Max Brooks: World War Z

Asymptote

Asymptote

Banned Idiot
FriedRiceNSpice said:
How would zombies overwhelm a tank division!?!?!?! Tanks would just run them over....
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You do realize, while a tank is enormously heavy and cannot be push over by a single man.. how about 7 million zombies?? The tank might be able to run over a few hundreds or maybe thousands of zombies, but then as the ground gets greasy with all the bloody entrails, the tank will get bog down and eventually get topple over by the zombie hordes.
 
FriedRiceNSpice

FriedRiceNSpice

Captain
You do realize, while a tank is enormously heavy and cannot be push over by a single man.. how about 7 million zombies?? The tank might be able to run over a few hundreds or maybe thousands of zombies, but then as the ground gets greasy with all the bloody entrails, the tank will get bog down and eventually get topple over by the zombie hordes.
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It makes little difference between a million zombies and several thousand... they all cannot be in the same area at the same time. You won't have a million zombies pushing over a tank, you'd have maybe 20-30 pushing the tank with several million waiting around. the force needed to move a tank would be more than enough to pulverize the zombies into mush. During Tienanmen protests there was a million protesters. They tried to push over abandoned army APCs and failed, so instead set them on fire with Molotov cocktails. And APCs only weigh upwards of 15-20 tons, while MBTs easily weigh over 50lbs. So unless zombies are a magnitude stronger in strength than normal humans, I cannot see them toppling over a tank. Maybe eventually a tank will get bogged down until the zombie horde moves away, but there is no way it can be toppled or torn apart by zombies.
 
IronsightSniper

IronsightSniper

Junior Member
FriedRiceNSpice said:
It makes little difference between a million zombies and several thousand... they all cannot be in the same area at the same time. You won't have a million zombies pushing over a tank, you'd have maybe 20-30 pushing the tank with several million waiting around. the force needed to move a tank would be more than enough to pulverize the zombies into mush. During Tienanmen protests there was a million protesters. They tried to push over abandoned army APCs and failed, so instead set them on fire with Molotov cocktails. And APCs only weigh upwards of 15-20 tons, while MBTs easily weigh over 50lbs. So unless zombies are a magnitude stronger in strength than normal humans, I cannot see them toppling over a tank. Maybe eventually a tank will get bogged down until the zombie horde moves away, but there is no way it can be toppled or torn apart by zombies.
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They were. (In the same place at the same time)
 
Asymptote

Asymptote

Banned Idiot
FriedRiceNSpice said:
It makes little difference between a million zombies and several thousand... they all cannot be in the same area at the same time. You won't have a million zombies pushing over a tank, you'd have maybe 20-30 pushing the tank with several million waiting around. the force needed to move a tank would be more than enough to pulverize the zombies into mush. During Tienanmen protests there was a million protesters. They tried to push over abandoned army APCs and failed, so instead set them on fire with Molotov cocktails. And APCs only weigh upwards of 15-20 tons, while MBTs easily weigh over 50lbs. So unless zombies are a magnitude stronger in strength than normal humans, I cannot see them toppling over a tank. Maybe eventually a tank will get bogged down until the zombie horde moves away, but there is no way it can be toppled or torn apart by zombies.
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That's because there were only 30 Tienanmen protesters pushing that APC. And they didn't push like the zombies would push - when a group of human pushing something, they don't "double up" - meaning they don't push each other from behind, because it would cause a stampede. They would form a line, and push from the side.

Now, for the zombies, they are already dead! So there is little consideration for its own personal safety. The zombies would "double up" by pushing each other like a crowd in stampede - the force would multiply by the size of the crowd. If you ever been in a situation like that, you would understand what I mean. (And I have! I thank my lucky star I survived. TWICE!)
 
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airsuperiority

Captain
Asymptote said:
That's because there were only 30 Tienanmen protesters pushing that APC. And they didn't push like the zombies would push - when a group of human pushing something, they don't "double up" - meaning they don't push each other from behind, because it would cause a stampede. They would form a line, and push from the side.

Now, for the zombies, they are already dead! So there is little consideration for its own personal safety. The zombies would "double up" by pushing each other like a crowd in stampede - the force would multiply by the size of the crowd. If you ever been in a situation like that, you would understand what I mean. (And I have! I thank my lucky star I survived. TWICE!)
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LOL what on earth were u doing?! or maybe this explains why u know so much about zombies..
 
IronsightSniper

IronsightSniper

Junior Member
airsuperiority said:
LOL what on earth were u doing?! or maybe this explains why u know so much about zombies..
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It's how Zombies are able to get through fortifications. Instead of breaking through them like a bullet which uses high velocities to penetrate, a Zombie horde uses almost pure mass to break down a barrier.

For example, if you get one American Football team and have them tackle a solid concrete wall, I bet $50 USD they will fail. However, get 1,000 Zombies, have the first 10 push the wall and have the next 990 push the first 10, and I will wager $50 that they will succeed.
 
AssassinsMace

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
Not really because each zombie acts as resistance and absorbs energy. They would act more like a cushion than a concentrated force.
 
AssassinsMace

AssassinsMace

Lieutenant General
You would need a lot of zombies in a concentrated space with no room to spare and the tank would probably have to be buried in them from the start. 1500hp in a 50+ ton tank is a lot of force to reckon with. It won't be the multiplied strength of the zombies that stops the tank but simply the bad luck that body parts jammed something up. Have you seen The Walking Dead? Just guessing because the tank was just a set piece and doesn't go explaining how the tank was abandoned but I'd say the crew was overwhelmed outside which stopped that tank. An M1 would probably just cut a path like mowing a lawn through the streets if it was packed with zombies. I agree with FriedRice.
 
IronsightSniper

IronsightSniper

Junior Member
In context, the battle of Yonkers occurred in a location where the 7 million zombies were literally packed on a single road way.
 
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