(CNN) -– If you’re being chased by a crocodile, is it better to run in a zigzag?
President Barack Obama will debunk a myth like this crocodile stumper when he appears on the Discovery Channel’s show “MythBusters” on December 8. White House officials said the appearance is part of the president’s efforts to “show young people how cool science can be,” a goal he announced in 2009.
On Monday the president will host science fair winners from across the country at the White House, which Obama’s Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes said was modeled after similar events celebrating victorious sports teams.
On its website, MythBusters boasts it has investigated more than 700 myths since premiering in 2003 and bills itself as mixing “scientific method with gleeful curiosity and plain old-fashioned ingenuity to create their own signature style of explosive experimentation.”
White House staffers refused to reveal what urban legend the president will take on in the show, which he has already taped. But the show has already investigated how best to elude a crocodile. It turns out crocs rarely attack on land and can only run about 10 miles per hour—so any kind of fast running away would do.
Myths the show has previously debunked include these: “Can sneezing with your eyes open make your eyeballs pop out?” (no), “Can your cell phone interfere with a plane’s instruments?” (nope, but it can overpower cell phone towers) and “Does a rolling stone really gather no moss?” (That’s true!)
MythBusters airs on the Discovery Channel at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
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