Rain

[phl666]

Does one get more wet walking in the rain or running in the rain?

[MrsM]

Not sure, but I think I've been told in the past that it makes no difference!  Do you walk or run then?

[phl666]

My instinct is to run, but I never know why...

[Brugel]

I used to wonder about this years ago when I walked home from school. Then I read an article somewhere that said a group of scientists had tested it out and had concluded that it's better to run (but I can't remember where I saw the article).

[Loosehead]

This has been done at length here before:

Running 10 minutes V walking 10 Minutes = no diff

Runnning from A to B rather than walking means you will get wetter walking as you have spent more time in the rain.

[charliep88]

A recent study at shropshire university in devingham found that ; wether you wak or run in the rain you will not get as wet as if you drop dead in the bloomin rain.

[boobesque]

i cant actually remember the formula. shame. you measure the area of the floor for how many rain droplets per minute. you then measure the average distance between the droplets. also the angle of the rainfall should be recorded. you take your 2 dimensional birds eye area (imagine a photo of you from a birds eye view), but from the same angle as the rainfall. using the same unit of measurement as with the floor area of course. from this you can work out the best speed to travel. also the best direction. although the direction can also be included into the equation to help determine the best speed in any direction. : )

[Marsh]

I tackle this problem by simplifying.  Suppose I am shaped like a rectangular block and the rain is falling straight down. As I move forward rain will either hit the top of my head or my front, nowhere else. 
If I go from A to B at the speed of light, there will be no time for rain to hit the top of my head but every raindrop in my path will wet my front.
If  I do the same journey slower, my front will still hit the same number of raindrops but there will be time for rain to hit the top of my head.  The slower I go the more will hit me. So for a journey from A to B, walking is wetter than running.
If  I go for a 30 minute run/walk, however the reverse applies.  The rain falling on the top of my head remains the same but the faster I move the farther I travel and the more raindrops will hit my front.
I think the logic remains the same even for a normally-shaped human and windy rainfall.

[stevie21]

Agree with lots of the above. If you walk home in the rain you're rained on for longer than you would be running so would get wetter.
If you walk or run in the rain for 10 minutes, you get wetter running as you're also running into the rain as well as being rained on from above.
If you stand still in the rain, you'll not get as wet as walking or running if each is done for the same period of time.

Quite well put by Marsh, methinks.

[Quizmonster]

Click here for the Straightdope website's take on the matter.

[dk_psy]

I've seen an answer to this question in a magazine. Their answer was (after many investigations) that for light rain walk, for heavy rain run. so i suppose for intents and purposes it's a proportional relationship.

[tony1941]

dk_psy has an idea there!  I suspect it's all to do with the speed of the falling drops - if it's light rain, presumably the smaller drops will be falling slower (Stoke's formula, is it?) and so running through them means you will encounter more than faster moving ones per unit time.  Or do I need to write it down and start calculating?

[newtron]

Check this link out.

http://www.dctech.com/physics/features/0600.php