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View submission: Ask Anything Wednesday - Physics, Astronomy, Earth and Planetary Science
Imagine yourself as a rectangular block. Let's assume rain is falling straight down. If you travel to your destination at infinite speed, then the amount of rain that hits you is going to be equal to the frontal area of your blocky self, multiplied by the distance of travel, multiplied by the amount of rain per square meter in the air. In this example, because we traveled at infinite speed, the rain is considered to be motionless. We move so fast that no rain hits the *top* of the block.
If you go any slower than that, then the amount of rain that hits the front of the block is exactly the same, but some rain will also hit the top of the block. That amount is equal to the area of the top of the block times the average downward speed of the rain, multiplied by the amount of rain per square meter in the air (same as above), multiplied by the time it takes to reach the destination. That latter term obviously increases if you go slower.
So, in the simplest case, running faster doesn't change how wet the front of your body gets, but it reduces how wet the top of your head gets. If you add some wind, or change the shape of the person to something other than a rectangular block, then things get a little more complicated.
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