Vampires a Mathematical Impossibility, Scientist Says

Someone needs to bite this guy.

A researcher has come up with some simple math that sucks the life out of the vampire myth, proving that these highly popular creatures can’t exist.

University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou’s work debunks pseudoscientific ideas, such as vampires and zombies, in an attempt to enhance public literacy. Not only does the public believe in such topics, but the percentages are at dangerously high level, Efthimiou told LiveScience.

Legend has it that vampires feed on human blood and once bitten a person turns into a vampire and starts feasting on the blood of others.

Efthimiou’s debunking logic: On Jan 1, 1600, the human population was 536,870,911. If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by Feb. 1, 1600. A month later there would have been four, and so on. In just two-and-a-half years the original human population would all have become vampires with nobody left to feed on.

If mortality rates were taken into consideration, the population would disappear much faster. Even an unrealistically high reproduction rate couldn’t counteract this effect.”

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5 Comments

  1. Jack's Shack October 29, 2006 at 7:24 am

    MBM,

    🙂

    Elie,

    Good point.

    Claire,

    Me too.

    Leaf,

    I have known a few of them. Matter of fact maybe I am one. Muhahahahha

  2. Leaf October 27, 2006 at 3:23 pm

    OK, I was seriously worried for a moment. My dreams of meeting a Vampire and getting turned were being crushed when I realized this was done at the University of Central Florida. Also known as U Can’t Fail. Florida’s second largest university is a joke as seen by this study. I think we can all now agree that Vampires are in fact real and that they wear leather and fight werewolves while we all sleep.

  3. Claire October 27, 2006 at 1:58 pm

    That’s priceless! I love academia!

    Cxx

  4. Elie October 27, 2006 at 1:39 pm

    Unless you assume that most of the vampires died via exposure to the sun, being stabbed with wood/silver, etc. Or maybe someone used the Montesi Formula to wipe them all out.

  5. marallyn ben moshe October 27, 2006 at 1:08 pm

    of course there are vampires…they all have accounts with the local blood bank!!! why do you think the red cross keeps asking for donors???

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