Science of Santa

Science+of+Santa

If you’ve grown up in America, or even just walked around a public place with music in December, you know the classic story of Santa Claus. We all know he comes down the chimney when we’re asleep and either gives us presents if we’ve behaved well this past year, or gives us a bunch of coal. But what we don’t always think about is the technicalities of Santa actually coming to every child’s house in the world in one night. If there are 526,000,000 children on the planet– assuming a child is anyone in the world under the age of 14 — how does Santa get to every child’s house? Obviously, this task seems impossible, especially over just one night, as all the carols tell us.

Firstly, Christmas is only celebrated by around three billion people, most of whom are Christian. If 25.8% of the population is 14 years old or younger, we can assume there are about 8 million children who celebrate Christmas.

Christmas is actually celebrated on two different days worldwide. Roman Catholics and Protestants celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but the Eastern Orthodox denomination of Christianity celebrates Christmas on January 7th, which eases Santa’s load by 800,000 kids an hour.

Additionally, due to the varying timezones of those who celebrate Christmas, Santa has about 31 hours to deliver all his presents. Houses are, on average, 0.205 miles apart worldwide, meaning Santa would have only three ten-thousandths of a second to hit each house! That’s 365,000 kids a minute and 6,100 kids a second.

In order to do this, Santa would need to fly at 6,400 miles per hour. For reference, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest ‘air-breathing manned aircraft’, has a record-breaking speed of only 2,193 mph. Obviously Santa is going to need some pretty intense gear to withstand the intense heat and Gs of his trip.

 

Legality of Santa

 

There are some people who are asking should we let Santa influence our kids lives because of all the laws that he breaks. There are some parents that think that kids will think Santa teaches our kids that you can break the law and not get into trouble because you are doing it for a good reason. Here are some of the laws that Santa breaks and what the punishments he could face just in Missouri and some of the results are mind-blowing. In total he can be put in jail for up to $16,838,226,000 and 11,265,802.5 years in jail.

Trespassing 1st Degree

         In Missouri there is 2,806,371 households in Missouri that have kids. This means that Santa every year commits over 2 million counts of Trespassing. In Missouri for Trespassing in the first degree you can be fined up to $1000 per count and or 6 months in jail. This means if Santa was punished to the full extent of the law, he would face up to $2,806,371,000 and up to 140,318.5 years in jail.

Stalking 2nd Degree

         You know how your parents used to tell you how Santa sees you when your sleeping and knows when your awake. In the state of Missouri that is considered stalking. In Missouri you can be punished 4 years in jail and or up to $4,000 fine. If Santa was to be charged with and convicted, he could face punishments of 4 years in prison and $11,225,484.

There are so many Crimes that Santa can be charged with. Just to list a few more just on the state level. Flying an unregistered aircraft. For these crimes we can not tell you the exact punishment because it is based on many variables. Such as Time, type of aircraft and may more.