Vampires a Mathematical Impossibility, Scientist Says
Sara Goudarzi
Date: 11 January 2008 Time: 09:45 AM ET
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.
"In the long run, humans cannot survive under these conditions, even if our population were doubling each month," Efthimiou said. "And doubling is clearly way beyond the human capacityof reproduction."
So whatever you think you see prowling around on Oct. 31, it most certainly won't turn you into a vampire.
- Keith Ball · Falls Church, VirginiaThere's also the point that vampires *can* be killed, in any version of vampire lore I've heard of. That's a major oversight in his argument.
- Nick Anthony · Top Commenter · Suny ulsterI'm not arguing that vampires exist, because they don't, but I feel compelled to point out that in most traditional vampire fiction, you don't turn from being bitten, you have to drink the vampire's blood. The stories that have you turn from a simple bite completely miss the point. The power is in the blood. It's a running motif, the blood is the life, the blood is everything. The vampire takes his victim's blood, and replaces it with his own. I'm not saying these guys are wrong, but they're operating under faulty reasoning.
- Chris Furney · 53 years oldVampires are real. In the clinical sense, anyway. I am one- I test borderline. (One weekend a month and two weeks in the springtime haha). Cure all recipe I dug up seems to work, and DOES give one a bout of AIP. Math is cute but it ain't real. Oh the virus only works on people who have been exposed to hepatitis.
http://www.porphyriafoundation.com / - Kuldeep Jangra · Subscribe · Works at Real Madrid C.F.what then if vampires controlled on their hunger of blood.....a question arises.....how the 'vampire thought' come into human mind? I will keep the eye on this topic and I'm serious about this matter.
- Laura EllsworthCurrent thought is that it was a way to explain serial killers. Since people rarely travelled away from their own homes, a wandering serial killer (such as a peddler or travelling jester) would be able to kill with impunity. The bodies would be found long after he had travelled on, so stories were invented to explain them. Hence werewolves, vampires, hags, and so on.
- Natasha Wilson · Top Commenter · John Leggott CollegeExact figure on the human population? Acounting for unknown territories and their populations at the time? I highly doubt it.
Try less theory and more common sense.- Natasha Wilson · Top Commenter · John Leggott Collegethey're assuming basic mathematics without factoring in variables based on geography, reproductive rates vs mortality rates etc.
also assuming that just biting transforms a victim into a vampire - in 1600 most if not all bites would be fatal purely because of rampant non-hygene ranging throughout all the class systems. even the "noble" classes bathed on ageverage 5 times a year, and they had no toothpaste back then.
- Michael Occhipinti · Subscribe · SUNY at BuffaloPlease, everybody knows that vampires don't turn everybody they feed on, or even kill them. some vampires feed on animal blood, some only take a small amount from a victim. If you assume that a vampire turns a human only under special conditions and only need to feed occasionally, then this math means absolutely nothing. All I said of course, only applies if shows like True Blood have the real details on how vampires operate.
- Fernando Marques · Oeiras, PortugalFirst: A vampire can kill it's victims, it doesn't necessary transform them.
Second: I don't believe that in his calculations he counted the number of births and deaths on the population. And since the population growth has been increasing then the number of births are superior than deaths.
Third: I'm not saying vampires exist but I'm just saying that the calculus are wrong due to sum of the variables not being counted. - Ocie Belle Peace · Top CommenterSomeone tell me what started all this vampire rave. I left in '07 and when I came back in '10 everything was vampires all over the place, books, movies, tv, wannabees on the news. Tell me what gives.
- Keith Ball · Falls Church, VirginiaDunno. True Blood and ... whatever those stupid teenage-girl heartthrob vampire movies are called. Must have defensively blocked it out of my mind!
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