watsayou.blogspot.com/: Ghosts and Vampires and Things That Go Bump in the Night
Friday, October 27, 2006
Ghosts and Vampires and Things That Go Bump in the Night
I quote:
Science bites myth of vampires, ghosts By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Thu Oct 26, 7:50 PM ET WASHINGTON - It may be the season for vampires, ghosts and zombies. Just remember, they're not real, warns physicist Costas Efthimiou. Obviously, you might say. But Efthimiou, a professor at the University of Central Florida, points to surveys that show American gullibility for the supernatural.
Using science and math, Efthimiou explains why it is ghosts can't walk among us while also gliding through walls, like Patrick Swayze in the movie "Ghost." That violates Newton's law of action and reaction. If ghosts walk, their feet apply force to the floor, but if they go through walls they are without substance, the professor says. "So which is it? Are ghosts material or material-less?" he asks. ........ Efthimiou takes out the calculator to prove that if a vampire sucked one person's blood each month — turning each victim into an equally hungry vampire — after a couple of years there would be no people left, just vampires. He started his calculations with just one vampire and 537 million humans on Jan. 1, 1600 and shows that the human population would be down to zero by July 1602. ........ And Halloween? Both physicists will suspend disbelief when vampires, ghosts and zombies come to their doors. "I give them candy and I feign fright," Park said. "They enjoy it, what the hell. The problem is the ones that never get over it."
Hey! Scientists nowadays are cool, too. I like Park's statement.
