People think they need almost 20 times as much space to avoid bumping in a crowd than scientists say they actually do. The research won Endhoven University of Technology an ‘Ig Nobel’ prize in physics, and that’s no joke.
The Ig Nobel awards go to research that provokes laughter but also provides a useful path for research and applications. Other awards this year went to research into why the obesity of post-Soviet politicians is an indicator of corruption, a comparative study into the purring of cats and cockroach control on submarines.
In the Eindhoven study, it was found that while people surveyed indicated that they needed about 1.4 metres (nearly the social distance recommendation) to avoid bumping into others in crowds, they actually bob and weave their way through observed crowds with space as little as 75 cm. Without the moving, the researchers say, there would have been 18,000 collisions in the observed spaces, but there were only 80.
The hope for the study is that it will improve design and space allocations for crowded places such as festivals, museums and airport terminals.
