[meteorite-list] Santa Physics...again for 2008
From: Jerry Flaherty <grf2_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2008 19:49:20 -0500 Message-ID: <4C3B72AACC344BEFB3D6045824AD3414_at_ASUS> SEE, like I said "C" is NOT the limiting speed of the universe ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dark Matter" <freequarks at gmail.com> To: "Meteorite List" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> Sent: Saturday, December 13, 2008 9:38 PM Subject: [meteorite-list] Santa Physics...again for 2008 > Hi All, > > It seems it has befallen upon me to hold the job of official Santa > Physics story reposter. So, in the true spirit of the season, here it > is yet again. > > And as usual, I have not checked the math. > > Enjoy. > > Martin > > > > > > > Engineering Christmas: Some points of contention. > > There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the > world. However, since Santa does not visit children of Muslim, Hindu, > Jewish or Buddhist religions, this reduces the workload for Christmas > night to 15% of the total, or 378 million (according to the Population > Reference Bureau). At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per > household, that comes to 108 million homes, presuming that there is at > least one good child in each dwelling. > > Santa has about 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 967.7 > visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household > with a good child, Santa has about 1/1000th of a second to park the > sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute > the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been > left for him, get back up the chimney, jump into the sleigh and get on > to the next house. Assuming that each of these 108 million stops is > evenly distributed around the earth (which of course, we know to be > false, but will accept for the purpose of our calculations), we are > now talking about 0.78 miles per household; a total trip of 75.5 > million miles, not counting bathroom stops or other breaks. > > This requires that Santa's sleigh moves at 650 miles per second--3000 > 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, and conventional reindeer can run at best 30 miles per > hour. > > The payload of the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming > that each child gets nothing more than a medium sized Lego set (two > pounds), the sleigh is carrying over 500,000 tons, not counting Santa > himself. On land a conventional reindeer can pull about 300 pounds. > Even granting that the "flying" reindeer could pull ten times the > normal amount, the job just cannot be done with eight or nine of > them-- Santa would need 360,000 reindeer! > > This increases the payload, not counting the weight of the sleigh, > another 54,000 tons or roughly seven times the weight of the Queen > Elizabeth (the ship, not the monarch). > > 4.600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air > resistance-- this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as > spacecraft re-entering the earth's atmosphere (which may explain > Rudolph's red nose). The lead pair of reindeer would absorb 14.3 > quintillion joules of energy per second. In short, they would > instantaneously vaporize exposing the reindeer behind them to the same > friction and also creating deafening sonic booms in their wake. The > entire reindeer team would vanish within 4.26 thousandths of a second, > or right about the time Santa reached the fifth house on his trip. > > Not that it matters, however since Santa, as a result of accelerating > from a dead stop to 650 miles per second in .001 seconds, would be > subjected to centrifugal forces of 17,500 Gs. A 250 pound Santa (which > seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of the sleigh by > 4,315,015 pounds of force, instantly crushing his bones and organs and > reducing him to a quivering red-hot blob of goo. And yet, he returns > year after year. > > Therefore, the rules of physics obviously don't apply to Santa and his > yearly mission. Speaking as an engineer, this guy must know something > about relativity that we have yet to discover. > > HO, HO, HO. > ______________________________________________ > http://www.meteoritecentral.com > Meteorite-list mailing list > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com > http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list Received on Sun 14 Dec 2008 07:49:20 PM PST |
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