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 in the world (persons under 18). But since Santa doesn't appear to handle Muslim, Hindu, Jewish or Buddhist children, that reduces the workload by 85% of the total - leaving 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At and average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, thats 91.8 million homes. One presumes there is at least one good child per house.
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 roughly 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stocking, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back into the sleigh and move to n 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 purpose of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding , etc. That means that Santa's sleith is moving at 650 miles per second, 3000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparision , the fastest man-made vehicle, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, at tops 25-30 miles per hour.
4. The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming each child gets nothing more than, a medium sized LEGO set (2 lbs), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not coundting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, the conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting the "flying reindeer" can pull TEN TIMES that normal amount, 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 HMS Queen Elizabeth.
5. 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The load pair will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy per second each. In short, they will burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and creating a deafening sonic boom in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporised within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa meanwhile, will be subject to the centrifugal forces of 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250lb Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the sleigh by a 4,315,015 pound force.
6. In conclusion, if Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas eve, he's now dead.
(Copyright (my father) 1972)
(thankgod i can speed type)!!!
Wow thanks for the info...
lol reddog, i actually thought it was kinda interestingly different haha. but i didnt write that, i typed it up for my old man! i couldnt come up with those figures....maths was not my best subject lol!
take care, merry xmas
take care, merry xmas
Merry Christmas to you Elvis
Hey how are you doing? I used to read your posts and you had a benoz thing going on. Are you off them
I got 44 days clean today. Not a good Christmas but a clean one
Bless
Hey how are you doing? I used to read your posts and you had a benoz thing going on. Are you off them
I got 44 days clean today. Not a good Christmas but a clean one
Bless
Congrats on 44 days clean reddog!!! thats excellent!! i ended up coming off them, then slipped up and started taking some again, but since then i havent said anything.....well ive stopped taking them basically because my tolerance is so high its utterly ridiculous!! i admit though to once in a blue moon, i will have a panick attack, psychologically think i need something.....so my nan keeps a couple of valium at her place for an 'emergency'. then i realise they arent helping although psychologically i was so sure they would....some may say its not good her having some there. actually i think its a great idea, as i may have a panick attack....end up running off and doctor shopping for a big bottle of my own.....and after taking them all realise it was for nothing.....this way my nan, talks to me, if that doesnt work...ok 1 or 2 and by this time I,myself have realised that this doesnt work for me anymore and give up on the idea. and 1 or 2 is nothing for me, even at if the time i think ill die without 1 or 2. It seems to work for me anyway. The thought somehow of knowing "well i can get some if i want, but why bother taking them when they dont work"...im in charge!!..oppossed to "well im not allowed to have those now, for my own good.....damn it im big enough to be in charge of this situation and if i want some i should be able to get some. fine, ill show them i can get some if i want"! just trying to give an idea on how my brain works well with this situation....hope i didnt confuse anyone too much!!!!
take care, have a wonderful festive season!
take care, have a wonderful festive season!
thankyou atlas. this is interesting to hear, i am not sure yet whether this has any truth to it in myself.....im going to have a good think about it......
xoox
xoox
