[s2e17] Bullet Bump Apr 2026

The "B-story" of the episode involved a more whimsical but dangerous urban legend: can a professional confetti cannon accidentally kill someone if it's packed too tightly or contains the wrong materials?

In the small-scale testing, they fired various calibers at a stationary target. While the bullets caused significant damage, the was negligible. To scale up, they used a "dead weight" rig representing a human body. Even when hit by high-velocity rounds and a 12-gauge shotgun, the target didn't "fly" backward as seen in films; it simply fell over or absorbed the energy through deformation. The conclusion was a definitive Busted : the laws of physics (specifically Newton’s Third Law) dictate that if a bullet had enough force to throw a target backward, the recoil would similarly throw the shooter backward. The Secondary Myth: Confetti Cannon [S2E17] Bullet Bump

The build team (Tory, Kari, and Grant) tested various "shrapnel" loads. They discovered that while paper confetti is harmless, the high-pressure CO2 used to launch it can be lethal at extremely close range due to the sheer force of the gas expansion. Furthermore, if the cannon is "salted" with heavier objects or if the paper becomes a solid plug, it essentially becomes a makeshift pipe bomb. Scientific Significance The "B-story" of the episode involved a more