Max Brooks: World War Z

solarz · Mar 2, 2011

IronsightSniper said:
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.

Nah, remember that zombies are still just meat. 990 zombies pushing 10 zombies against a solid concrete wall won't result in a crumbled wall, but rather 10 mushed up zombies.

It's like trying to punch through a wooden board with a cardboard tube: doesn't matter how strong the force behind it is, the tube will be crushed before the board is even dented.

IronsightSniper · Mar 2, 2011

Yes, but in your Wooden board/Cardboard tube analogy, imagine that the puncher punches with so much force that the cardboard tube crumbles, but the fist still makes contact and breaks the wall.

solarz · Mar 2, 2011

IronsightSniper said:
Yes, but in your Wooden board/Cardboard tube analogy, imagine that the puncher punches with so much force that the cardboard tube crumbles, but the fist still makes contact and breaks the wall.

But that won't work in the 1000 zombies case. The first 10 zombies will be crushed to mush, which leaves 980 zombies pushing on 10 more zombies which will be crushed to mush, etc, until there isn't enough zombies left to crush those 10 zombies against the wall. The wall will still be perfectly fine.

Finn McCool · Mar 2, 2011

This is why I love the Internet. I can find people arguing about the merit of metaphors for the physics of a zombie horde pushing against a wall. On the Internet there is a porn of everything and an argument about everything

BTW, I might have said this already, but I really do love WWZ. It's best viewed as a sort of social commentary, mostly on modern day American society. Can't wait for the movie.

FriedRiceNSpice · Mar 2, 2011

FriedRiceNSpice said:
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.

solarz said:
But that won't work in the 1000 zombies case. The first 10 zombies will be crushed to mush, which leaves 980 zombies pushing on 10 more zombies which will be crushed to mush, etc, until there isn't enough zombies left to crush those 10 zombies against the wall. The wall will still be perfectly fine.

And remember, its is even harder to tip over the tank than to push it. Pushing a tank around is not going to cause any damage to the tank. To even push a tank, the amount force required would be in the hundreds of pounds per square foot, more than enough to turn zombie bones into dust.

Quickie · Mar 3, 2011

FriedRiceNSpice said:
And remember, its is even harder to tip over the tank than to push it. Pushing a tank around is not going to cause any damage to the tank. To even push a tank, the amount force required would be in the hundreds of pounds per square foot, more than enough to turn zombie bones into dust.

Lol, well, at least the tanks will get drowned in a sea of zombie juice.

IronsightSniper · Mar 3, 2011

FriedRiceNSpice said:
And remember, its is even harder to tip over the tank than to push it. Pushing a tank around is not going to cause any damage to the tank. To even push a tank, the amount force required would be in the hundreds of pounds per square foot, more than enough to turn zombie bones into dust.

...Nobody's talking about destroying the tank, only stopping it.

Some guy in another forum who was an Engineer for the U.S. Army said this,

"Give me a shovel and enough time and I'll stop any tank."

When you have 7 million zombies, no tank is going to be running when that much body parts gets smushed around.

FriedRiceNSpice · Mar 3, 2011

Yeah, but eventually the zombies will move on and the tank will be able to free itself, and run over another couple thousand zombies. The real problem is if the fuel depots get overwhelemed or the crew running out of food and water.

IronsightSniper · Mar 4, 2011

FriedRiceNSpice said:
Yeah, but eventually the zombies will move on and the tank will be able to free itself, and run over another couple thousand zombies. The real problem is if the fuel depots get overwhelemed or the crew running out of food and water.

Zombies don't move on >.>

Once they smell something delicious (i.e. alive) they go after it until something closer that's also delicious is smelled.

FriedRiceNSpice · Mar 4, 2011

Once they smell something delicious (i.e. alive) they go after it until something closer that's also delicious is smelled.

Not really sure if zombies could smell or otherwise detect lifeforms within a tank though =\
Also, groups of tanks can spread out and operate together to bait and draw out the zombies if they zombies could.

Max Brooks: World War Z

solarz

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IronsightSniper

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solarz

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Finn McCool

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FriedRiceNSpice

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Quickie

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IronsightSniper

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FriedRiceNSpice

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IronsightSniper

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FriedRiceNSpice

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