# Is There Really a Santa Claus?



## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

Is there really a Santa Claus?

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 (persons under 18) in the world.
BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu,
Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of
the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau.
At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's
91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child
in each.

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 1/1000th of a second to
park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the
stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat
whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back
into the sleigh and move on 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 purposes
of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78
miles per household, a total trip of 75-1/2 million miles, not
counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every
31 hours, plus feeding and etc.

This means that 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 on earth, the Ulysses space probe,
moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer
can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element.
Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized
Lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not
counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On
land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even
granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN
TIMES the 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 Queen Elizabeth
(the ship).

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 spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere.
The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of
energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame
almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and
create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer
team will be vaporised within 4.26 thousandths of a second.
Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces
17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which
seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh
by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve,
he's dead now.



Just something for you to think about. :lol: Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all!


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

I've read this before. Nice find, nonetheless.


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## science (Oct 14, 2010)

Trout said:


> One presumes there's at least one good child
> in each.


I think that's the flaw in the logic right there. The truth is Santa only needs to deliver a few dozen presents each year.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Trout said:


> 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*
> ...


My family is not religious and we celebrate Christmas with the Santa Claus tradition. While he has Christian origins, in a lot of western cultures he is a secular representation of Christmas.


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE HE DOESN'T EXIST!!!!!

:tiphat:


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## TrazomGangflow (Sep 9, 2011)

What do you mean does he really exist? I see him multiple times in winter at shopping malls. In his time off I see him also, speeding down the highway in a leather jacket on a motercycle. Hasn't anyone else seen this?


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

^I see him mainly speeding down the highway in a large truck.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> I REFUSE TO BELIEVE HE DOESN'T EXIST!!!!!
> 
> :tiphat:


I've been visiting that website a lot recently.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Maybe you can start on the tooth fairy or things like leprechauns in Ireland, yetis in Canada and bunyips down here in Australia. I think these are kind of part of our culture or whatever, even though they're not "real" we kind of make them real in our minds...


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## operabruin (Dec 26, 2011)

Thank You for posting this lovely little piece! I have Never heard this before and I've been around a little while (64+) and so I found this delightful.

Now, for a direct answer to your "question"....Yes, There REALLY IS a Santa Claus, and he lives in each and every one of our hearts, bringing much joy to each of us every time we bring joy to another.

Happy Holidays to Each and All,
operabruin


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## Trout (Apr 11, 2011)

operabruin said:


> Thank You for posting this lovely little piece! I have Never heard this before and I've been around a little while (64+) and so I found this delightful.
> 
> Now, for a direct answer to your "question"....Yes, There REALLY IS a Santa Claus, and he lives in each and every one of our hearts, bringing much joy to each of us every time we bring joy to another.
> 
> ...


Thanks for your kind response. Welcome to the Forum!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde (Dec 2, 2011)

operabruin said:


> Thank You for posting this lovely little piece! I have Never heard this before and I've been around a little while (64+) and so I found this delightful.
> 
> Now, for a direct answer to your "question"....Yes, There REALLY IS a Santa Claus, and he lives in each and every one of our hearts, bringing much joy to each of us every time we bring joy to another.
> 
> ...


So you mean there are over 7 billion Santas in the world?  Welcome to the forum.


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## mamascarlatti (Sep 23, 2009)

Sid James said:


> Maybe you can start on the tooth fairy or things like leprechauns in Ireland, yetis in Canada and *bunyips *down here in Australia. I think these are kind of part of our culture or whatever, even though they're not "real" we kind of make them real in our minds...


Taniwha totally exist here in New Zealand. In fact a new motorway had to take a detour so as not to be built through a swamp where one lives. Read about it here .


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Interesting story, and the following quote from the article you posted even mentions old Mr. CLaus! -



> ...The difference is, of course, Pakeha do not use fairies, goblins, trolls, *Santa Claus*, God, the angels or saints to prevent motorways or prisons being built, although there is no record of developers wanting to turn the sod at the sites of Christianity's famous apparitions...


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## Fsharpmajor (Dec 14, 2008)

Sid James said:


> Maybe you can start on the tooth fairy or things like leprechauns in Ireland, yetis in Canada and bunyips down here in Australia. I think these are kind of part of our culture or whatever, even though they're not "real" we kind of make them real in our minds...


I think rather than the yeti, which is a creature of Himalayan legend, you mean the bigfoot (also known as the sasquatch). Descriptions of the two are quite similar, though. In the event that they actually exist, they might turn out to be the same thing.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

^^Oh, okay. There's another one like that, he was in the tv comedy series of the 1990's, _Harry and the Hendersons_, which I thought was a kind of fun series...


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## Lenfer (Aug 15, 2011)

*Nietzsche* - "*Santa* is dead".


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