Now, we’ve all been there before, you go to school or head to the store and when you leave the house the weather is great. But living in Wyoming, it only takes a minute for a sunny day to turn into a downpour. So there you are, at school or the grocery store, with no umbrella and no choice but to go out in the storm. Than the age old question crosses your mind, should you make a mad dash and sprint to your destination as fast as possible, or should you walk? Both seem logical, as it’s arguable that if you run, yes you’re out in the rain for a shorter period of time, but then again you might be running into more rain. It’s also logical that walking may be the best answer because than you’re not running into as many rain drops, but yet, than you have to be in the rain for a longer period of time. So what really is the better of the two options? Make a mad dash of a sprint, or take a leisurely walk?
As it turns out, we are not the first to ask such a question. Many people over the years have debated whether it is better to run through the rain, or walk through the rain. Everyone is looking for the same answer, what is the best way to get yourself through the rain, and still stay as dry as possible. Through my research, I have found that over the years many scientist and regular joes, like myself have not only pondered this question, but conducted research to try and find the right answer.
Of the hundreds, possibly thousands that have looked for the answer to this particular question most have come to the same, or relatively the same conclusion. If the rain falls straight down or if the wind blows it toward you, you should run as fast as possible. Although you run into raindrops, the decreased amount of time in the rain leaves you less wet than if you move slower. To decrease the number of drops you run into you should minimize your vertical cross-sectional area (the part of you that is exposed) by leaning forward as you run.
If wind is at your back, the best strategy is to run at a speed that matches the horizontal speed of the falling drops, which I imagine, is easier said than done. In that way you still get wet on the top of your head and shoulders but you do not run into drops along your front surface nor do they run into you along your back surface.
So what’s this all really mean? It is definitely a good idea to run through the rain in order to decrease the amount of time you spend in it. In addition, the less surface area of your body that is in the cross section with the rain and how it is coming down or being blown by the wind will also help to decrease how wet you get.
“Which Will Keep You Drier, Running Through the Rain, or Walking?” The Straight Dope, Cecil Adams, October 16, 1992
This article was found online while searching for information about running or walking in the rain. To be honest, I skipped over it numerous times because of the website name, Straight Dope. I couldn’t believe that this would actually be a helpful or reliable site. As it turns out, it is both. This site was helpful because the question that was asked was much like the one I have chosen to research and Cecil Adams gave an answer that was complete and explained where the explanation came from. Cecil Adams explained in the article how he experimented in order to come to the conclusion that running does help to keep you more dry than walking. In addition, the article explained in detail the three trials that were ran in order to come to this conclusion, in order to ensure the understanding of a reader. Now, deciding whether this was a reliable source or not was the difficult part. I was skeptical because as the site appears, someone writes a question and it is answered by Cecil Adams. My skepticism came about because I had no idea who this Cecil Adams was, or where he got his information. I than read about Cecil Adams, as it turns out the column the Straight Dope appears in over 30 newspapers in both the United States and Canada weekly. In addition Ballantine has published five collections of his work and it is also a television show that airs on the Arts and Entertainment channel. All of this I believe, builds credibility toward Cecil Adams and his knowledge.
“Rain-Run or Walk”, The Math Forum @ Drexel, Doctor Edwin, 08/06/2003
http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/63759.html"
This site contains an explanation of my physics question as an answer to a question sent in by another student. The site lists the question by the students, which is essentially the same question that I am trying to answer; in addition it contains the answer given by a doctor Edwin. This site was helpful not because I was necessarily still looking for the answer to my question, as it has been reasonably consistent through each of my resources, but rather it was helpful because Dr. Edwin presented the question in a different manner. Explaining that you should imagine that you are traveling through a particular volume of watery air the volume of water in the air is constant, is not moving, and there is no gravity. If this is the case you will get equally as much water on you when running through the volume of watery air no matter what speed you are going. Therefore you are not going through less rain or less water when running you are simply out in the rain for less time therefore you get less wet. For me, this explanation was extremely clear and helpful in my understanding as to why running was the better alternative when traveling through the rain. I believe that this site, even after looking at many other references, was the most clear and easy to understand for me. Determining how reliable this information is was also a challenge. Although the response letter is signed by a Doctor Erwin, how is one to know if this is a real doctor, or just a person with a computer and Google? However after further evaluation of this page I do believe that it is reliable as the website, The Math Forum, is a research and educational enterprise of Drexel University. This site was designed by Drexel University in order to answer a wide range of scientific and physic questions for teachers and students of every grade level and knowledge level.
"Running in the Rain" from the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, Bruce Torrence, 2011
http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/RunningInTheRain/"This website is a great resource in trying to determine whether running or walking in the rain is best. It gives the opportunity to change what the shape of an object might be, the tail wind strength, the cross wind strength and the vertical speed of the rain. This way you are able to personally change the information as if doing an experiment with different variables in order to decide whether running or walking is the best. For me, this was an extremely useful site, it helped me to personally conduct virtual experiments rather than having to actually run in the rain and get wet. It is a useful site because it gives anyone the opportunity to evaluate the changes in wind speed, rain speed, and size of a person or object and derive an educated answer for themselves. In addition to this source being useful, I believe that the information is reliable. This is because the article with the experiment is derived from an article that was published in Mathematics Magazine in 2009, “Keeping Dry: The Mathematics of Running in the rain.” This is a very reliable magazine and since the information is borrowed from that article, I believe that it is definitely reliable.