Once the column of water produces the same pressure as the atmosphere, the column of water stops rising. This means you can pump water up 33 feet.
For the spinning pump (not its actual name), there is something that spins and pushes the water. Think of this as a water fan blade. The blade spins and pushes the water up the tube.
Quartz and steel to make a spark
(chemistry, real)
Note: you can barely see this hack – it’s fast. But it’s there.
Yes, you can make a spark with quartz rock and steel. The key thing is that the quartz is strong enough to chip off super tiny pieces of steel. These super tiny pieces are hot enough and small enough to react with the air and get super hot.
Using an air bag to break through a bullet proof car window
(physics, explosive, car hack, fairly plausible)
So the heroes are stuck in a car in the water. The windows won’t roll down. MacGyver takes an air bag from the car and connects it to the window to blow it out.
Yes, this has a fairly decent chance of working. Air bags are basically explosives – ok, they are. There is surely enough explosive power to crack open a window. However, there is one problem – forces. As the air bag expands, it pushes in all directions. If you don’t have it attached to the window, it will just shoot off. Even in that case there is still a chance it would break the window.
Related: have you seen those crazy videos of people sitting on air bags and then setting them off? Don’t do that.
Covering a bomb.
(explosive, plausible)
Mac puts a bomb in an upside down dumpster and then pins it with a car. That has a good chance of helping with the explosion. Oh, but hot wiring the car isn’t going to be easy. Most cars made after 1997 have those chips in the key – no more hot wiring.
Smart Phone Camera Extender
(electronic, based on real stuff)
MacGyver takes the camera out of a smart phone and attaches it to a blade so that he can look on the other side of a door (by sliding the camera under the door). Let’s be honest – there is nothing technically wrong with this hack except for one thing. There is no way you are going to take apart that phone. Have you tried taking apart one of these things? They are glued together and the camera is usually part of the main motherboard. There is rarely a cable running in there that could be extended.
Diesel fuel dissolving SEMTEX
(chemistry, explosive, plausible)
MacGyver uses diesel fuel to dissolve explosive. Yeah, this has a good shot of working. It wouldn’t dissolve right away though.
DIY Pulley System
(physics, mechanical, real)
In order to yank a bolt out of an explosive, MacGyver makes a pulley thingy. Here is a video with something similar you could build yourself.
The key to a compound pulley is to arrange it such that one string gets pulled further than another string. This means you can pull with a small force over a long distance to get a large force over a short distance (the key to all simple machines).
You know what would be great for these posts? Images or gifs of the different hacks from the show. Maybe someday I can add those. For now, It’s just science and stuff.
Episode 105: Toothpick
Redirect a heat-seeking missile
(physics, infrared radiation, barely plausible)
I don’t like to use the “barely plausible” tag – but let’s be honest. It’s going to be pretty difficult to redirect a heat seeking missile. I guess it’s not impossible though.
A heat-seeking missile has an infrared receiver to look for “hot” objects. Usually, this hot object is the jet engine exhaust for an aircraft. So, for this hack, MacGyver wants to get the “attention” of this missile using a flood light. Yes, these things get hot – but not jet engine hot.
Normally, a plain light would radiate energy in all directions. Imagine this light as an expanding sphere with a particular radius. Since the light must be even over the surface of this expanding sphere, the intensity of light decreases with distance. The area of a sphere is proportional to the square of the radius – so this is where we get the “inverse square law” for light.
Of course the inverse square law means that a bright (and hot) flood light won’t do much if it is far away. One way to fix this is to use a parabolic dish to refocus the infrared light – a spot light. Yes, you can do this with a plain metal dish for infrared.
So, in the end MacGyver has an infrared source he can focus on the heat-seeking missile and perhaps get its attention.
Electric Razor Taser
(electric, plausible)
MacGyver makes a type of taser (not really a taser) out of an electric shaver. The basic idea behind a taser is to shock a person with an electric current. There are two types of current – there is direct current (DC) like the stuff that comes out of a battery. This current just goes “one way” in a circuit. Shocking people with DC current is a little bit more complicated.
The other current is alternating current (AC) in which the current constantly switches directions with some frequency. In the US, AC current is at a frequency of 60 Hz. Why does this matter? It matters because if it’s a plug-in type razor then you already have AC current and it’s easier to shock someone with AC.
So, to make a plug-in razor taser you just need to take the main power lines coming into the razor and connect them to something on the front. When a human victim touches both of these wires, the human becomes part of the circuit and gets shocked.
Don’t try that at home.
Toothpick gun jam
(mechanical, seems real)
If you don’t clean your gun, it probably won’t work. A toothpick in the move-y part will probably mess it up. Not a gun guy. Oh, I don’t think this would make the gun misfire – just jam. But you can see where the name of this episode comes from.
Smoke grenades in a jacket
(physical, seems real)
So, MacGyver puts two smoke grenades in a jacket . Really, there’s not much to say here.
Metal Belt Buckle Attack
(physical, real)
In a classic MacGyver move – he uses his belt buckle as a weapon.
Fork Lock
(physical, real)
MacGyver uses a fork to lock a door. This is a sliding door – but I was thinking of something like this:
Torpedo attack
(explosive, probably real)
MacGyver uses a train torpedo to attack a dude. Not much to say here.
Thermite
(chemical, based on real thing, plausible)
MacGyver uses a pipe to hold the stuff – magnesium shavings and iron oxide shavings. Boom – thermite. Thermite is a chemical reaction that gets SUPER hot. It’s actually pretty awesome but not easy to make. You need to get the metal into a very fine powder. But if you do that, here’s what happens.
Stopping a train
(electric, physics, partially plausible)
How do you stop a train? One way is to mess with the DC motors. Yes, most trains are diesel-electric. They have diesel engines that power electric motors. If it’s a DC electric motor, you can switch the polarity of the wires and the motor will rotate the opposite way.
This might not stop the train right away – but it’s a start. Here is a demo you can try at home. Oh wait – I can’t find the video. Well, here’s what you do. Get a battery powered toy car with a motor (a cheap one). Switch the direction of the batteries and the car will drive backwards.
Let’s keep this going. Honestly, there might be some mistakes in some of these early episodes. I need to rewatch all of season 1 – sometimes the script that I work on ends up being slightly different than the final production. Oh well, the science is still the same. Right?
Episode 104: Wire Cutter
Network Cable Trap
(plausible, physical hack)
Basically, MacGyver sets up a type of trap powered by a falling server rack that pulls a network cable into a loop to lift a baddie. It’s just a classic physical hack.
Radioactive Depleted Uranium
(not a hack)
Just a quick note – depleted uranium is used in ammunition and it is indeed radioactive.
Tubular Lock Pick
(physical hack, plausible)
Everyone knows those locks for bikes with the round keys, right? So apparently, some of these can be “cracked” using the outer case of a plastic pen.
Not sure how many locks this would work on – but clearly it’s possible.
Aerosol Can Explosion
(unlikely, explosion, bullets)
OK, I’m having trouble remembering this one. MacGyver gets of these mobility scooters (a slow scooter for people that have trouble walking). He hacks the engine (I think it’s electric) to make it go faster. Then he puts aerosol cans on the scooter so that one of them sprays stuff at the other. When a bullet hits a can, the whole thing explodes.
The problem: bullets don’t really make sparks. I’m pretty sure the MythBusters tested this – but I can’t find the episode right now.
If you DO make sparks, then yes – the stuff will explode (ish).
Note about Russian computers
There was a bunch of discussion on this episode about how to hack a 1960s era Russian computer. What would it look like? What would the programming language be? How would you hack it? Tough stuff. Maybe I will save this discussion for a future post (remind me later).
Computer AC-DC Converter
(Real, computer, electricity)
Electricity from the wall is AC (alternating current). Your computer runs on DC (direct current). In this hack, MacGyver takes a DC battery from a laptop and uses it in a computer. This would basically work. The only problem is power – some of those old computers were hogs.
Flour Explosion
(real, explosion, chemistry)
Flour is indeed explosive. If you get it in the air, then each “flour particle” (not really particles) has a large surface area to mass ratio and can burn super fast. Burns so fast it explodes.
You can do this at home. It’s only slightly dangerous.
Hook and Barrel
(physical, plausible)
MacGyver hooks a cable to a barrel and the other end to a mechanic creeper. When he pushes the barrel down some stairs, it pulls the creeper. Classic.
Belt Ring Belay Thingy
(plausible, physical)
The ring on a belt is used to run a rope through to act as a brake. This would probably work.
Improvised Keyboard
(plausible, computer, electricity)
It depends on what kind of computer keyboard this would be – but keys are pretty simple things. It’s possible to make a key out of some everyday items and connect it to a broken keyboard. Of course, this would take a bit longer than you would expect to get it to work.
Today it started with a lose bolt that holds down the toilet. Actually, the bolt was gone – beyond gone. Rusted away. I figured the flange thing that the bolts go into was probably busted too, but you can’t tell until you lift up the whole toilet.
When starting a project like this, I always go to youtube first. What a lucky time to live in that we have a resource like this. Of course it wasn’t just the broken bolt. I needed to replace the wax seal too. As long as I’m working on the toilet, I should also replace that tank fill valve that was slightly leaking.
Oh wait! When I turn off the water to the toilet with the shutoff valve, that is leaking too! After a trip to the hardware store and multiple rounds of turning off the water to the whole house, I finished the job. The seat doesn’t rock, the shutoff valve doesn’t leak, and the fill valve stops when fill. Oh, how about a quick advertisement for those quarter-turn shutoff valves? My house has these “multi-turn” valves that are like the kind on your outdoor water hose. I’ve already had two of these leak – so that’s not so good. Also, when the toilet overflows (it happens), the quarter turn is faster to shut off.
Photo: Rhett Allain
I’m just going to say one other thing about toilets (this is not a toilet post). It seems like a pretty simple job – but once you get confined in space, everything gets just a little bit more complicated.
OK, but in the end – it’s finished. In the end, I’m pretty happy. I feel like I accomplished something. I fixed something and made it better. I feel human.
I wasn’t always like this. I remember in my early adult years I would think:
Why can’t they just make toilets that don’t break? For that matter, why not make a lawn that doesn’t need mowing. Oh, how about clothes that don’t need washing? All of this cleaning an fixing stuff is just taking away time from more important stuff.
That was the old me. The new me doesn’t mind these chose so much. Oh, I still get bothered sometimes. When the lawn needs mowing and it’s super hot (or won’t stop raining) or when something breaks and you JUST KEEP MESSING UP. Yes, those times are frustrating.
But I’ve come to accept that we live in a world that increases in entropy. If you leave stuff alone, it will just mess up and eventually break. What makes humans so awesome is that we can fight this tide of increasing disorder. We fix things. We clean things. We are humans.
I like telling old stories – so I am just going to keep doing that.
I wanted to share a particular story of an event while I was at CERN – but then I figured I should explain why I was at CERN first. So, here it goes.
I was an undergraduate student at Benedictine University (we called it I.B.C. back then) with a major in physics. BTW – that was a great experience, I should write about it sometime. After graduating, really the only graduate program I was accepted into was at The University of Alabama (in 1992).
After my first year, I started working with the Experimental High Energy Research group. I honestly have no reason to be in this field except that one of the physics faculty sort of invited me into the program – so I did. I clearly wasn’t theoretical physics material – so, what the heck. I figured that’s where I would go.
The group originally worked with the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC). This was a giant particle accelerator being built in Texas. SPOILER ALERT: they soon canceled the program. Anyway, our group’s role was to build muon detectors. These are essentially super long Geiger tubes. In order to get precise muon track position, we needed a precise location of the wire in the middle of the tube. Since these were long tubes – the wire had a sag. It was that sag that we tried to determine.
But the SSC was canceled. I think the program had some funds left over from the grant – so the faculty member in charge decided to collaborate with CERN. He had money to send me there to work the following summer. I think his main goal was to use up the money and have a student listed as “doing research” – that would look good for his tenure application. Yes, faculty do silly things like this.
I didn’t really want to go to Switzerland. I know people travel to all sorts of crazy places when they were much younger than me, but I really didn’t do stuff like that. On top of that, I really didn’t know what my “mission” was at CERN other than to serve as a “checkbox” on a physics faculty tenure application. Oh well – I went anyway.
Wait. What the heck is CERN? CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research – the acronym works in French) is in Geneva Switzerland (mostly) and is a particle accelerator. So, essentially it is a giant underground ring that accelerates particles and then smashes them into other particles. There are some particle detectors spaced around the ring to – you know – detect stuff. Our group worked on the L3 detector.
OK, so I move out to Switzerland for the summer. Maybe now would be a good time to point out that that part of Switzerland speaks French. I don’t speak French. However – I am fluent in pointing at stuff. Most people at the research facility spoke English – but food was in French. I just pointed. I didn’t starve to death.
While I was there, my “job” (which was poorly defined at first) was to write and modify FORTRAN code to analyze detector alignment data. Basically, there are more than one detectors and you need to know the relative position of these things to track particles. We had two alignment systems – a laser alignment and a capacitive sensor. I was supposed to take data from these and then “do stuff”.
I’m a pretty sucky FORTRAN programmer. I was then, and I still am now. It was great to be at CERN, but I mostly just worked in the computer lab messing things up. I really don’t know if I even accomplished one thing while I was there (research-wise).
I did get to meet lots of new people and hang around CERN and see cool stuff. Overall, it was a great experience.
More on my CERN adventures will be posted at some point.
My oldest daughter is currently in the process of getting her stuff together. She is moving away for her first year of college. Hope everything goes well, but I keep thinking of this scene from The Hobbit.
Yes, in college you will have to do without a great many things. Honestly, that is part of what makes the whole college experience so great. It’s not just about classes, but all the things in between (if it was just about classes – it would make more sense to stay home and take classes online).
No, you won’t have everything perfect in college (or in life really). You won’t have the best shoes for a particular event. You might have to wear the same pants more than once. You are going to have to share a room with someone – and a shower too.
But you know what? It’s not just college – real life is like that also. It’s not about making everything perfect, it’s about living with what you have. You can never have a perfect life – unless you learn to enjoy the imperfections that life throws at you.
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