Staying Dry In The Rain: Should You Run Or Walk?

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Which will keep you drier, running through the rain or walking? Alessandro De Angelis, a physicist at the University of Udine, Italy, calculated some years ago that 'a sprinter racing along at 22.4 miles an hour does get less wet, but only 10 percent less wet, than a hasty stroller.'

Now, physicist Franco Bocci, reporting in the European Journal of Physics, has put forth new ideas in the long-running question of how best to keep dry when moving in the rain. If you run, you are out in the rain for less time, yet you run into more drops. In most cases, the answer depends on the shape and orientation of the moving body and on wind direction and intensity.