Does Santa Claus exist?

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 6:33 pm

I added the first option for those who still believe in the 1.5 patch being officially released.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 7:54 pm

Of course I exist.

TheCops · Post by **TheCops** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:14 pm

Poll Option 4:
i can't prove that he doesn't... and smiling children is almost worth dishonesty. (so i voted "yes")

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:17 pm

No, but I won't ruin it for those that do believe. (Although it bothers me everytime kids ask me if I believe, and what I got....because I really don't like lying to children.)

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 10:23 pm

I believe that Santa is a state of mind, not a person, so yeah, he exists.

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 10:28 pm

This says it best...

Avder · Post by **Avder** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 4:46 am

Some Engineer wrote:No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.

There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.

Santa has 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 822.6 visits per second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has 1/1000th of a second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, fill the stockings, distribute the remaining presents under the tree, eat whatever snacks have been left, get back up the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house.

Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about 0.78 miles per household, a total trip of 71.604 million miles, not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding etc. This means that 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 on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles per second - a conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles per hour.

The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 pounds), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 pounds. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see point #1) could pull TEN TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with eight, or even nine. We need 214,200 reindeer. This increases the payload - not even counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. Again, for comparison - this is four times the weight of the Queen Elizabeth.

353,000 tons traveling at 650 miles per second creates enormous air resistance - this will heat the reindeer up in the same fashion as spacecrafts re-entering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy per second each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa, meanwhile, will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-pound Santa (which seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 pounds of force.

In conclusion - If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's been vaporized by now;-)

Vindicator · Post by **Vindicator** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 6:27 am

Avder wrote:The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy per second each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake.

Kickass.

DigiJo · Post by **DigiJo** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:26 am

This means that Santa's sleigh is moving at 650 miles per second, 3,000 times the speed of sound.

hey, at least that does explain why we dont see him, no?

Hunter · Post by **Hunter** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 10:48 am

If I described some of the things I saw/heard/sensed when I was a kid, well you'd send me off to a mental home

Suffice to say I remember having great times, and getting really excited over this mysterious "Santa" person. And there are some things I can remember which have mysterious circumstances - Although all can be attributed to an overactive imagination.

Simpler times. Aye

Darkside Heartless · Post by **Darkside Heartless** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 1:39 pm

By the time most kids were old enough to believe in him I had already debunked him :p

Hunter · Post by **Hunter** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:16 pm

^ That's kinda, sad, actually.

Iceman · Post by **Iceman** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 2:57 pm

Yeah it is ... I really do exist.

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 7:04 pm

Me too.

AceCombat · Post by **AceCombat** » Fri Dec 24, 2004 8:26 pm

i lost perception of santa when i was 6 years old, woke up in the night to take a leak.....silently caught my parents putting all the presents out that i opened the next morning.

they said "LOOK WHO CAME!!!" i replied.......who....wasnt santa.......

thier reply....what you mean?

i said i watched you guys put those presents out last night when i had to pee

their reply......................

[]V[]essenjah · Post by **[]V[]essenjah** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 2:53 am

Apparently, he fooled YOU Ace

Hunter · Post by **Hunter** » Sat Dec 25, 2004 11:01 am

Usually the parents have more fun than the kids over the Santa ordeal, all that sneeking around and that... Getting caught means you failed to maintain the illusion