When zombies attack

Canadian researchers have created a mathematical model which describes the best way to fight off a zombie invasion.

The best course for human survival is to hit hard and fast, according to the paper from mathematicians at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The paper examines three possible scenarios for dealing with an outbreak of undead: quarantine the zombies, treatment of the zombies so they revert to being human, and impulsive eradication whenever possible.

A properly coordinated strategy to eradicate all the zombies could wipe them out in 10 days, according to the research.

“An outbreak of zombies is likely to be disastrous, unless extremely aggressive tactics are employed against the undead,” according to a quote from the authors in Wired magazine. “It is imperative that zombies are dealt with quickly, or else we are all in a great deal of trouble.”

The simple model is displayed in the diagram on the right of this page: Where S = susceptibles, Z = zombies and R = removed. If an infection breaks out in a city of 500,000 people, the zombies will outnumber the susceptibles in about three days, according to the model.

“Clearly, this is an unlikely scenario if taken literally,” the authors wrote. “But possible real-life applications may include allegiance to political parties, or diseases with a dormant infection.”

“Only sufficiently frequent attacks, with increasing force, will result in eradication, assuming the available resources can be mustered in time,” they continued.

“If the timescale of the outbreak increases, then the result is the doomsday scenario: an outbreak of zombies will result in the collapse of civilization, with every human infected, or dead,” they concluded. “This is because human births and deaths will provide the undead with a limitless supply of new bodies to infect, resurrect and convert.”