Science of Santa

[C1ay]

Don't believe in Santa Claus? Cutting-edge science explains how Santa is able to deliver toys to good girls and boys around the world in one night.

 

If you're skeptical of Santa's abilities to deliver presents to millions of homes and children in just one night, North Carolina State University's Dr. Larry Silverberg, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, can explain the science and engineering principles that allow the Jolly Old Elf to pull off the magical feat year after year.

 

With his cherubic smile and twinkling eyes, Santa may appear to be merely a jolly old soul, but he and his North Pole elves have a lot going on under the funny-looking hats, Silverberg says. Their advanced knowledge of electromagnetic waves, the space/time continuum, nanotechnology, genetic engineering and computer science easily trumps the know-how of contemporary scientists.

 

Silverberg says that Santa has a personal pipeline to children's thoughts – via a listening antenna that combines technologies currently used in cell phones and EKGs – which informs him that Mary in Miami hopes for a surfboard, while Michael from Minneapolis wants a snowboard. A sophisticated signal processing system filters the data, giving Santa clues on who wants what, where children live, and even who's been bad or good. Later, all this information will be processed in an onboard sleigh guidance system, which will provide Santa with the most efficient delivery route.

 

Silverberg adds that letters to Santa via snail mail still get the job done, however.

 

Silverberg is not so naïve as to think that Santa and his reindeer can travel approximately 200 million square miles – making stops in some 80 million homes – in one night. Instead, he posits that Santa uses his knowledge of the space/time continuum to form what Silverberg calls "relativity clouds."

 

"Based on his advanced knowledge of the theory of relativity, Santa recognizes that time can be stretched like a rubber band, space can be squeezed like an orange and light can be bent," Silverberg says. "Relativity clouds are controllable domains – rips in time – that allow him months to deliver presents while only a few minutes pass on Earth. The presents are truly delivered in a wink of an eye."

 

With a detailed route prepared and his list checked twice through the onboard computer on the technologically advanced sleigh, Santa is ready to deliver presents. His reindeer – genetically bred to fly, balance on rooftops and see well in the dark – don't actually pull a sleigh loaded down with toys. Instead, each house becomes Santa's workshop as he utilizes a nano-toymaker to fabricate toys inside the children's homes. The presents are grown on the spot, as the nano-toymaker creates – atom by atom – toys out of snow and soot, much like DNA can command the growth of organic material like tissues and body parts.

 

And there's really no need for Santa to enter the house via chimney, although Silverberg says he enjoys doing that every so often. Rather, the same relativity cloud that allows Santa to deliver presents in what seems like a wink of an eye is also used to "morph" Santa into people's homes.

 

Finally, many people wonder how Santa and the reindeer can eat all the food left out for them. Silverberg says they take just a nibble at each house. The remainder is either left in the house or placed in the sleigh's built-in food dehydrator, where it is preserved for future consumption. It takes a long time to deliver all those presents, after all.

 

"This is our vision of Santa's delivery method, given the human, physical and engineering constraints we face today," Silverberg says. "Children shouldn't put too much credence in the opinions of those who say it's not possible to deliver presents all over the world in one night. It is possible, and it's based on plausible science."

 

Source: North Carolina State University

[Tormod]

And don't forget our Christmas Science Hypography!!!

 

Christmas Science - Hypography - Science for everyone

[Moontanman]

When my boys were small they began to doubt the reality of Santa Claus very early, one year before Christmas I over heard them talking about proving there was no Santa Claus, Of course i took this as a challenge. They were going to ask Santa for some things but not tell me and ask me for some things and see which ones they got. I did an end run around them by getting a friend of mine from Latvia with a strong accent to call them and pretend to be Santa. Of course they told him what they wanted and he told me :evil: He called my kids for years even my niece and nephew, at first they were sure it was me disguising my voice but then he would call when i was home so that didn't work. They had never met him and his thick accent really threw them off. It was great scam, he would tel them to be good and ask them about things they had done that no one would know. One day after they were teens we ran into him at the mall and they both dropped their jaws open then they realized this guy was Santa! I always let my boys solve problems on their own but this was one they had never been able to completely figure out. They knew Santa wasn't real but this guy always knew what they had been doing and they had never met him. They had long figured out i was behind the calls but they had never been able to pin it on me completely. I do miss my boys being young, teaching children is so much fun! :evil:

[Buffy]

They knew Santa wasn't real...

Sacrilege! Santa is real! I *know* it's so! :evil:

 

Ow! <Buffy hits self with own 2x4 for Proselytizing/> :evil:

 

I just saw him at the mall! MUST I post pictures?!? ;)

 

A good many things go around in the dark besides Santa Claus, :doh:

Buffy