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A Mathematical Model For a Spreading Zombie Infestation

Posted by Soulskill on from the integrating-by-parts dept.

cloude-pottier writes "What do you do when zombies attack? Turn to a mathematician to come up with a model for the spread of a zombie infestation, of course! Students at Carleton University and the University of Ottawa have published a paper in a book titled Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress detailing how to model the spread of a zombie population and various complications in managing the spread of the infestation. They even give humans a fighting chance in some cases! The original paper (PDF) can be found at their professor's website."

13 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. Been done by computer scientists already by The_mad_linguist · · Score: 4, Informative

    Prior art: http://kevan.org/proce55ing/zombies/

  2. Sick of zombies by lyinhart · · Score: 5, Funny

    I am officially sick of the concept of zombies. Yes, they used to be cool and frightening, but nowadays, they're everywhere. In video games (Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising, Plants vs. Zombies (what the heck?), etc.), lots of movies (movies about Nazi zombies, Woody Harrelson versus zombies, even another Romero movie), comics books (Marvel Zombies), and even classic literature (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?). Now they're in math too?

    It's time that someone called for a moratorium (no pun intended) on zombies in the media.

    --
    Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
    1. Re:Sick of zombies by FlyingSquidStudios · · Score: 5, Funny

      You're just jealous because none of them think your brain is worthy of eating.

      --
      http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
    2. Re:Sick of zombies by Lord+Kano · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Outside of entertainment, Zombies are a metaphor for social unrest. When I was house shopping, my girlfriend asked me what criteria I was using to evaluate properties. I explained that there was price, location, condition, number of bedrooms, yard space, parking, garage space, and defensibility in the event of a zombie holocaust. She thought that I was joking with that last one. Then I explained that I wasn't talking about movie zombies. I was talking about small to medium sized groups of attackers in the event of widespread social unrest. If the economy goes south and we have people robbing and looting, how well can I defend this property? The house that I eventually chose wasn't the highest on the zombie defense mark, but it was in the top third.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    3. Re:Sick of zombies by Lord+Kano · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Sounds like the train of thought the Militia type in Michigan go through.

      Or shopkeepers in Los Angeles.

      Or anyone who's aware of events that took place in the 1960s.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    4. Re:Sick of zombies by Trogre · · Score: 4, Funny

      FREE O.J.

      Where? And do we need to bring our own cups?

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  3. Oblig. by dln385 · · Score: 3, Funny

    http://xkcd.com/135/

    1. Re:Oblig. by JoshuaZ · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh great. Earlier I worried about zombies. And I worried about velociraptors. Now I need to worry about zombie velociraptors? How about I just curl up under my covers and pretend the world isn't out to kill me.

  4. Interesting, but... by russotto · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Until we manage to create real zombies and release them on the population, we'll never be able to test the model.

  5. Convergent serie by gmuslera · · Score: 4, Funny

    It grow fast but always is limited by the absolute numbers of installed windows PC.

  6. Missing variables... by Dahamma · · Score: 5, Funny

    Unfortunately, after reading this study there seem to be several missing elements:

    1. zombie speed and effectiveness. Are these 28 Days Later psycho zombies or Shaun of the Dead shambling loser zombies? And sure, they modeled an "encounter" but it's a simple one-on-one winner takes all. Any good zombistician knows most zombie encounters are between a small band of survivors and a horde. It needs to be modeled!

    2. It appears that any individual can transition between the "Zombie" and "Removed" state. There needs to be a 4th (end) state: "Brains Splattered By Shotgun".

    3. Bruce Campbell.

  7. Let us by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Consider a spherical zombie in simple harmonic motion...

  8. Spatial stochastic disease modelling by Spacelem · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Modelling a zombie outbreak?

    That's entirely similar to the work I've been doing for the last year, modelling the spread of a disease among an animal population. I've been trying to work out under what situations culling will lead to an increase in the number of infecteds.

    So, if I name the particular species I've been working on "zombies", and adjust some of the parameters, I've got an SI model that is not only very similar to this, but also includes spatial structure and stochasticity, which is crucial for describing the stability of the disease, and modelling the spread when the population size is low.