Running in the rain

[warpig3]

Ok, we had a downpour the other night and mrwarpig came in soaked. I asked him why didnt he run and he said because it doesnt make a difference as to how wet you get.

I would have thought that by running you would spend less time in the rain and therefore (hopefully) be less wet. But he argued that by running you are hitting the rain with a greater velocity (the rain was more horizontal than vertical, it must be said, I also assume by his comment that he must have been walking into the rain) and therefore get as wet if not more so by running.

Any ideas?

thanks
warpig

[R1Geezer]

If the amount of time is the same then running/walking makes no difference. If you run and get there quicker then less rain has hit you so running is better. Put it this way, when it's really pi55ing down and you run to the car you get some spots on you. Now walk slowly to the car and you get soaked. see? more time spent in the rain. I'm afraid you have married a plonker!

[WaldoMcFroog]

Here's a calculator into which you can add all factors to discover whether it's worth running or not. Of course, you could just get a life, wear a coat and grab a brolly ;-)

http://www.dctech.com/physics/features/0600.ph p

[warpig3]

heh, heh, heh, thanks guys.

Love the link waldo as mrwarpig is physics teacher, will pass that on to him and let him figure it out.

[ChuckFickens]

WaldoMcFroog, love the calculator, who on earth took the time to write that :)

Some people must have far to much time on their hands :)

[Azalian]

The only way to really understand the problem of very large scale phenonema is to use statistics.

Imagine, for the sake of clarity, a human shaped as a cube, 1 metre on each side, standing in a flat field, basically a "physics" or "maths" type of infinite flat surface.

Imagine further that raindrops are falling at a constant rate
of 1 metre per second ,1metre apart in all directions.

Each cubic metre will then contain 1 raindrop and 1 drop will land on the "top" surface of the cube man each second.

It then makes no difference if he is stationary or moving about at any velocity, the number of drops striking his "head" will be precisely the same.

If moving he will run into more drops than if still but he will leave behind by dint of movement the exact same number of drops which would have hit him if he hadn't be moving.

[weeal]

Hahaha isnt mr warpig clever, sounds like my wee sis who once told me that if I set 2 alarm clocks to get up in the morning I am actually increasing two-fold the risk of not getting up!!! Eh!!!
eg double the risk of failure lol

[wildwood]

lol And Mr Warpig is a physics teacher????

[wee willie]

run man

it aint rocket science

[warpig3]

Anyone like to volunteer to tell him????????

[wildwood]

Email him Waldo's link and ask him something like "Do you know those people?, they don't seem to know what they are talking about".

No, I am not an divorce attorney.

[misundrstood]

they tried this on brainiacs the tv program and although it wasnt a proper science the man that ran got the most water drained off him funny that

[wildwood]

misundrstood, it is not disputed that running in the rain will make you wetter than walking but it is the time factor that makes the difference. In this instance Mr Warpig would have reached his house 2 or 3 times faster if he'd ran, thereby spending a lot less time in the rain and so offsetting any increase in the rate of getting wet.

The only time the rate of soaking will be equal with walking and running is when the rain falls horizontal towards the walker/runner, but rain can't fall horizontal, only nearly so.