Zombies & Math: Exponential Multiplication - Newbie Alert!

[makaveli]

Has anybody noticed that Zombies multiply in an exponential manner?

Btw, I'm new!

 

[Diffy]

Thats because Zombies are in the rabbit family.

 

[disregardthat]

wouldn't they produce like a fibonacci sequence then?

 

[ManDay]

Absolutly... interesting!

http://dir.yahoo.com/Society_and_Culture/Mythology_and_Folklore/Mythic_Creatures/Zombies/ says:

• Zombie Infection Simulation v2.3
  Demonstrates the exponential growth capabilities of the living dead.
  kevan.org/proce55ing/zombies

 

[dodo]

A logistic model should take over, as soon as they conquer the planet. You know, zombies always kind of pile up.

 

[Diffy]

I think it is mostly because it doesn't take 2 zombies to produce a new zombie. All a zombie has to do to produce a new zombie is bite a human. Where as 2 humans have to have relations in order to produce 1 new human.

Start with one zombie, that zombie bites a human and now there are two zombies, those two zombies each bite one human each now you have 4. those 4 zombies bite 1 human each, now you have 8 zombies. Repeat, now 16 zombies, then 32, etc.

 

[HallsofIvy]

I have a question! When did a "zombie biting a person produces a new zombie" pop up? I thought that was werewolves. Zombies are created by Voodoo.

 

[ManDay]

Afaik zobies arise from the dead by vodoo and will infect their victim by killing it so it becomes a zombie in turn. Werewolfes cannot infect people afaik. Vampires hoewever...

 

[dodo]

Oh dang, now the population model needs to be stratified by species: humans, zombies, werewolves, vampires... What next? Age groups? Tax levels?

 

[arildno]

I have a question! When did a "zombie biting a person produces a new zombie" pop up? I thought that was werewolves. Zombies are created by Voodoo.

Sigh. You haven't seen many zombie movies, have you?

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Afaik zobies arise from the dead by vodoo and will infect their victim by killing it so it becomes a zombie in turn. Werewolfes cannot infect people afaik. Vampires hoewever...

Actually you can blame Hollywood for that. Originally Zombies were just the animated dead body and slave of some witch doctor, but now a days they can infect ,such is artistic license. And werewolves infect others with a bite sometimes too, but again there usually more to do with the Dark Satanic arts. Vampires do too, but then they pretty much always have.

 

[arildno]

Actually you can blame Hollywood for that. Originally Zombies were just the animated dead body and slave of some witch doctor, but now a days they can infect ,such is artistic license. And werewolves infect others with a bite sometimes too, but again there usually more to do with the Dark Satanic arts. Vampires do too, but then they pretty much always have.

You are being unkind to the werewolves. That their bite is infectious is a modern invention.

Here's a bit of the legends, from wikipedia:

Becoming a werewolf
Historical legends describe a wide variety of methods for becoming a werewolf, one of the simplest being the removal of clothing and putting on a belt made of wolfskin, probably as a substitute for the assumption of an entire animal skin (which also is frequently described).[12] In other cases, the body is rubbed with a magic salve.[13] To drink water out of the footprint of the animal in question or to drink from certain enchanted streams were also considered effectual modes of accomplishing metamorphosis.[14] Olaus Magnus says that the Livonian werewolves were initiated by draining a cup of specially prepared beer and repeating a set formula. Ralston in his Songs of the Russian People gives the form of incantation still familiar in Russia. According to Russian lore, a child born on December 24 shall be a werewolf. Folklore and literature also depict that a werewolf can be spawned from two werewolf parents.

In Galician, Portuguese, and Brazilian folklore, it is the seventh of the sons (but sometimes the seventh child, a boy, after a line of six daughters) who becomes a werewolf (Lobisomem).[15] In Portugal, the seventh daughter is supposed to become a witch and the seventh son a werewolf; the seventh son often gets the Christian name "Bento" (Portuguese form of "Benedict", meaning "blessed") as this is believed to prevent him from becoming a werewolf later in life. In Brazil, the seventh daughter become a headless (replaced with fire) horse called "Mula-sem-cabeça" (Headless Mule). The belief in the curse of the seventh son was so widespread in Northern Argentina (where the werewolf is called the lobizón), that seventh sons were frequently abandoned, ceded in adoption, or killed. A 1920 law decreed that the President of Argentina is the official godfather of every seventh son. Thus, the State gives a seventh son one gold medal in his baptism and a scholarship until his twenty first year. This effectively ended the abandonments, but there still persists a tradition in which the President godfathers seventh sons.

In other cases, the transformation was supposedly accomplished by Satanic allegiance for the most loathsome ends, often for the sake of sating a craving for human flesh. "The werewolves", writes Richard Verstegan (Restitution of Decayed Intelligence, 1628), "are certayne sorcerers, who having annoynted their bodies with an ointment which they make by the instinct of the devil, and putting on a certayne inchaunted girdle, does not only unto the view of others seem as wolves, but to their own thinking have both the shape and nature of wolves, so long as they wear the said girdle. And they do dispose themselves as very wolves, in worrying and killing, and most of humane creatures." Such were the views about lycanthropy current throughout the continent of Europe when Verstegan wrote.

The power of transforming others into wild beasts was attributed not only to malignant sorcerers, but to Christian saints as well. Omnes angeli, boni et Mali, ex virtute naturali habent potestatem transmutandi corpora nostra ("All angels, good and bad have the power of transmutating our bodies") was the dictum of St. Thomas Aquinas. St. Patrick was said to have transformed the Welsh king Vereticus into a wolf; St. Natalis supposedly cursed an illustrious Irish family whose members were each doomed to be a wolf for seven years. In other tales the divine agency is even more direct, while in Russia, again, men are supposedly become werewolves when incurring the wrath of the Devil.

A notable exception to the association of Lycanthropy and the Devil, comes from a rare and lesser known account of a man named Thiess. In 1692, in Jurgenburg, Livonia, Thiess testified under oath that he and other Werewolves were the Hounds of God.[16] He claimed they were warriors who went down into hell to do battle with witches and demons. Their efforts ensured that the Devil and his minions did not carry off the abundance of the Earth down to hell. Thiess was steadfast in his assertions, claiming that Werewolves in Germany and Russia also did battle with the devil's minions in their own versions of hell, and insisted that when werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service. Thiess was ultimately sentenced to ten lashes for Idolacy and superstitious belief.

A distinction is often made between voluntary and involuntary werewolves. The former are generally thought to have made a pact, usually with the Devil, and morph into werewolves at night to indulge in mischievous acts. Involuntary werewolves, on the other hand, are werewolves by an accident of birth or health. In some cultures, individuals born during a new moon or suffering from epilepsy were considered likely to be werewolves.

 

[HallsofIvy]

Thanks, Schrodinger's dog, I rather suspected that. Arildno, I hope I won't get in trouble with the werewolf anti-defamation league!

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Zombies just seem to multiply in an exponential manner. It's because they use an utterly antiquated notation - it's dead, really, no one else uses it. And complicated - you really need to have eight brains to understand it.

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[Math Jeans]

You know, it really does seem to depend on the type of zombie you are referring to.

 

[Dragonfall]

People, people, please. We all know that zombies arose from the headcrabs unleashed onto our planet after we lost the seven hour war.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Zombies just seem to multiply in an exponential manner. It's because they use an utterly antiquated notation - it's dead, really, no one else uses it. And complicated - you really need to have eight brains to understand it.

You win.

 

[leprechaun]

Since we are talking about creating more zombies... what is the gestation period of a zombie? If we consider their "reproductive" rate it must be shorter than that of a lagomorph to see the population explosions Hollywood depicts. We all know Hollywood would never commit any sort of inaccuracy.

Rabbit fun-fact: they are incapable of vomiting

 

[Math Jeans]

Since we are talking about creating more zombies... what is the gestation period of a zombie? If we consider their "reproductive" rate it must be shorter than that of a lagomorph to see the population explosions Hollywood depicts. We all know Hollywood would never commit any sort of inaccuracy.

Well, it really depends on the type of zombie.

You could be talking about the zombies in Dawn of the Dead in which a bite would make another zombie, or you could be talking about 'reanimated' zombies that do not reproduce through biting.

 

[disregardthat]

I'd think their reproductive time-span is quite short, haven't you seen how fast they multiply in the movies?
But I have a question, when do we have to take global warming in consideration?

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Since we are talking about creating more zombies... what is the gestation period of a zombie? If we consider their "reproductive" rate it must be shorter than that of a lagomorph to see the population explosions Hollywood depicts. We all know Hollywood would never commit any sort of inaccuracy.

Since it's infective, it'd probably be beast to look at some sort of disease model, only without allowing for immunity and the eventual recovery of those infected.

Rabbit fun-fact: they are incapable of vomiting

Probably just as well since they eat their own faeces.

Same as rats, that's why poison tends to be quite effective, if you can persuade them to eat it in the first place, cunning little bleeders.

Since any infective zombification would be exponential at first then logistical at higher population densities (of zombies) and society would collapse, I suspect global warming would be less of a problem, and the least of the survivors problems.

 

[CaptainQuasar]

Relevant http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/20".

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[Diffy]

Relevant http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/20".

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I feel like a tool, but if you are at work or something there is NSFW language.

 

[Integral]

I cannot find a shred of math in this thread. Moving to GD.

 

[Poop-Loops]

I have a question! When did a "zombie biting a person produces a new zombie" pop up? I thought that was werewolves. Zombies are created by Voodoo.

Good catch.

With Night of the Living Dead, it didn't just become VooDoo, but "recently deceased" were rising from the dead for unexplained reasons, meaning you die in any way and you get up a zombie.

Obviously, since zombies need our delicious branes, and even brains, they would attack and kill the living, causing them to rise up again.

It didn't take much to make the leap from zombies killing you to simply biting you to become "infected" and a zombie.

In the mean time, before that leap happened, zombies learned to dance, to entertain, to laugh, and to cry, so they could gain influence over the general populace and eventually gain power in Washington. Bob Dole unsuccessfully ran to become the first zombie president in 1996.

People, people, please. We all know that zombies arose from the headcrabs unleashed onto our planet after we lost the seven hour war.

They're not really zombies, they are being infected by parasites, just like in Resident Evil 4. The ones from 28 Days Later aren't real zombies either, just really angry people.

 

[Integral]

My vote for best zombie movie is "Fido".

As Poop Loops said, with Night of the living Dead, zombieism became an infectious disease or the result of exposure to toxic waste. It is usually communicable and the only "cure" is chopping off the head or complete dismemberment.
I just got to see "30 Days of Night" this weekend, it seemed to introduce a new breed of zombie, no real explanation for them, but again it was a blood infection.

 

[leprechaun]

I cannot find a shred of math in this thread. Moving to GD.

There was mention of exponential growth (#1), Fibonacci sequences (#3), and Logistic Models (#5). Other than these, it is a bunch of rubbish (albeit amusing rubbish).

 

[Schrodinger's Dog]

Maths huh, well ok I'll set up a simple logistical recurrence relationship.$$\displaymode p(t)=\frac{K\cdot P_0}{P_0(k-P_0)e^{-rt}}$$

$P_0$ is the initial population
$K$ is the carrying capacity (max population)
$r$ is the rate of change
$t$ is time

Working out the differential on a graph and taking population at a base of 10 or so at t=0 or today, and carrying capacity as the population of the entire human race. We can clearly see that, considering all the available factors and the incurability of the condition, plus sundry random considerations...

We're boned.

Best zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead, the original, not the not so good remake. Romero is a God, although I here Diary of the Dead, the new one is a bit pants.

 

[Diffy]

Best zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead, the original, not the not so good remake. Romero is a God, although I here Diary of the Dead, the new one is a bit pants.

I enjoy "Shawn of the Dead"

 

[~christina~]

They say that zombification occurs when the person is given a set of "potions" but there was reasearch done and I saw a show (supernatural science) which showed a story on 2 men that claimed to be zombies. One of them was Clairvius Narcisse. He was officially declared dead by a western doctor but supposedly was recognized by his relative by a scar on his head.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clairvius_Narcisse

The other man reasearched was found to be a fraud through DNA testing of the person who thought she was his mother. The reason behind this (random person claiming that the person was their deceased relative etc.) was that the person who had just suffered a loss was mentally unstable and the person claiming to be the person's relative was not mentally sound as well. (the man didn't speak and basically was quiet in the segment)

The reason that it could occur (zombification) could be due to the toxins of the pufferfish. The neurotoxin basically shuts down the body until one is near death according to the show. This ingredient was part of most of the "potions" that were given to the reasearchers by the zombie makers.

 

[Mech_Engineer]

Zombies actually do exist in the insect world- thanks to a parasitic fungus that controls motor function in insects.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cordyceps

http://www.thinkartificial.org/aesthetics/scary-fungus-controls-the-minds-of-insects/

In addition, there are some forms of parasites that can seemingly "control" their hosts to do their zombie bidding:

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=17"

http://beingmrkenny.co.uk/blog/2006/05/the-story-of-a-parasite-mind-control-and-sheeps-poo/"