Have you ever wondered how Santa Claus manages to deliver all those presents on Christmas Eve, but never had the time to figure it out? Well wait no longer as Dr Larry Silverberg of NC state University in the USA has done all the research and published a lot of work on the developement of Santa’s sleigh.
The basic theory behind Santa’s ‘sleigh’ according to Dr Silverberg is that, in order for it to fly, it must be made out of honeycomb titanium alloy because it is very lightweight and 10 to 20 times stronger than anything we can make today.
The sleigh will also be equipped with state of the art electronics, which include laser sensors that can detect upcoming thermals and wind conditions. This is because everyone knows that the weather isn’t exactly very predictable when you’re traveling thousands of feet in the air, and of course with it being December it may be a bit nippy for jolly old St Nick.
Having a ‘pimped out’ sleigh is all well and good, but how does Father Christmas actually manage to deliver all those presents to every single household before daybreak? Dr David Waugh a lecturer in mechanical engineering has come up with the theory of quantum mechanics and relativity.
“Santa is very, very special and obviously he’ll have all his elves working on quantum mechanics and relativity, he’s being doing it for many years.” Dr Waugh went on to say, “if we take Santa on his sleigh, we know his speed precisely; we know his weight, the weight of his sleigh and the weight of his reindeer and we know his direction; because the logical way of doing it, to use the most amount of time to actually deliver presents, would be from east to west.”
So Santa isn’t just a big jolly guy who only works once a year and spreads happiness to many children every year, he is also a dab hand at everyone’s greatest enemy, mathematics. Forget Jack Frost, Santa is a Jack of all trades.
LSJ News reporter Jonathan Holmes has been in conversation with Dr David Waugh about the science of Santa. Listen to the full interview.
