This has cool written all over it, and I will not be to surprised if they get the Gorn Cannon to work.
Full story at trekmovie.com
Grant Imahara pitches Gorn Cannon for Mythbusters
(photo: Grant Imahara)
As a follow-up, Grant has ordered a Star Trek outfit (wasn’t clear if he got a Blue one for himself or a Red one for Buster)
I think it could be safely guessed that he got a red shirt for Buster.
Must have a great budget to fund the necessary diamonds!
This… this is the greatest thing ever!
Oh, I almost forgot to give this show an MPAA rating. Let me see…
For Frakintalos: Rated NC-17
For Everyone else: Rated PG
:rolleyes:
WOOOHOOO I can’t wait for this. Buster red shirt and all is goin down. Now I just need the date so the DVR can be set.
That drawing of “happy Gorn”-my new twitter avatar.
Sooo, do we know when this is gonna air?
“next season” as part of the next “viewer requests” episode. No idea on dates.
Next season? I can’t wait that long. I’m gonna have to reenact (pre-enact?) it in my backyard.
That was The GF’s first concern as well. My first thought was industrial diamonds (which are dirt cheap) but I suppose any that big are potentially retailable.
They don’t need to use diamonds. The properties of the projectile material aren’t really that critical to this scenario. All that’s needed is something with similar density and is strong enough to not be obliterated by the gunpowder.
All I can say is “Get behind the barricades.”
I wonder if a few large chunks of quartz would be sufficiently identical in appearance and functionality to the diamonds?
Appearance? Certainly. Functionality? Yes and no.
Nothing they can get will equal the hardness of diamond. High lattice purity cubic zirconium would be close-ish, but probably not practical for these purposes. Fortunately, hardness is not terribly important for the purposes of this scenario. The properties which matter the most when trying to come up with a suitable analog are toughness (how resistant the material is to fracture) and density. Diamond, like most nonmetallic monocrystals, isn’t that tough. In that respect quartz would do just fine. It’s significantly less dense, though – 2.66 g/cc vs. 3.52 g/cc for diamond. So, if it was used, comparably sized projectiles would weigh less and therefore leave the cannon at higher velocities.
And…it’s going to look cool as it sprays in every direction from the rupturing bamboo tube.
-Kidding. I’ll assume they’ll use something that’ll handle the blast and posit that the “alien bamboo” was made of sterner stuff than our own earthly varieties.
Remember, it was wrapped at the base.
The only thing that struck me about it was that we didn’t see any wadding (which may have been there, but omitted for dramatic/clueless reasons.)
I’m predicting that they’ll end up making a “diamond-chunk sabot.” Otherwise, I doubt the projectiles will even make it out of the cannon.
It’s not that easy to make gunpowder… you gotta mix and grind it real well or it just sizzles. (I won’t discuss how I know that… chalk it up to a misspent youth.) Diamonds are a pretty good grinder though… no sparks.