Engineering Physics Summary: The Physics of Santa

Summary: The Physics of Santa
Every year, a number of students and researchers put out a series of calculations, now known as "the Physics of Santa" to prove that Santa cannot possibly deliver all his gifts to all the world’s good children in just one night. This talk by Santa’s Lil Helpers is one of such calculations.
It’s impossible for Santa to deliver all his presents, because doing so meant that he would need to have bionic reindeers that could withstand the massive weight, speed and heat produced from their travel. Here are the current calculations as discussed in the video: Joe Robinson, one of Santa’s Lil Helpers who is currently studying AeroSpace Technology says that Santa would need to travel 650 miles per second to be able to go around the world and deliver his presents in just 31 hours. That’s roughly 3,000 faster than the speed of sound. This is impossible since the fastest vehicle ever to be made is the Ulysses space probe which is able to travel at 27.4 miles per second. But say that Santa’s sleigh is really fast, calculations say that Santa would need to be able to make 8.22 visits per second or roughly 1/7th of a second to get up from his sleigh, go down the chimney, drink the milk and eat the cookie served for him, get up the chimney and ride his sleigh in order to deliver each of his presents. Also, If children around the world would only ask for a small lego set, t...