They used a lot of ballistic gel people and the crash test dummy (Buster). Don’t remember any real human remains. Fake bones are cheaper and easier to get, i dont think using real human remains was within their purview.
They used ballistic gelatine dummies for a while, then decided that they weren’t a good model of most injuries, so had an episode where they designed a new dummy by buying human bones and breaking them to see how much force they could take, then picked out a material with similar properties (which surprisingly ended up being wood), and from then on, built fake skeletons to put in the gelatine dummies.
IIRC, the bones were bought from a shop that just sold human bones. They’d ended up there nominally because their previous owners’ wills had permitted it. E.g. lots of people want their skull to be used in productions of Hamlet, so drama groups often end up owning real skulls. I’m not sure whether Mythbusters was buying things from a general-use shelf or if they counted as medical science due to doing some kind of experiment - the US military counts even if they’re just using corpses for target practice.
Publicly recorded data about the properties of bones just seems like science to me. Science exists outside of corporations and universities. I’d be happy if my remains were that useful to mythbusters.
I stand corrected I don’t remember that at all. Pretty wild they just went to store that sold human bones. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that’s a thing.
They used a lot of ballistic gel people and the crash test dummy (Buster). Don’t remember any real human remains. Fake bones are cheaper and easier to get, i dont think using real human remains was within their purview.
They used ballistic gelatine dummies for a while, then decided that they weren’t a good model of most injuries, so had an episode where they designed a new dummy by buying human bones and breaking them to see how much force they could take, then picked out a material with similar properties (which surprisingly ended up being wood), and from then on, built fake skeletons to put in the gelatine dummies.
IIRC, the bones were bought from a shop that just sold human bones. They’d ended up there nominally because their previous owners’ wills had permitted it. E.g. lots of people want their skull to be used in productions of Hamlet, so drama groups often end up owning real skulls. I’m not sure whether Mythbusters was buying things from a general-use shelf or if they counted as medical science due to doing some kind of experiment - the US military counts even if they’re just using corpses for target practice.
Publicly recorded data about the properties of bones just seems like science to me. Science exists outside of corporations and universities. I’d be happy if my remains were that useful to mythbusters.
I’m almost positive I remember that episode where they made the new dummy and they used pig bones lol.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2F-XVXJI7Vk
8min in they test a human femur
I stand corrected I don’t remember that at all. Pretty wild they just went to store that sold human bones. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that’s a thing.