Here's What Mythbusters Taught Us About Star Wars
It might seem impossible, trying to nail down the realities of the Star Wars universe. The events described in the movies, books, and video games occurred, allegedly, far, far away, and not even recently. Still, the good folks at MythBusters never let a little thing like a childish premise stop them — on at least two occasions, they've tried to blow up a shark, ala Jaws — and across two episodes in 2014 and 2015, Adam, Jamie, et al answered important questions like "Does it really matter who has the high ground?", and "Would a tauntaun make a viable sleeping bag?"
The team's first shot at George Lucas' rent money aired on January 4th, 2014. The MythBusters crew took aim at three scenes, one from each of the original Star Wars trilogy. First, they tested whether a person could use a grappling hook to swing across a pit, carrying roughly one Carrie Fisher in extra weight — plausible, they decided, but likely to result in injury, according to Mythbusters Results. Next, they built a simulated tauntaun, stuck it in a freezer, and jammed a dummy inside of it to test whether a person could survive extreme cold by nestling in the guts of an alien kangaroo-goat creature. Again, plausible, but not advisable.
May the force be mass times acceleration
The group's third test involved the efficacy of swinging a pair of logs into an armored vehicle. A few tons of eucalyptus later, they found that it was a fine way to trash some stuff, but the setup would have to be more precise than anything a tribe of Teddy Ruxpins could probably pull off.
The MythBusters crew returned to the inky void the following year, according to CNET, trying to find out whether it was possible to dodge blaster fire. Using foam darts rigged to move at the estimated speed of a Stormtrooper's weapon of choice, they found that bouncing out of the way would, in fact, require some Jedi-level training. On a similar note, they also checked to see whether a person with the high ground actually had a leg up in a sword fight. After dozens of duels, they came to the conclusion that it didn't matter much either way, according to Mythbusters Results: Laser swords just kind of kill you no matter where you're standing, proving that some awesome sci-fi technology would be terrifying in real life.
Thanks, educational programming!