Flying reindeer, elves and Santa Claus might seem a little far-fetched to some, so today we look at some of the science (and magic) regarding the massive mission that will take place across the globe.
How long is the mission?
Let’s assume Santa distributes gifts from 5 p.m. to midnight, or for seven hours. Due to the Earth’s rotation, there is an overall time difference of 24 hours between different time zones, so we can therefore say that Santa has about 31 hours to finish his work (if he logically travels east to west).
A book of the Super Santa: The Science of Christmas: A Christmas Holiday Book for Kids is at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology book store is here.
Here’s look at some of the numbers a scientist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology broke down:
Flying reindeer?
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 seen.
How many stops?
There are about 1.9 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. But since Santa doesn’t deliver to all children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total — 378 million according to the Population Reference Bureau. At the 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.
How fast?
Visiting 91.8 million homes in 31 hours works out to 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each 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 0.78 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.
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 human-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at 27.4 miles per second — a conventional reindeer can run 15 miles per hour.
Heavy lifting
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. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that flying reindeer could pull 10 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. For comparison, this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship.
How much energy is that?
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 reentering the earth’s atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.
These calculations neglect to include the effects of fairy dust and the magical powers of reindeer and the finite chance that miracles do occur.
Santa tracker
You can find NORAD’s Santa Tracker here.
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Where is Santa right now? Track his sleigh with this handy map
The modern tradition of tracking Santa began in 1955 when a young child accidentally dialed the unlisted phone number of the CONAD Operations Center upon seeing a newspaper advertisement telling kids to call Santa. The director of operations, Col. Harry Shoup, answered the phone and instructed his staff to check the radar for indications of Santa making his way south from the North Pole.
Thus a tradition was born, and continued when NORAD was formed in 1958. Each year since, NORAD has dutifully reported Santa’s location on Dec. 24 to millions of children and families across the globe.
NORAD receives calls from around the world on Dec. 24 asking for Santa’s location. Children, families and fans also keep track of Santa’s location on the NORAD Tracks Santa website and our social media platforms.
All of this is made possible by the amazing generosity of our volunteers and our government and corporate partners who help bring the NORAD Tracks Santa program to the world.
Little is known about how Santa encountered the elves that help him build toys. Here’s my version:
The selfish elves
A long time ago, in a land of snow, where in summer the ice is thick.
The elves of old, mined for gold before they met Saint Nick.
Some were greedy and ignored the needy. They were known as selfish elves.
They got into fights about mining rights and only thought of themselves.
Above each mine there was a sign that read, “stay out” or “go away!”
They dug that ground until gold was found and they mined it every day.
Those dark caverns had twists and turns and it was easy to lose direction.
In candlelight they used their might to find the nuggets of their affection.
The shafts were deep with steps so steep one slip could be a 100-foot fall.
When one elf fell, he gave a yell, but nobody answered his call.
Not one elf cared when news was shared that a miner named Bjorn was lost.
From what I’m told, the crave for gold made their hearts cold as frost.
“Tough luck,” Sven said. “I’m going to bed. I’m tired and need my sleep.”
The others agreed, that’s all they need, and left Bjorn down in the deep.
The one poor soul down in that hole worried he would not last the night.
His body was sore and on that floor he had never felt so much fright.
In that dark place, with tears on his face he wished he had done more for others.
“If I get out!” he started to shout. “I’ll look after my sisters and brothers!”
The light was dim and Bjorn was grim so he cried, “Can someone help me?”
Then far, far away he heard someone say, “Be there as soon as I can be.”
He heard boots stomp and hooves tromp as a torchlight grew bright.
Then he felt snug after a hug from a big guy whose beard was white.
The man in red treated Bjorn’s head and sat him on a huge reindeer.
In Santa’s care they got out of there and the elf was in good cheer.
Safe and outside the elf would decide to leave his selfish ways in the past.
He learned real quick from old Saint Nick a way to have joy that would last.
They both made toys for girls and boys and Bjorn’s selfish ways were through.
His joyful living came from giving and soon more elves helped too.
In a few days the elves’ selfish ways had changed by Christmas Eve.
Each woman and man all began to see it’s better to give than receive.
Year after year, elves and reindeer help Santa Claus in every way.
With joyful hearts they each have parts in celebrating Christmas Day.
Sources: NORAD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Popular Mechanics
