

A Mathematical Model for Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse - dlnovell
http://io9.com/5337596/a-mathematical-model-for-surviving-the-zombie-apocalypse

======
BRadmin
Actual paper: <http://www.mathstat.uottawa.ca/~rsmith/Zombies.pdf>

------
tempura
In setting up the model, the birth rate is given as a constant (capital pi).
Clearly the birth rate should be proportional to the number of survivors S.

This doesn't materially alter the thrust of the argument, which presupposes a
short outbreak with pi := 0 anyway, but does negate the conclusion of the
first section, that "an outbreak of zombies will lead to the collapse of
civilisation, as large numbers of people are either zombified or dead."

In reality, the first ODE just states that the sum of (living+zombies+dead)
only increases when new humans are born.

------
tsuraan
Fun paper, but I don't think destroyed zombies ever resurrect. The fatal
decapitation or brain destruction shouldn't put the zombies into the R set,
but should just remove the zombies from the population altogether. I'll have
to see if octave can run their matlab code :)

------
jacquesm
Talk about wasting money.

~~~
dkokelley
The authors of the paper mention the unlikeliness of a direct application of
the models to zombie outbreaks, but go on to elaborate on other uses of the
model.

From the actual paper: _The key difference between the models presented here
and other models of infectious disease is that the dead can come back to life.
Clearly, this is an unlikely scenario if taken literally, but possible real-
life applications may include allegiance to political parties, or diseases
with a dormant infection. This is, perhaps unsurprisingly, the first
mathematical analysis of an outbreak of zombie infection. While the scenarios
considered are obviously not realistic, it is nevertheless instructive to
develop mathematical models for an unusual outbreak. This demonstrates the
flexibility of mathematical modelling and shows how modelling can respond to a
wide variety of challenges in ‘biology’._

~~~
jacquesm
So, wouldn't it be more practical to work on a model for something that has
real life applications instead ?

And I don't get the "allegiance to political parties" thing, unless this means
that we should interpret those with certain political affiliations as zombies.

It's a tempting connection but I don't think it will hold.

~~~
bootload
_"... So, wouldn't it be more practical to work on a model for something that
has real life applications instead ? ..."_

What makes you think theoretical research into imaginary scenarios isn't
needed? Back in May this year I would have loved to have read this paper and
tried it out ~ <http://www.flickr.com/photos/bootload/3517984501/> #melbourne
#zombie #shuffle

------
onreact-com
Next time an infectious disease strikes you might want to flee once you're
infected as the army will probably hunt you "to save humanity".

