Anybody think it is ironic that this was sent by Justin GRIMM ? >Something I got today >> There are approximately two billion children (persons under 18) in the >> world. >> However, since Santa does not usually 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 there is at least one good child in each. >> Santa has about 31 hours of Christmas to work with, thanks to the >> different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming 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 around 1/1000th of a >> second to park the sleigh, hop out, jump down the chimney, fill the >> stocking, distribute the remaining remaining presents under the tree, >> eat whatever snacks have been left for him, get back up the chimney, >> jump into the sleigh and get onto 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 purposes 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 breaks. >> >> This means 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, and moves at a poky 27.4 miles per >> second, and a conventional reindeer can run (at best) 15 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 thousand tons, not counting >> Santa himself. >> >> On land, a conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even >> granting that the "flying" reindeer can pull 10 times the normal amount, >> the job can't be done with eight or even nine of them---Santa would need >> 360,000 of them. >> >> 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). >> >> 600,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air >> resistance- this would heat up the reindeer in the same fashion as a >> spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. >> >> The lead pair of reindeer would adsorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy >> per second each. >> >> In short, they would burst into flames almost instantaneously, exposing >> the reindeer behind them and creating deafening sonic booms in their >> wake. >> >> The entire reindeer team would be vaporized 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 m.p.s. in .001 seconds, would be subjected to >> acceleration forces of 17,000 g's. >> >> 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 blob of pink goo. >> >> Therefore, if Santa did exist, he's dead now. >> >> Merry Christmas!! >> >> >> Stephen Pearson >> > >-- >http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList >mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu > > -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList mailto:piclist-unsubscribe-request@mitvma.mit.edu