December winners

Draw time at LabNews towers again...

Congratulations to Caroline Mutch from William Grant & Sons Distillers in Scotland who bagged herself a copy of The Quantum Universe Everything that can happen does happen.

The Christmas Quiz was won by Dennis Wright of DAWTECH for his mathematical proof of the amazing propulsion abilities of Santa and his team:

It so happens that I am able to throw some light on Santa Claus since some time ago I was asked by the Outer Lapland Universal Christmas Society to write an autobiography on him, the following being a brief extract from that opus of which only one copy, filed at the Lapland Ultima University exists.

It may come as a surprise to most people that S. Claus has a PhD in Quantum Physics awarded by the L.U.U and so Claus’s title is actually Doctor Santa Claus. He came from a poor elfin family of reindeer herders, but was very bright and had the nickname of Aurora Borealis. He could not afford his university fees and so a deal was struck; he would be given free tuition provided on graduation he would in the first instance find a way of distributing Christmas cheer to the world and in the second himself dispense that cheer until his debt to the university was cleared. In the event Claus was so pleased at the joy he brought to the world that he resolved to carry on doing his Christmas job forever. There were two problems to overcome.

The first was to find the energy to propel himself, his reindeer, his sledge and his load through space and the second was to ensure that every genuine recipient received their gifts on time. This is how he did it.

Dr. S Claus + Reindeer and sledge         ? 4.5 x 10³

Mass of gifts                                                  ? 3.21 x 10⁸

Speed required to deliver gifts                   ? 1.046 x 10⁶ m/s

So, kinetic energy (1/2 mv²)                        = (3.22 x 10⁸ /2)         x (1.046 x 10⁶)²

? 1.66 x 10⁸ kg x 1.09 x 10¹² m/s ? 1.81 x 10²⁰ joules

This is quite a substantial amount of energy, but Claus sorted this out, using the fact that one atom of uranium 235 on disintegration liberates 3.1 x 10^-11 joules. He knew of course the Avogadro number 6.02 x 10²³, so taking 1kg of uranium he did a simple calculation;

1000 x 6.02 x 10²³ x 3.1 x 10^-11 = 7.9 x 10¹³ joules or approximately 8 x 10¹⁰ kJ 235

However, only about 0.2% of Uranium is converted into energy, but Claus discovered a way of converting 100% of the Uranium into energy and so produced 4 x 10¹³ kJ from 1kg and then calculated that his energy requirements could be met by only 1.25 kg of Uranium 235 and with no harmful radiation either.

Of course it is one thing to travel at speed but another to stop, but Dr. Claus solved this one by the ingenious method of regenerative braking delivering all the gifts on time and in typical Claus fashion this was achieved by the fortuitous discovery of time travel.

Runner up was Gordon Nicholl and his team at Border General Hospital who said:

Santa’s most amazing feat-

My daughter Catherine reckons Santa’s most amazing feat is reading her mind, and that of all the kids around the world who don’t send in a Santa wish list. She reckons he has superhuman telepathic skills! Even although sometimes he gets the colours wrong!

We, the staff at the Area Lab., Borders General Hospital, reckon that his invisibility cloak is the most amazing thing. No-one ever seems to catch him in the act of delivering his presents! We think he must be using optical camouflage technology developed by scientists at Tokyo University- it does mean that there must be two Santa sleighs though, the second sleigh videoing the background and Santa videoing them so that they both stay invisible. Mind you travelling at 650 miles per second it would be difficult to catch a glimpse of either of them.

We think we have solved the puzzle as to how he manages to travel at that speed- it’s all the calories he eats on Christmas Eve/Day.

The average meal left for Santa in UK can include for example:

Fizzy drink                     330mL  255 kcals Lager                            1 pint    165 kcals Salted Roasted nuts      25g       161 kcals Ready Salted Crisps      25g       133kcals Reduced Fat Milk          1 cup    130 kcals Marshmallows               1oz       90 kcals Shortbread Cookie        155g     145 kcals

A calorific intake of approx. 1075 kcals, if he eats a similar meal at all of the 91.8 million homes he visits, that is 98,685 million calories! Just a wee bit short of a trillion (10¹²). That energy has to go somewhere- ENERGY IN = ENERGY OUT. We think Santa converts this into kinetic energy somehow (your guess is as good as mine) and this gives the sleigh its amazing propulsion! and allows him to travel around the World without having to re-fuel.

Congratulations - a bundle of scientific books are on their way to you.