MythBuster Show proves tailgate theory
The other thing they tested was whether a person could be shot when under water.
We have all seen the movies where the hero dives into the river or lake and the bad guys try to shoot him, but he comes out alive..
MythBusters wanted to see if it was true that you could shoot someone under the water and not kill him..
It had nothing to do with "refraction" of light in the water causing the bullet to miss..
What they proved was that the friction or drag or whatever, of the water would slow the bullet down so it could not hit the person in the water, if that person were below the surface..
They fired handguns , rifles, shotgun and then .... the US military 50 caliber gun !!
The only weapon that even came close to hitting the underwater "person" was the hand gun.. because it propelled a slower moving heavy bullet.
The shotgun shattered the test tank and they had to then move the testing to a local swimming pool..
They used "Gel" stuff to represent the human body. We have seen that used in their test before.
All the rifle bullets shattered, or disintegrated within 2 to 3 feet under the surface of the water..
Yep ... even the big 50 caliber bullet shattered into small tiny fragments within two feet under the surface of the water, and slowly settled down to the bottom of the pool.
They proved that the movies were correct in portraying the hero being safe from bullets if he dove into a body of water and was at least two feet down from the surface..
The worst scenario would be if the bad guy used a 45 caliber pistol and was directly over the hero who was less than 5 feet under from the water surface.
AND .... even then, the bullet would not penetrate the human body more than a couple of inches.. so unless the bullet hit your eye, spinal cord in the neck area or other soft area of the body, like the liver, it would not kill you..
But like Jamie and Adam said, they would not want to be a Guinea pig in the test..
MythBusters is a fantastic show.. I always have a hard choice between them and "Mail Call" if they happen to come on at the same time.
John