August 17, 2009 at 16:36Zombie attack: a mathematical model of infection
An American publisher has published a curious collection of scientific papers on modeling infectious diseases . One of the articles in the collection (18-page PDF ) is devoted to a very “relevant” topic today - modeling of zombie attacks [When Zombies Attack !: Mathematical Modeling Of An Outbreak Of Zombie Infection - P. Munz, I. Hudea, J. Imad and RJ Smith?].
Scientists have compiled a basic mathematical model of the propagation speed of a zombie attack, depending on the number of inhabitants.
S - healthy people [susceptibles], Z - zombies, R - killed people and destroyed zombies by removing the head [removed].
According to the formula, in a city of 500,000 inhabitants, the number of zombies will exceed the number of healthy people in about three days.
Scientists believe that it is almost impossible to stop the zombie attack, this requires very aggressive countermeasures at the very beginning of the infection. Neither quarantine nor medication are suitable. The only way out is mass destruction (it is not surprising that Resident Evil is indicated as one of the sources in the scientific work). If measures are not taken in time, the epidemic can take on a global character and "lead to the collapse of human civilization, because every inhabitant of the Earth will be either infected or dead."
We add that the authors of the scientific work are Canadian mathematics students, headed by Robert Smith, a professor of mathematics from the University of Ottawa ? , his name is spelled this way - with a question mark at the end (in some countries this is allowed), see pruflink.
Scientists have compiled a basic mathematical model of the propagation speed of a zombie attack, depending on the number of inhabitants.
S - healthy people [susceptibles], Z - zombies, R - killed people and destroyed zombies by removing the head [removed].
According to the formula, in a city of 500,000 inhabitants, the number of zombies will exceed the number of healthy people in about three days.
Scientists believe that it is almost impossible to stop the zombie attack, this requires very aggressive countermeasures at the very beginning of the infection. Neither quarantine nor medication are suitable. The only way out is mass destruction (it is not surprising that Resident Evil is indicated as one of the sources in the scientific work). If measures are not taken in time, the epidemic can take on a global character and "lead to the collapse of human civilization, because every inhabitant of the Earth will be either infected or dead."
We add that the authors of the scientific work are Canadian mathematics students, headed by Robert Smith, a professor of mathematics from the University of Ottawa ? , his name is spelled this way - with a question mark at the end (in some countries this is allowed), see pruflink.