Does one get wetter running in the rain or walking?
Phil, Basingstoke, UK
- Walking. It may not be as simple as Will says, but consider the limiting case. If you walked incredibly s-l-o-w-w-w-l-y, you would get drenched. If you ran at 76% of the speed of light, you would get hit by very few droplets.
JP Nicholls, Bristol UK
- Running is often quicker so by reaching shelter quicker you get less wet. This works even though you are getting wetter quicker (due to being essentially a tall thin objetct).
Tom Price, London UK
- Everyone is also forgetting that when you run you splash more in the puddles. That would make you a lot wetter up to your knees. And you're more likely to fall over in one.
Jon G, Swansea UK
- As a motorcyclist, I can offer experiential evidence for a conclusion along the lines Peter and Owen suggest. However, if the rain is falling vertically and you are very thin, it might make most sense to stand perfectly still - thereby getting slightly wet on top but not at all on the front - and to wait until the rain stops.
Charli, London UK
- Neither - it depends on how hard it is raining. The body has evolved to stay dry (when we were roaming the plains of the Serengeti a good drenching could mean an early bath...) so we naturally quicken our step when it is anvantageous to. Had we spent millions of years evolving alongside umberellas though, things might be very different.
tom, london England
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