Why Do Buses Come in Threes?: The Hidden Maths of Everyday Life by Rob Eastaway

Author:Rob Eastaway [Eastaway, Rob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pavilion Books Company Limited
Published: 2014-04-02T22:00:00+00:00

Going fast can sometimes be a disadvantage

However, there is a surprising twist to this problem. The standard solution assumes that the rain is falling vertically. What happens if there is wind and the rain is falling at an angle?

When rain falls vertically and you are standing still, the drops only hit your head and shoulders. If there is wind coming from behind you, however, then some of the rain will also hit your back even when you are standing still. It’s as if the rain is falling horizontally as well as vertically. The rain has a horizontal speed. The surprising twist is that when the rain is coming from behind you, it is sometimes better to walk than run. However, this only applies if you are able to move faster than the horizontal speed of the rain.

The formula for how wet you get is given in the box in the next section. However, to sum up, the conclusion is this:

If you are a person of typical build and the rain is coming from behind you at the speed of a gentle walking pace, you will be hit by less rain if you amble along than if you run full pelt.

In other words, there are circumstances when it is better to walk than run!

The reason for this apparently odd outcome is that under the conditions described, if you run faster, the additional rain hitting your front is greater than the loss of rain hitting your head by taking less time to make it home.

Of course by the time you’ve worked all this out you will be wetter than if you had not known about the formula at all!

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