The semester break is slowly coming up, only two weeks left! With that also
Christmas time is getting closer and closer. No matter in which part of the world you
are or will be, the magic of Christmas is everywhere. You sit together with family and
friends, chat, eat and have a good time. Maybe Santa Claus will pop by, who
knows? In many countries this magical person is an old tradition and probably you
have a younger sister or brother who believe in him. But as you grow up you realize
he is nothing than the invention of parents.
Well, let’s explore this idea about closer. During my research about Santa I
found two different narratives explaining his existence. The first one was written by
astronomer and astrophysicist Linda Harden. She explains Santa in a rather scientific
way:
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 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 etc.
4. 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.
5. 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
anoint, 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 Queen Elizabeth.
6. 353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance – this
will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts 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 crew will be vaporized 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.
According to Linda Harden ,Santa Claus died a very, very long ago. But what if we look
at this case with another perspective, less scientific. Today our world and many
happenings are clarified by science, however, what truly makes humans human is
we the ability to feel, express emotions and create our own very unique personality.
So what if we looked at the existence of Santa in a more “human” way. A few years
ago a lady called Martha Brockenbrough posted a letter in the New York Times that
was dedicated to her child explaining the existence of Santa. She viewed Santa from
a completely different perspective than the astronomer Linda Harden did:
“I am the person who fills your stockings with presents, though. I also choose and
wrap the presents under the tree, the same way my mom did for me, and the same
way her mom did for her.
I imagine you will someday do this for your children, and I know you will love seeing
them run down the Christmas magic stairs on Christmas morning. You will love
seeing them sit under the tree, their small faces lit with Christmas lights.
This won’t make you Santa, though.
Santa is bigger than any person, and his work has gone on longer than any of us
have lived. What he does is simple, but it is powerful. He teaches children how to
have belief in something they can’t see or touch.
It’s a big job, and it’s an important one. Throughout your life, you will need this
capacity to believe: in yourself, in your friends, in your talents, and in your family.
You’ll also need to believe in things you can’t measure or even hold in your hand.
Here, I am talking about love, that great power that will light your life from the inside
out, even during its darkest, coldest moments.
Santa is a teacher, and I have been his student, and now you know the secret of how
he gets down all those chimneys on Christmas Eve: he has help from all the people
whose hearts he’s filled with joy.
With full hearts, people like Daddy and me take our turns helping Santa do a job that
would otherwise be impossible.
So, no, I am not Santa. Santa is love and magic and hope and happiness. I'm on his
team, and now you are, too.”
Scientifically Santa cannot exist, but what if he was never meant to exist as an
actual person? As Mrs. Brockenbrough explained he lives in our hearts, always. We
as humans were given an incredible gift, we are able to hope, to love, to believe, to
be happy.” This is what makes Santa Claus. We, as a big community, are Santa
Claus. He is always there, just not where we would expect him. With that I wish you a
wonderful, happy and merry Christmas, no matter whether you believe in Santa or not.