Rain - an old chestnut

[vicious_sid]

If you run through rain do you get less wet (poor english I know) than if you run

[SteveD]

If you run, you get less wet than if you walk:

http://www.answers.com/topic/mythbusters-seaso n-3

(Scroll down to "Who gets wetter")

[nucleardream]

...because you're exposed to the rain for a less amount of time.

The level of "wetness" you reach depends on how much time the rain is falling on you. As long as the rain is falling at a constant rate and at the same size of raindrop (and assuming a person isn't stealth enough to dodge raindrops), how wet you get is simply a function of exposure time - and the number of raindrops that hit you.

[flemmers]

Yes, I agree with nucleardream, time is the key, but there will eventually be a saturation point, when regardless of whether you are walking, running , or riding a bike you will be equally very wet, of course the various methods will produce saturation at different rates, but once your there you can't get any wetter.

[druiaghtagh]

Surely, if you are running , you just run into more drops faster?

[newtron]

There are many different factors involved including, your walking or running speed, wind direction, rain speed, etc. Here's a mathmatical model that takes many of these parameters into account.

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

[pagey]

rain direction is most important. if you are running into the rain you are bound to get more wet than running with it.

[mibn2cweus]

D'oh!