The population of the world is estimated to be around 6.5 billion people, of which around 40%, or 3 billion, are children. In developed countries the average number of children per household is 2.4, though this is higher in poorer parts of the world where the number rises to around 5 children per household according to some estimates. It could be safe to assume, then, that on average there are 4 children per household worldwide. Around 1 in 3 households are Christian worldwide. If it is taken that Santa only visits Christian households with children, he would visit around 250 million households in one night. Given that Santa’s journey would take up to 31 hours through different time zones as children have to be asleep when he arrives, he would end up visiting 1,398 homes a second.
The circumference of the earth is 24,901.55 miles – a distance that would require Santa to travel at a constant speed of 692mph. However, Santa would cover around 111 million miles. This would require Santa to navigate at a speed of over 950 miles a second, which is around 200 times quicker than a rocket. This is a highly impressive achievement for a few reindeer and a sleigh carrying billions of gifts. Given that Santa would have to slowdown at a house, stop, deliver the gifts then accelerate away, Santa’s cruising speed would be much higher than that. While Santa is cruising, he would also be subject to air resistance, causing the front reindeer to absorb 14,000,000 billion joules of energy, a level beyond the realms of scientific research and so far untested, but one that miraculously that doesn’t turn the reindeer to charcoal.
Thinking of gifts, suppose Santa delivers 2 gifts per child. This would mean he would have around 2 billion gifts on his sleigh. Suppose the average box was 1 foot high and weighed 8 ounces and that large sleighs are about 12 feet long, the presents would rise over 48,000 miles above the sleigh, covering approximately a fifth of the distance between the earth and the moon. They would also weigh around 500,000 tons, which is equivalent to the weight of 800 fully loaded Airbus A380s.
Suppose that 1 out of every 4 households visited by Santa leaves a mince pie, glass of sherry and a carrot for Rudolph. Given the average mince pie weighs 2 ounces, Santa would munch his way through 3,488 tons of mince pies, the weight of 375 African elephants. Also if the average slug of sherry is 25ml, then Santa would have drunk 2,100,000 bottles of sherry which would leave him well over the drink drive limit and give him a blood alcohol level thousands of times higher than that which would kill a whale. Perhaps his constant state of inebriation explains how he can sit behind a herd of reindeer which, between them, eat 4,285 tons of carrots. In total Santa consumes 220 billion calories in 36 hours, which is as many calories as an average man would take 207,799 years to consume (at recommended levels), which is over twice as long as the last ice age.
So there we have it. We have a portly gentleman whizzing around the planet once a year at over 9000 times the speed of sound. He has a sleighful of presents that weighs more than 4500 houses and reindeer that can breathe normally despite being subjected to warp speeds and severe air resistance. Also, miraculously, even though the reindeer would be shitting out several million allotments worth of carrots, his beard remains white.
Do you still believe in Santa Claus?
