Mythbusting the Mythbusting of Capt. Kirk and His Handmade Diamond Cannon

Alas, Capt. Kirk's muzzle-loading bamboo gun would more likely have killed Kirk himself then the Gorn attacking him—or at least, so said the Mythbusters a while back. For those who haven't seen arguably the best episode of Star Trek TOS (Arena), the plot is as follows: An alien race wants to test humanity by pitting Kirk against another alien, called a Gorn, in a fight to the death. The Gorn is bigger and stronger, but Kirk wins the day by finding and mixing together saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal into black powder, loading them into a bamboo tube, and, using diamonds as ammunition, shooting and killing the Gorn. The Mythbusters set about testing the theory and found that it didn't work. They handmade some half-decent gunpowder, but it didn't have enough force to fire anything, and if it had, the bamboo tube couldn't contain the explosion. The Mythbusters discovered the exploding ...