Zombie Apocalypse
What if the infection bites back? A tongue-in-cheek version of a real epidemic model: humans fight zombies, lose and turn, or win and remove them — unless the dead rise again. Who survives?
Real Science, Silly Premise
This tab is based on a real research paper: Munz, Hudea, Imad and Smith? (2009) used the mathematics of epidemics to model a zombie outbreak — a playful way to teach how infectious diseases spread. Humans who lose a fight become infectious themselves, so the zombie count grows exactly like an epidemic.
The paper’s sobering conclusion: unless humans win most fights quickly, a single zombie can overrun a city within days — and if the removed rise again, only fast, aggressive action saves humanity. Try a town where people win 65% of the fights, then let the dead rise after two days.
Humans vs. Zombies
SZR modelHow the Model Works
With c fights per zombie per day and a human win chance p, the bite rate β and the removal rate α follow directly; fights become rarer as humans run out.
If humans lose more fights than they win (β > α), the zombie population grows like an epidemic. Rising dead (ζ > 0) feed zombies back in even when humans win.
Nobody enters or leaves the town during the outbreak, so humans, zombies and removed always add up to the starting population.
Sources & Verification
- P. Munz, I. Hudea, J. Imad & R. J. Smith?, “When zombies attack!: Mathematical modelling of an outbreak of zombie infection”, in J. M. Tchuenche & C. Chiyaka (eds.), Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress, Nova Science Publishers, 2009, pp. 133–150.
- M. J. Keeling & P. Rohani, Modeling Infectious Diseases in Humans and Animals, Princeton University Press, 2008 — Ch. 2 (Introduction to Simple Epidemic Models).