Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Is it Better to Walk or Run in the Rain?

Here's an interesting question that can lead to some quality science discussion between you and your kids.  Is it better to walk or run in the rain if you want to avoid getting soaked?  The initial answer may be to run.  If you're running through the rain, you are spending less time in the rain, thus reaching year destination faster and having fewer raindrops hit you.  On the other hand, as you run, you are more quickly running into raindrops that you are less likely to do if you are walking.

Hmmm....so which is best?  Do you walk or do you run?  It turns out that this isn't an easy question to answer and many different people have done scientific experiments on this.  My 6 year old and I recently watched an early episode of Mythbusters (first or second episode) where they tested this by weighing clothes after walking/running through the rain.  They concluded that walking through rain keeps you drier.  However, I discovered that they repeated this experiment (haven't seen this episode yet) and found that running through the rain keeps you drier.

There are many other studies out there as well:

Is It Better To Run Or Walk In Rain To Stay Dry? Scientists Say Run
Why You Should Run, Not Walk, in the Rain
Walk Or Run In The Rain? There's An Equation For That
Staying dry in rain: run or walk?

The results are all the same.  It's better to run than walk through the rain if you wish to stay drier, but it's not as clear cut as it may seem at first.

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