Science Disproves Zombies, Ghosts, And Vampires
Here's the bit on vampires:
If vampires—corpses that rise up to suck the blood of the living—sound biologically implausible to you, you’re not alone. They exist purely in legend, as virtually all scientists agree.A poster for one of the first vampire films, Nosferatu (1922.)
But for any vampire believers undissuaded by biological facts, a professor has come up with a second proof of their unreality, using math.If vampires ever existed in the forms in which movies and books portray them, they would have quickly wiped out humanity long ago, according to physics professor Costas Efthimiou of the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Fla.
Popular lore passed down through centuries holds that vampire victims become vampires themselves, and launch their own blood-hunts on hapless humans.
To rule out vampires, Efthimiou relied on a basic principle known as geometric progression.
“If vampires truly feed with even a tiny fraction of the frequency that they are depicted to in the movies and folklore, then the human race would have been wiped out quite quickly after the first vampire appeared,” Efthimiou and a graduate student colleague wrote in a paper posted online.
Efthimiou supposed that the first vampire arose Jan. 1, 1600, around the beginning of a century during which some of the first important modern writings on vampires appeared. The researchers estimated the global population at that time, based on historical records, as 537 million.
Assuming that the vampire fed once a month and the victim turned into a vampire, there would be two vampires on Feb. 1, four the next month, and eight the month after that. All humans would be vampires within 2½ years. “Humans cannot survive under these conditions, even if our population were doubling each month,” which is well beyond human capacities, Efthimiou said.
Please...use math to take on belief in Jesus and the work of Sylvia Browne. Please!
via Machines Like Us
So this guy wrote an academic paper on a subject I figured out when I was 8. Hey, what's your stance on the lunar green cheese issue?
Jim Treacher at November 15, 2006 8:36 AM
There's another take on this. Some "sources" say that vampires can feed without turning all of their victims into vampires. Something like a vampire has to feed on a person eight times, or suck almost all the blood out, stop the heart, etc. Assuming (heh) that vampires are real, one could walk the streets and feed on various folks without turning everyone into vampires. It takes more than a nip.
k at November 15, 2006 8:38 AM
"Science Disproves Zombies, Ghosts, And Vampires"
But not, I note, Klingons.
Melissa at November 15, 2006 8:40 AM
Yeah, maybe you figured it out, Treach, but plenty of people believe in vampires and Jesus, too.
Amy Alkon at November 15, 2006 9:13 AM
And, more to my point, academia.
Jim Treacher at November 15, 2006 1:39 PM
"a vampire has to feed on a person eight times, or suck almost all the blood out."
I usually break up with them after the 3rd or 4th time.
Lena at November 16, 2006 4:51 AM
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