So, exactly how does Santa Claus do it?
14 Dec 2005 by Evoluted New Media
Well, it is that time of year again. Christmas may not feel like the most scientific of seasons but none the less Laboratory News has rounded up some interesting yuletide facts for you to ponder over your mince pies
Well, it is that time of year again. Christmas may not feel like the most scientific of seasons but none the less Laboratory News has rounded up some interesting yuletide facts for you to ponder over your mince pies.
Firstly, and perhaps most pressingly for the younger readers among you, the debate continues this year over the delivery tactics of one Mr Claus. Santa has to visit about 800 million homes scattered around the globe each year, meaning he needs to travel around 160 million kilometres. To do this, says Arnold Pompos of the Purdue University in the US, he would need to travel at the speed of light whilst carrying millions of pounds of cargo.
To manage this, considers Roger Highfield, author of ‘Can Reindeer fly’, Santa would require 214,200 reindeer. “Spy magazine has examined these issues and concluded that the huge mass of presents would encounter enormous air resistance, heating the reindeer up like a space craft re-entering the Earths atmosphere. Santa meanwhile would be subjected to forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity….If Santa ever did deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he’s dead now,” says Highfield.
However, in keeping with the seasonal mood he is quick to add that “Santa is not dead. He delivers presents every year, as reliably as Rudolph’s nose is red.” But even that annual constant may now be in doubt. “Santa’s lead reindeer will not have a red nose at the speed of light,” says Pompos. “The colour will be affected by the Doppler shift, turning yellow, then green, then violet and finally turning invisible.”
If all this is too theoretical for the holiday season, then console yourself with the thought that when you peacefully drift off to sleep after over indulging on Christmas goodies this year, it is due to a pesky amino acid, not the predictability of the Queens speech. Turkey is high in tryptophan, a natural sedative, which when combined with the increased blood flow to the stomach after eating, reduces the amount of oxygen to the brain resulting in the inevitable drowsiness.
