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'Mythbusters' and their 'Blindfolded walking in a straight line' test...A question..

steve s said:
Except that they repeated the experiment and didn't show a preference for a particular side.

Steve S
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Not having seen the episode, did they repeat it once and end up circling to the opposite side the second time or did they do multiple trials and have essentially random results?

The first way could have been subconscious overcompensation, the second way would be a lot more accurate. Either way, it wouldn't be the first time some bit of military "lore" turned out to be "woo."
 
Robrob..

They randomly ended up going in circles no matter what they did..

IIRC..It was mainly to the left...

DB
 
Robrob said:
My understanding from a number of military orienteering schools is everyone has one side of their body that is stronger than the the other. You tend to push off slightly more on that side and this incrementally makes you walk in circles. With experience you can learn to compensate for this drift by intentionally offsetting it. Walk 100m blindfold and see the direction and distance you are off a straight line. When you walk though the woods, intentionally take that many steps to that side per 100 meters (you should also know how many paces you take in 10mm to keep an accurate pace count).
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I'm not sure how true that is. To my knowledge, the tests that have been done involving blind folded people walking in fields have not shown that a given person is consistent in their direction of deviation.

IIRC, in the Mythbusters test, they tested exactly that after both Adam and Jamie failed to walk in a straight line. They ran the test a couple more times to see if they would do roughly the same thing. I don't recall there being any discernible pattern to their movements (i.e. they'd go off to the right once, then go off to the left the next time).

Edit: Here's a link about the phenomena. Apparently a test run on 15 people showed that 3 of 15 people would veer in one direction and go around in circles, the rest took very chaotic, meandering paths with no distinct favor to one direction over the other. One of the subjects who veered consistently to one direction was a subject in another, similar test (but in a forest). Again, he veered to one direction, but it was the opposite direction to the first test.
 
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Robrob said:
Not having seen the episode, did they repeat it once and end up circling to the opposite side the second time or did they do multiple trials and have essentially random results?
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IIRC, they each did it twice. More times would have been better. And using more people would have been better still.


The first way could have been subconscious overcompensation,
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That's a possibility. Immediately at the end of the first test, they would take off the blindfold to see where they had ended up. So when they each started the second trial, they knew which way they had gone the first time. Ideally, the tests would all have been blinded (blindfolded?) so that they would not know which direction they had gone until all the tests were done.

Steve S
 
steve s said:
IIRC, they each did it twice. More times would have been better. And using more people would have been better still.
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I too had thought they'd done more than two each, but I just checked.
They did an overlay with all of them. Jamie's are in blue and Adam's are in green, I believe.


Personally I'm thinking the terrain of the field may have had a noticeable impact.
 
steve s said:
It's really amazing that Jamie did two tight circles in one of his tests. You'd think a person would notice making such a tight turn.

Steve S
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It also looks like he made a near 90 degree turn right off the bat on one of them.
 
I've decided to test this on myself. A friend and I are heading out to a large playfield with blindfolds and earplugs. One will record the movements from high up in the bleachers.
 
Travis said:
I've decided to test this on myself. A friend and I are heading out to a large playfield with blindfolds and earplugs. One will record the movements from high up in the bleachers.
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How to cheat. Note the wind direction. Always walk with the wind in a certain direction. Then you will walk in a straight line.
 
I doubt there will be any wind but if there is that would be one way to cheat on it.
 
rjh01 said:
How to cheat. Note the wind direction. Always walk with the wind in a certain direction. Then you will walk in a straight line.
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Travis said:
I doubt there will be any wind but if there is that would be one way to cheat on it.
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On a "light and variable" morning, with thermals kicking off, this won't work very well. I've had a 5 mph wind switch by 180 degrees within fifteen to twenty seconds.

Keeping the sun at a constant angle might work, if it's sunny enough to feel it on your skin.

The thing is, the inner ear is a not-very-good gyro, and it needs to be recalibrated fairly often by outside information to be useful.
 
Would walking 'heel to toe' with the heal of one foot placed directly touching the toes of the other help?
 
SumDood said:
Would walking 'heel to toe' with the heal of one foot placed directly touching the toes of the other help?
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No. You would have no way of knowing if your foot was actually straight. A slight deviation would cause a lot of problems over time. You'd end up with the same issue as thinking to took a step straight forward. It'd feel like you are going straight, but you're not.
 
When I do it I will use various techniques to see how they do.
 
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