If you drop a penny from the top of New York's One World Trade Center, could it kill someone on the ground?
Does water really swirl down the drain in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere?
Or try this thought experiment: Could a Formula 1 race car with airfoils — similar to wings but inverted to help it hug the ground — theoretically drive upside down on a tunnel ceiling if moving fast enough?
These are the kinds of problems senior mechanical engineering students are trying to solve this term in a fourth-year course called "Busting Myths with Analysis." Many of them are based on common urban myths, and busting them requires applying mathematical equations based on physical laws such as gravity, aerodynamics, terminal velocity, the Coriolis force (which contributes to the movement of weather) and fluid dynamics.
"I can't tell you how entertaining it is to walk into a class and say, 'I'm going to show you how all the knowledge you've amassed to this point will serve directly in answering these questions,'" says course director Ahmed Samir Ead.
Not surprisingly, the course is hugely popular, always at full capacity with a waiting list. It was conceived in 2009 by mechanical engineering professor Warren Finlay and his colleague Jason Carey, now dean of Campus Saint-Jean, with a deliberate nod to Mythbusters, the popular television series that tested the veracity of various urban legends.
Carey and Finlay's take on the concept proved so successful that in 2013 they published a book called Ice Bullets and Killer Pennies: 14 Myths Get the Scientific Shakedown, designed to appeal to a general audience, with a foreword by Bob McDonald of CBC's Quirks and Quarks.
"We are continually amazed by the way that complex problems can be solved with just a few carefully understood concepts," they write in the book's preface. "We wanted to share this amazement with others."
As an undergrad, Ead started his own YouTube science popularization channel that he continued into his graduate degree, so he was the natural choice to teach "Busting Myths" once Finlay and Carey were ready to pass the baton.
Despite its popularity, finding professors to teach the course is a hard sell, says Ead. But he was more than thrilled to take it on.
"It's beyond creative — almost goofy. It requires a certain level of enthusiasm, because you're bringing something more than just pure theoretical knowledge."
Ideas for the course are derived from various sources. Some come from Mythbusters or Ice Bullets and Killer Pennies, but many also arise in class discussions, such as whether a Super Mario Kart could actually slip on a banana peel.
One component of the course requires that students come up with and bust their own myths. In one memorable example, says Ead, a student came to class with a presentation on the Minecraft game explaining a concept related to the "wings of Elytra" that allow a player to fly.
There are also regular class debates, sometimes on controversial subjects that go beyond mathematical equations, such as the ethical implications of artificial intelligence.
"A big part of being an engineer is being a good person," says Ead. "That means knowing how to communicate. How do you present yourself in a civilized manner? How do you present an argument?"
One ethical prompt was derived from the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Was the supervillain Thanos in the 2018 film Avengers: Infinity War justified when he snapped his fingers, eliminating half of all life in the universe?
"We spend a lot of time teaching the fundamental theoretical knowledge to be an engineer, but we don't teach students much beyond that," says Ead. "Engineers are supposed to solve problems for society. If we can't communicate our thoughts, how are we supposed to do that effectively?"
As for the falling penny, it turns out that as it tumbles through the air, the drag force eventually cancels out any accelerating velocity. At worst, it might sting and cause a bruise if it hit someone in the head, says Ead.
A Formula 1 car could theoretically drive fast enough to stay on a tunnel ceiling at speeds within its range, due to the downforce produced by the car's airfoils.
And water swirling down the drain in the opposite direction in the Southern Hemisphere? Pure myth. The confusion comes from the Coriolis force, produced by Earth's rotation, that partly determines the movement of cyclones.
Newton's second law dictates that vorticity — determining rotation in a fluid stream — cancels out the Coriolis force. So when you pour water down a drain, the direction the water swirls depends mostly on how it's poured.
