One of the most common myths about vampires is that they kill people to drink their blood. On the other hand, the purpose of this character is, after all, food, not murder … Recently, students at the University of Leicester tried to calculate how long it would theoretically take a vampire to get enough, but not kill his victim.
Time "X"
The safety threshold for blood loss is 15 percent. If a person loses more blood, then his pulse slows down and irreversible changes occur in the body.
The physics students from Leicester wondered how many minutes it would take for a hypothetically existing vampire to consume that “safe” 15 percent, using the classic scheme and biting through the neck of a potential victim twice.
The authors of the study proceeded from the fact that the vampire is not going to kill a person, but only wants to get drunk on his blood and quickly retreat - that is, he does not need too much … They also did not take into account the blood pressure parameters and took it as an axiom that all the arteries leaving the aortas are of the same size and structure, and that the holes left by the vampire in the neck are 0.5 millimeters in diameter.
So, having calculated the speed of blood flow through the arteries, young physicists found out that in order to drink enough blood and at the same time not cause serious harm to human health, a vampire will need 6 minutes and 24 seconds.
They presented the results of their research in the University Journal of Physics Special Topics. As for their applied value, first of all they can be useful to authors of literary works and films dedicated to the "vampiric" theme …
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Vampires mythical and real
There are several main theories about vampires today. One of them says that some people turn into vampires after death, for example, during their lifetime practicing black magic or subjected to magical effects. Another claims that vampires originally existed on Earth in parallel with humans, but they try to hide their essence.
According to numerous myths and beliefs, vampires have the following properties: they need blood to maintain existence; they are unable to die a natural death; they are afraid of sunlight, garlic and the cross; they are not reflected in mirrors; they have fangs in their mouths, which they thrust into their victims; a vampire cannot enter the house of a potential victim if she herself does not invite him; all those bitten by vampires also become vampires.
Another theory claims that there are no mystical creatures that people consider vampires in nature, but there are ordinary people who, due to certain characteristics of the body, need to consume blood.
Professor D. J. Williams of the University of Idaho argues that such vampires do not kill anyone or even bite. They usually look for adult "partners" who voluntarily agree to make an incision in the skin so that the vampire can drain some blood from there. According to the scientist, the number of vampires around the world reaches several thousand.
From mathematics to cultural studies
By the way, this is not the first time that vampirism has become a topic of scientific research. In 2006, Costas Efthymiou and Sogang Gandhi published a work that argued that the existence of vampires is a myth, since if we assume that vampires "reproduce" as a result of bites by other vampires, their number will grow exponentially. If this were so, then today all of humanity would have turned into ghouls … And since this did not happen, then there are no vampires at all!
In 2013, a mathematical paper was published in the journal Applied Mathematical Sciences, the authors of which used the famous Lotka-Volterra model to calculate the possible dynamics of the vampire population. This model employs a system of two linear ordinary differential equations with corresponding initial conditions that determine both the number of predators and their prey at a given time.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison course, Vampires in Literature and Film, examines the cultural continuity of the vampire image, from Bram Stoker's Dracula to the 1922 film Nosferatu.
And at Portland State University they study a course on the series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." The primary goal of the course is to explore how the feminist role model depicted in the series affects young people. In general, we can't get away from the vampire theme …
Margarita Troitsyna
