# Driving through a crowd **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 7, 2007, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215 "2007-12-07T20:17:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/21 "2007-12-07T21:39:05Z")
[QUOTE=Shagnasty] That is a good point that I never even considered. Do zombies have all the regular organs? Are they dehydrated? If they are really dehydrated, it would be like driving down the pinata isle at the party supply store. [/QUOTE] If they weren’t dehydrated, eventually you’d have a big bloody, slippery mess. What’s the friction coefficient for internal organs? That might be a problem. ---
**Author:** ![filmyak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@filmyak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmyak)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/22 "2007-12-07T21:41:29Z")
[QUOTE=ZenBeam] Start a thread about running over blacks or Jews or Republicans or even dogs, people will be all over your case. [/QUOTE] Jews? Yes. It’d be a horrible crime. Republicans? The only responses you’ll get are requests to find out where they are gathered, and is it easily accessible by Prius? And will their guts hurt a hybrid engine? ---
**Author:** ![Bearflag70](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Bearflag70](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bearflag70)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/23 "2007-12-07T21:44:24Z")
[Homer Simpson] MMMMMMMM. Zombie candy. [/Homer Simpson] ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/24 "2007-12-07T21:55:24Z")
[QUOTE=filmyak] Republicans? The only responses you’ll get are requests to find out where they are gathered, and is it easily accessible by Prius? And will their guts hurt a hybrid engine? [/QUOTE] With the even added advantage, of course, that not that we know that all the Democrats are in their Priuses looking for the Republicans, we can wipe out the zombies, the Priuses, and the Democrats in just a couple of passes of our Sequoias and Land Cruisers. ---
**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/25 "2007-12-07T22:01:54Z")
You can use simple kinematics to get an estimate. Suppose your car has a width of w, and is travelling with velocity v through a crowd of zombies with density rho per unit area, and each having a mass m. Assume that the zombies collide with your car inelastically. (I’m envisioning the zombies being dragged along on the front bumper briefly, then sliding off to the side.) Then you can show that the average force required to keep your vehicle moving at a constant velocity is approximately F = w_m_rho\*v[sup]2[/sup] So you can see that for a given force (provided by your car’s engine), the maximum velocity you can achieve scales inversely with the square root of the density of zombies (and their mass.) If you want to maintain a velocity of 20 miles per hour through a dense crowd (one 150-pound zombie per square meter), a car about 2 metres wide would have to exert over 1.2 tons of extra force — so you’d better either have a powerful engine, a sparser crowd of zombies to drive through, or be willing to go slower. ---
**Author:** ![Projammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/projammer/32/559_2.png) [@Projammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Projammer)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/26 "2007-12-07T22:20:25Z")
I personally wouldn’t want to try it with anything smaller than a Kenworth. But having time to rig it out with a cowcatcher would certainly be a bonus. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2007, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/27 "2007-12-07T22:29:25Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] Well, [Russel Weller](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_Weller) took the time to conduct an experiment of sorts on this subject in Santa Monica, CA in 2003. He was not stopped by 73 people in ten seconds at speeds between 40 and 60 mph. [/QUOTE] How was that son of a bitch not lynched on the spot? I am sure the police wouldn’t have prosecuted. ---
**Author:** ![BrandonR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BrandonR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrandonR)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/28 "2007-12-08T01:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] How was that son of a bitch not lynched on the spot? I am sure the police wouldn’t have prosecuted. [/QUOTE] Because it’s kinda hard to lynch an 90-year-old man? ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/29 "2007-12-08T01:43:13Z")
> [@](#): > > **BrandonR** : Because it’s kinda hard to lynch an 90-year-old man? Oh it is not. Just use twine instead of rope. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/30 "2007-12-08T01:55:08Z")
Gotta have some clearance between the tires and the wheel wells, because somebody’s skull can get wedged in there and stop you. My vehicle of choice would be a monster truck. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/31 "2007-12-08T03:03:04Z")
[QUOTE=Sapo] How was that son of a bitch not lynched on the spot? I am sure the police wouldn’t have prosecuted. [/QUOTE] Because you average person will not beat up helpless people. ---
**Author:** ![Sapo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Sapo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sapo)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/32 "2007-12-08T03:36:55Z")
[QUOTE=gazpacho] Because you average person will not beat up helpless people. [/QUOTE] They will if they have bleeding relatives on the floor and you say the right words. All it takes is some button pushing. And some twine, apparently. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215/33 "2007-12-08T04:04:23Z")
[QUOTE=garygnu] It might be easier to obtain a [snow plow](http://tillmans.com/snow_plows/v-plow2.jpg) attachment. [/QUOTE] Obligatory [Mr. Plow](http://snpp.com/episodes/9F07.html) reference. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/driving-through-a-crowd/429215.md?page=1)