Thursday, January 13, 2011

MythBusters' Math Mistake?

Screenshot from 11/12/2011
I caught the last 5 minutes of MythBusters last night (episode "No Pain No Gain"). They were testing to see how "cursing" affects the amount of time people can tolerate having their arms in a tub of ice water--the myth being that cursing will increase one's pain tolerance.

Look at the screenshot of the MythBusters' results. Grant was able to keep his arm in the ice water for 38 seconds without cursing and for 118 seconds while cursing. The column labeled "% Change" strikes me as very odd.


  1. By using the MythBusters' data, try to determine the formula or process they are using to calculate "% Change."
  2. How should percent change be computed? What data should appear in that column?
  3. Did the MythBusters make a mistake? If so, make a post on the forum for that episode and leave a link here to share with us.
Posted by Brian Bearss at 9:00 AM

7 comments:

  1. ChipJanuary 13, 2011 at 9:07 AM

    The process MythBusters' used was taking the control and dividing it by the curse (Grant 38/118). For Grants case it was 0.32 Then multiply it by 100. Finally, subtracting that number from 100 to get the % change.

    ReplyDelete
  2. BuddyTheElfJanuary 13, 2011 at 3:21 PM

    1. I agree with chip on how MythBusters computed the percent change.
    3. MythBusters made no mistake when computing the percent change.

    ReplyDelete
  3. RoseJanuary 13, 2011 at 6:14 PM

    1. I also agree with chip on the method they are using.
    2. Im not sure that I would calculate the % change that way...I think I would use curse-control/control*100. (Which looks oddly familiar..haha) For example: for grant's numbers, using this formula gives about a 200% increase. This answer seems more logical to me although im not sure! I used this link though... http://www.marshu.com/articles/calculate-percentage-increase-decrease-percent-calculator.php
    3. Since im unsure whether this is correct im not posting a link on the forum :P

    ReplyDelete
  4. ChipJanuary 14, 2011 at 8:40 AM

    1. I agree with Rose that the percent change should be around 200%.

    ReplyDelete
  5. SNICKERSJanuary 14, 2011 at 9:13 AM

    The Mythbusters did make a mistake. It should say a 310.5% change or if you're rounding 311% increase.

    ReplyDelete
  6. sciencegeek101January 14, 2011 at 9:19 AM

    1. I also agree with Chip! All of the percent changes are correct.
    2. I'm not understanding what you mean by how should percent change be computed. The only other data that I think should maybe appear is how long each session took.
    3. No Mythbusters did not make a mistake.
    MYTH BUSTERS ROCK! I <3 Adam & Jamie

    ReplyDelete
  7. Brian BearssJanuary 17, 2011 at 8:01 AM

    Thanks for the comments this week.

    ReplyDelete

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