An Engineer Calculates Santa's Trip
Yol, Vishnu & Shanti
An Engineer Calculates Santa's Trip
1) No known species of reindeer can fly. But it is estimated that 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 the 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,
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, 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 the
Queen Elizabeth.
5) 353,000 tons traveling 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 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.!
:-) :-) :-)
--
Blue Lotus Therapeutics
Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga and Therapeutic Massage.
Asheville/Weaverville, NC
www.bluelotustherapeutics.com
Dhyanyoga Center of North Carolina
Meditation - Kundalini Maha Yoga
Weaverville, NC
www.dyc-nc.org
***********************************
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It
cannot be ruled by interfering.
-- Tao Te Ching
***********************************
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
1) No known species of reindeer can fly. But it is estimated that 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 the 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,
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, 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 the
Queen Elizabeth.
5) 353,000 tons traveling 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 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.!
:-) :-) :-)
--
Blue Lotus Therapeutics
Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga and Therapeutic Massage.
Asheville/Weaverville, NC
www.bluelotustherapeutics.com
Dhyanyoga Center of North Carolina
Meditation - Kundalini Maha Yoga
Weaverville, NC
www.dyc-nc.org
***********************************
When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by letting things take their course. It
cannot be ruled by interfering.
-- Tao Te Ching
***********************************
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[email protected]
In a message dated 12/11/2002 12:16:10 PM Eastern Standard Time,
bluelotus@... writes:
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
bluelotus@... writes:
> In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he'sThis missed the TOTALLY relevant fact of MAGIC!!!!! <G>
> dead now.!
~Kelly
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
mary krzyzanowski
Very funny. But the engineer forgot to calculate in that not all Christian
children believe in Santa. Spanish-the magi bring gifts on Ephiphany
Sunday. Italian-An old woman (I forget her name) brings gifts.
Some Christians-parents or the Christ Child brings gifts. I'm sure I've
forgotten some. Different cultures receive their gifts on different days.
St. Nicholas Day, Ephiphany Sunday and the Ukrainian Christmas aren't on
12/25. Given all this, I'd say that the numbers of deliveries are greatly
reduced, thereby changing the calculations.
Animals other than reindeer are believed to be used in other countries, so
the reindeer can rest or be replaced. By the way, all the reindeer are
female, since male reindeer shed their antlers in the fall and females in
the spring.
Mary-NY
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children believe in Santa. Spanish-the magi bring gifts on Ephiphany
Sunday. Italian-An old woman (I forget her name) brings gifts.
Some Christians-parents or the Christ Child brings gifts. I'm sure I've
forgotten some. Different cultures receive their gifts on different days.
St. Nicholas Day, Ephiphany Sunday and the Ukrainian Christmas aren't on
12/25. Given all this, I'd say that the numbers of deliveries are greatly
reduced, thereby changing the calculations.
Animals other than reindeer are believed to be used in other countries, so
the reindeer can rest or be replaced. By the way, all the reindeer are
female, since male reindeer shed their antlers in the fall and females in
the spring.
Mary-NY
>From: "Yol, Vishnu & Shanti" <bluelotus@...>_________________________________________________________________
>Reply-To: [email protected]
>To: bluelotus@...
>Subject: [Unschooling-dotcom] An Engineer Calculates Santa's Trip
>Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 12:12:50 -0500
>
>An Engineer Calculates Santa's Trip
>
> 1) No known species of reindeer can
>fly. But it is estimated that 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 the 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,
> 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, 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 the
>Queen Elizabeth.
>
> 5) 353,000 tons traveling 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 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.!
>
>:-) :-) :-)
>
>--
>Blue Lotus Therapeutics
>Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga and Therapeutic Massage.
>Asheville/Weaverville, NC
>www.bluelotustherapeutics.com
>
>Dhyanyoga Center of North Carolina
>Meditation - Kundalini Maha Yoga
>Weaverville, NC
>www.dyc-nc.org
>
>***********************************
>When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by letting
>things take their course. It
>cannot be ruled by interfering.
>-- Tao Te Ching
>***********************************
>
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
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