Vampires a Mathematical Impossibility, Scientist Says

[FVZA_Colonel]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20061025/sc_space/vampiresamathematicalimpossibilityscientistsays



Vampires a Mathematical Impossibility, Scientist Says
By Sara Goudarzi

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.

[LeftyMom]

1. But what if there's an additional step to making a vampire?

In V:TM you have to give a little vampire blood to the dead humie if you want them to join the undead.

Not that I believe in vampires, but math would only eliminate the possibility if all feeding resulted in new vampires.

/geek

[LostinVA]

2. In BTVS, they must also feed on YOU, then be buried, then rise

On BTVS, most vamps were very selective in who they sired.

They also didn't have to sire someone to feed.

[FVZA_Colonel]

3. There is that factor

I've never played the table-top RPG, but I did get Vampire: The Masquerade- Bloodlines for my laptop a year or so ago. I loved it, by the way (except for those damn load times).