The Physics of Santa Claus

**CameronJr9** · 12-12-2006, 09:33 AM

1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. But, since Santa doesn't handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average(census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but for the purposes of our calculations, we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops for bathroom breaks, food, or sleep. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal anoint, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

skiz · 12-12-2006, 10:17 AM

Awesome!!! + rep

The Shishpanik · 12-12-2006, 10:17 AM

Way to kill little Johnny's dreams of a tricycle!

**dentrecords** · 12-12-2006, 10:18 AM

Good one

ivtec03 · 12-12-2006, 10:32 AM

Thats awesome

FujiBlueSi · 12-12-2006, 10:40 AM

Wait a min......Santa's real?

CHRIS · 12-12-2006, 10:50 AM

Flaming Reindeer > SI

do reindeer have Vtec?

CoryB · 12-12-2006, 11:57 AM

Yeah, but you're missing the one, most important fact about Santa that makes his Christmas feats possible.

He's magic!

Jester FPS · 12-12-2006, 12:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Shishpanik

Way to kill little Johnny's dreams of a tricycle!

lmao

***Celcius*** · 12-12-2006, 12:12 PM

I bet Criss Angel could do it.

6spdChick · 12-12-2006, 12:37 PM

Awww I love Santa (I'm just saying that so I get more presents) :)

***GeezerSi*** · 12-12-2006, 12:56 PM

^^ Secret Santa.

The Shishpanik · 12-12-2006, 03:36 PM

Santa can do all these things, because Chuck Norris makes him. Hehehe.

***mort*** · 12-12-2006, 03:45 PM

heheh.. good one.

CHRIS · 12-12-2006, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Shishpanik

Santa can do all these things, because Chuck Norris makes him. Hehehe.

chuck norris IS santa!

***[IVI]*** · 12-12-2006, 03:49 PM

Wasn't this on Studio 60 last week?

**CameronJr9** · 12-12-2006, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by [IVI]

Wasn't this on Studio 60 last week?

I've never seen it. I found it on another forum earlier this morning. I just thought I'd share.

GALAXY~SI · 12-12-2006, 03:53 PM

wow thats crazy that somebody took the time to do the math lol. +rep for making me laugh

freekaingjon · 12-12-2006, 04:14 PM

WOW. some ppl have no lives.

12-12-2006, 09:33 AM	#1 (permalink)
CameronJr9 Crazy Yellow Puppet Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Louisville, KY Age: 28 Posts: 25,461 Back and Forth Forever iTrader: 6 / 100%	The Physics of Santa Claus 1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen. 2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. But, since Santa doesn't handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average(census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each. 3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but for the purposes of our calculations, we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops for bathroom breaks, food, or sleep. This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour. 4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal anoint, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth. 5) 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force. __________________

12-12-2006, 03:45 PM	#14 (permalink)
*mort* honda 4 life Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Orange County, CA Age: 29 Posts: 10,745 iTrader: 2 / 100%	heheh.. good one. __________________

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12-12-2006, 10:17 AM	#2 (permalink)
skiz Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Ali ma quippa Age: 39 Posts: 774 Nee-kon Squad! #5 iTrader: 4 / 100%	Awesome!!! + rep

12-12-2006, 10:17 AM	#3 (permalink)
The Shishpanik Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: College park, MD Posts: 2,045 Fear the Turtle! iTrader: 1 / 100%	Way to kill little Johnny's dreams of a tricycle!

12-12-2006, 10:32 AM	#5 (permalink)
ivtec03 Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Schaumburg, IL Age: 27 Posts: 230 iTrader: 0 / 0%	Thats awesome

12-12-2006, 10:40 AM	#6 (permalink)
FujiBlueSi Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Queens, NY Age: 30 Posts: 2,877 Tim iTrader: 2 / 100%	Wait a min......Santa's real?

12-12-2006, 10:50 AM	#7 (permalink)
CHRIS Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: The Big Apple Age: 23 Posts: 5,361 iTrader: 0 / 0%	Flaming Reindeer > SI do reindeer have Vtec?

12-12-2006, 11:57 AM	#8 (permalink)
CoryB Senior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Chester Virginia Age: 50 Posts: 371 Cory iTrader: 0 / 0%	Yeah, but you're missing the one, most important fact about Santa that makes his Christmas feats possible. He's magic!

12-12-2006, 12:12 PM	#10 (permalink)
*Celcius* www.yospeed.com Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Anaheim, CA Age: 23 Posts: 4,455 David Yonehara iTrader: 17 / 100%	I bet Criss Angel could do it.

12-12-2006, 12:37 PM	#11 (permalink)
6spdChick Senior Member Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Posts: 3,529 iTrader: 1 / 100%	Awww I love Santa (I'm just saying that so I get more presents) :)

12-12-2006, 12:56 PM	#12 (permalink)
*GeezerSi* Hidy ho neighbor Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Palm, PA Posts: 12,903 -> Ken iTrader: 5 / 100%	^^ Secret Santa.

12-12-2006, 03:36 PM	#13 (permalink)
The Shishpanik Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: College park, MD Posts: 2,045 Fear the Turtle! iTrader: 1 / 100%	Santa can do all these things, because Chuck Norris makes him. Hehehe.

12-12-2006, 03:49 PM	#16 (permalink)
*[IVI]* I'm your Huckleberry Join Date: May 2006 Location: Columbus, Ohio Age: 31 Posts: 1,636 Bryan iTrader: 0 / 0%	Wasn't this on Studio 60 last week?

12-12-2006, 03:53 PM	#18 (permalink)
GALAXY~SI Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Chester NY Age: 19 Posts: 11,636 Kurt iTrader: 16 / 100%	wow thats crazy that somebody took the time to do the math lol. +rep for making me laugh

12-12-2006, 04:14 PM	#19 (permalink)
freekaingjon Senior Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Posts: 219 iTrader: 2 / 100%	WOW. some ppl have no lives.