In the October 7 premiere episode, Adam and Jamie test the classic physics textbook theory "bullet dropped versus bullet fired." In a scientifically complex experiment so difficult no one has ever tried it before, they ask: If one bullet is fired and the other is dropped simultaneously from the same height, which will hit the ground first? Or will they hit at the same time, owing to gravity? Meanwhile, Kari, Grant and Tory test an old saying: can you really knock someone out of their socks? In true MYTHBUSTERS fashion, their tests involve a crash test dummy, a boxing ring, a nitrogen cannon, a battering ram and, of course, explosives.

Additional premiere episodes this fall tackle myths, legends and sayings both well-known and obscure, including:

* Does a muddy car get better mileage than its clean cousin?

* Does duct tape really have the strength and sticking power to lift a 5,000-lb. car into the air? Can you build a sailboat made entirely from the stuff? Or a working cannon?

* Will mixing your drinks really make your hangover worse than if you stick to one type of alcohol?

* If a car drives over a cliff, would it really explode in a fireball upon hitting the ground below, as in nearly every action movie with a car chase scene?

* The team also tackles fan favorites from previous seasons, including testing whether a hot water heater can explode through your roof (this time, from the basement), and whether you can shoot a gun around corners. Also, the team finds a new, bigger way to test the famous snowplow split.

UPDATE: Video Sneak Peek HERE It's a three-part series from the MythBusters producers, airing May 11 at 9pm on the Discovery Channel. The formula resembles a lot of those DIY reality shows: Two teams of master builders compete against each other to build the sicker, more destructive remote-controlled killmobile. They don't just tear up muscle cars (a la Animal House); these bastards use innocent shuttle buses and, get this, ice cream vans, too.

Manly Testosterone-Powered Explosive Automotive Awesomeness Gallery:

Once built, there are two tiers of competition. First the weaponized cars have to blow up fuel depots or medieval fortresses, stuff that doesn't necessarily fight back, I suppose. In round two, the shit hits high gear, with "a gloves-off test" of combative capability and remote-control driver technique, until the smoke clears and there is only one vehicle left. My guess is, it'll be the one with the wedge. [Discovery]

Spoiler: The car doesn't quite flatten. It fragments all over the desert.

Spoiler 2: Rockets move very quickly. Or as Adam Savage so aptly puts it, "When that second stage kicked in I was thinking ‘I've never seen anything go that fast', and then I realized, actually that's correct: I have never seen anything go that fast." [via GadgetLab]

[MythBusters - Thanks Adam and Katherine!]

The segment was intended to discover whether it was possible, as the saying goes, to knock someone's socks off. I don't know about the socks, but the resulting explosion did manage to break windows throughout Esparto and toss one very surprised woman off her couch. Afterward, she claimed that the experience was "fun, really fun."

What a trooper.

At any rate, the Mythbusters crew replaced all the windows that same day and the sentiment around town about the incident seems to be generally positive (despite the fact that no one in the town was informed of the taping beforehand). There is no word on when the episode might air, but I'm setting my DVR to record as we speak. Should be an interesting episode. [KCRA via Crunchgear]

Things like a skeleton of a dodo bird or the maltese falcon. And he does all this in his spare time. (Being pretty good at making thing from nothing, since he worked as a prop designer for many years before being on TV.)

[I enjoyed EG for the day I was there. If you're interested in going next year, and mention you read about EG on Giz, they've got a friends discount for you when you sign up.]

Of course, the reality of parallel computing is much more complex than the MythBusters are making it seem here, but as with many of the experiments on their TV show, the sheer ridiculousness of this demonstration makes its questionable veracity completely, totally, seriously excusable. Now that they've built this thing, the MythBusters have a clear and undeniable responsibility to turn it on a human and put the results on TV. Thanks in advance, guys. [TGDaily via CrunchGear]

[Discovery]

The shows available now: MythBusters, Extreme Engineering and Shark Week. We know lots of you love MythBusters, but we watched a few episodes and couldn't stand them. Adam, Jamie, the scientific method. I don't think you've met.

Discovery Communications to Offer Video Programming on the iTunes Music Store [PR newswire]