One of our favorite things in the late matter of mental_floss is Chris Higgins ' fantastic MacGyver Fact Check . We had him psychoanalyze a whole bunch of episodes and determine just how plausible the safety valve were . Here ’s just one of the stories that storm us .
JUMPING OUT OF A PLANE (IN A CAR!)
EPISODE:“The Heist,“ Season 1 , Episode 5
Sticky Situation : A diamond - mogul scoundrel has capture Mac and his most recent beloved interest in the cargo hold of an airplane . The villain cackle , " Take it up to 30,000 feet . The want of O will kill ' em!“
Conveniently , the cargo hold also contains a sport cable car and a comically oversized parachute . Mac attaches the chute to the roadster ( with its top down , of grade ) , and then drives the gondola out of the airplane . The parachute releases just when oxygen levels are high enough to breathe . While gently floating to the ground , Mac makes out with his girl and the credits roll .
Plausibility Meter : astonishingly eminent !
First of all , the bad guy know his science . At 30,000 feet , human beings are n’t let enough oxygen and can suffer from hypoxia , a medical condition that can have fateful results . Climbers trying to give the top of Mt. Everest ( peak : 29,029 feet ) often buckle under to hypoxia , and that ’s after they ’ve had days to acclimate . Â As for the parachuting with the machine , let ’s unravel the numbers : A sport cable car plus two passengers will add up to about 1.4 tons , and a large cargo parachute can easily manage two tons if dropped from that height . MacGyver and his dame champion can even put on a few pounds and still make the thing workplace .
Best For : lover
