Physics and Santa Claus

Posted by Paul A. Heckert Dec 21, 2007

Santa Claus must be real. I know this because an eight year old girl named Virginia read it in the newspaper over 100 years ago. If you need more proof that Santa is real, don a red suit and walk into a roomful of three and four year old children.

Yet there are those who persist in trying to use physics to prove that Santa is impossible. They use arguments based on the distance Santa would have to travel, the time available on Christmas eve, and the speed his sleigh would have to travel. Other arguments include the fact that reindeer are somewhat less aerodynamic than an F16 and the size and weight of presents for all the good little boys and girls in the world.

Others use physics, and its resultant technology, to show how Santa can accomplish his annual deliveries. He might travel through a wormhole to get from place to place faster. Perhaps an anti-gravity device allows even non-aerodynamic reindeer and sleighs to fly. Rather than carrying all the gifts the entire way, nano-robots could manufacture them in flight as Santa approaches a house.

Perhaps it's not about physics and technology. It might be magic. But then Arthur C. Clarke says that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.