What would you do to save a 50-inch HD plasma TV from falling 55 feet onto a bed of 6-foot tall steel spikes? Not to mention that the TV is being blasted by flamethrowers until the rope it's hanging from breaks, causing the fall? Start coming up with some ideas, because that's this week's challenge on Catch It Keep It, where three builders race the clock to build something that can stop their prize from being completely annihilated.
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Every week on Catch It Keep It, we present a challenge to a team of three builders/contestants: Use science, engineering and ingenuity to protect a dazzling prize from a devious machination that is designed to utterly demolish it.
Salivating football fans who can't wait for Sunday's season-opening NFL games will love this week's episode. The prize: tickets to the 2009 NFL Pro Bowl in Florida. The challenge: Move a football through a unique obstacle course inspired by five of the most extreme forces that football players have to face. Let's take a look:
Extreme cold:
The NFL Way: The coldest game on record is the 1982 AFC Championship game — aka, the "Freezer Bowl." Twenty-seven mph sustained winds at Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium brought the temperature down to minus 37 degrees, and unsurprisingly, the hometown Cincinnati Bengals defeated the warm-weather San Diego Chargers 27-7.
The Catch It Keep It Way: We've submerged a football in liquid nitrogen for 48 hours. At 321 degrees below, even the most supple material is as brittle as glass. One false move and the football will shatter.
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I'm frequently asked: "How did you get on TV? And what the hell is an Engineer of Destruction?"
The second part is easy to explain. Engineer of Destruction is my title on Discovery Science's brand-new series, Catch It Keep It. On the show, I devise a new and daunting method of destruction each week that threatens to demolish an awesome prize.
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