Mythbusting 7 crucial details in Steven Spielberg's shark classic JAWS

MythBusters (2003) dedicated a special episode to testing whether or not certain things from this film are plausible. It concluded that:

  1. Fishing with piano wire

    Piano wire does not have the tensile strength needed to be used as an adequate shark-catching line.

2. Exploding scuba tanks

Scuba tanks will not explode when shot

3. Cage destruction

A great white shark can ram a dive cage with enough force to damage or destroy it.

4. Ramming power

A great white shark has enough power to punch a hole in the side of a wooden boat under the right circumstances, but an example of this happening has never been documented.

The shark fromJAWS appears to have made a hole in the hull of Ben Gardner’s boat.

5. Barrels

A shark's maximum striking force is great enough to pull the barrels under, but the force a shark can generate in a continuous pull is insufficient to keep the barrels under water for a significant amount of time.

6. Towing the Orca

A shark cannot generate enough force to pull a boat backwards with great enough speed that waves break over the stern;

7. Mortal Kombat

Punching a shark in the nose, eyes, or gills will cause it to flee or at least back off briefly.

Watch the full playlist of Mythbusters vs JAWS

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