Blowstuffup Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 He's dead! http://www.yellow-llama.com/an-engineers-view-of-santa/ Here's the article: There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist (except maybe in Japan) religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the population reference bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming there is at least one good child in each. Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 967.7 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with a good child, Santa has around 1/1000 th of a second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get onto the next house. Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false, but will accept for the purposes of our calculations), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting bathroom stops or breaks. This means 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, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second, and a conventional reindeer can run at 15 miles per hour. The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized LEGO set (two pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500 thousand tons, not counting Santa himself. On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that the “flying” reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, the job can’t be done with eight or even nine of them—Santa would need 360,000 of them. This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, another 54,000 tons, or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch). 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer would adsorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second each. In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team would be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second, or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. Not that it matters, however, since Santa, as a result of accelerating from a dead stop to 650 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to acceleration forces of 17,000 g’s. A 250 pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and reducing him to a quivering blob of pink goo. Therefore, if Santa did exist, he’s dead now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XxNaHtExX Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 Therefore, if Santa did exist, he’s dead now. ...Santa doesn't exist!? ...God dammit... -.- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kure-ji Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 (edited) Since the dawn of the beginning. The modern "Santa" we all know didn't exist. Actually, the story that started behind it was the Turkish legend of Bishop Nicholas who "helped poor noblemen provide dowries for their daughters by throwing gold coins down their chimneys-- the coins landed magically in stockings hung by the fire to dry." Because of this, Nicholas was later canonized as the patron saint of children, among others. Saint Nicholas's name changed because of the Dutch, who brought the legend to America, called him "Sinter Klaas". (You can guess where did the name "Santa Claus" came from. BLAME THE DUTCH!) XDDDDD As for the myths and stuff, those were the Americans, and other European countries' faults. XD For the most part, it was Clement Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" that made Santa Claus virtually "Exist" within the people's state of mind. Which is really stupid, a poem is a poem. It can either relate to a real thing by using figurative languages, or to emotions and other sorts of devices. XD I don't see why people would go all through those troubles to prove Santa Claus didn't exist. The answer lies already within history itself. XD Edited September 26, 2009 by Kure-ji Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Claster Posted September 26, 2009 Share Posted September 26, 2009 Since the dawn of the beginning. The modern "Santa" we all know didn't exist. Actually, the story that started behind it was the Turkish legend of Bishop Nicholas who "helped poor noblemen provide dowries for their daughters by throwing gold coins down their chimneys-- the coins landed magically in stockings hung by the fire to dry." Because of this, Nicholas was later canonized as the patron saint of children, among others. Saint Nicholas's name changed because of the Dutch, who brought the legend to America, called him "Sinter Klaas". (You can guess where did the name "Santa Claus" came from. BLAME THE DUTCH!) XDDDDD As for the myths and stuff, those were the Americans, and other European countries' faults. XD For the most part, it was Clement Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" that made Santa Claus virtually "Exist" within the people's state of mind. Which is really stupid, a poem is a poem. It can either relate to a real thing by using figurative languages, or to emotions and other sorts of devices. XD I don't see why people would go all through those troubles to prove Santa Claus didn't exist. The answer lies already within history itself. XD You can blame us partially, but you do know, that Sinterklaas and Santa Claus differ right? XD Sinterklaas is on the 6th of december here as a holiday, Santa Claus on the 24th of december, the Santa Claus has fairies to help him wrap toys as presents and deers to transport him. Sinterklaas on the other hand (People, this is not meant racist.)) Has black people (Well, white people who painted themselves black to be specific.) And who put lipstick on to wrap toys and help him to get the presents around to the children, his ways of transportations? Walking with a white horse from roof to roof, of the name: "Amerika". So, basicly, there are uber similiarities, but the possibility is there that one is based of the other, but they're seperate holidays. But yeah, you can blame the Dutch, but if we brought the legend through the world, be glad we bring you TWO holidays for presents. ;D *Shot* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blowstuffup Posted September 27, 2009 Author Share Posted September 27, 2009 Whoa whoa whoa! I was just expecting some "lol" replies. Was not expecting for this to be a serious topic. I guess Santa is just serious business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Djorama Posted September 27, 2009 Share Posted September 27, 2009 What brought this up? Its not even close to Christmas. o_o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blowstuffup Posted September 27, 2009 Author Share Posted September 27, 2009 It's always Christmas to me. <3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darkblade1234 Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 but what if the houses santa tried to delever presents to was a apartment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
terrancejones Posted October 3, 2009 Share Posted October 3, 2009 The real answer is that santa is magical like that... That, and he uses Chaos Control.... X3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterofchaos Posted January 12, 2010 Share Posted January 12, 2010 (edited) The real answer is that santa is magical like that... That, and he uses Chaos Control.... X3 chaos control,lol! so let me guess;sonic lent him the chaos emeralds or Santa mugged Sonic. Edited January 17, 2010 by masterofchaos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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