ScienceBlog.ie

This week we’re in Christmas mood and looking at the Science of the carious aspects of Christmas and Santa Claus. We will attempt to answer the following:
-How can Santa get down the chimney?
-How is Rudolf’s nose red?
-The logistics behind the day itself.
-How can reindeer fly?

Right, plenty of work ahead so let’s get cracking!
-How can Santa get down the chimney?
OK, we know he’s not a small man, so let’s focus on his possible flexibility. Scientifically called hypermobility, this is a function which allows people to move the3ir joints in irregular ways. Factors which Santa must therefore possess are shallow ball & socket joints, supple ligaments, toned muscles (maybe underneath the insulating fat?) and ironically enough, a bad sense of joint movement.
Given his girth, we need to examine whether Santa can squeeze his girth down the chimney itself, given his relative girth. An average chimney size seems to be 14″/16″ diameter. We’ll give him some wiggle room and say 16″. Calculating the circumference (2 x pi x radius) give 50.24 inches. Let’s assume Santa is 6’3″ (he looks like a tall guy) and 300lbs (seems about right…). This would bring his waist size to about 44″s. So technically it IS possible for him to fit down a large chimney!

-How is Rudolf’s nose red?
Simple. Flourescent proteins! Red fluorescent proteins have been isolated from coral organisms, we would therefore have to assume that some sort of freak genetic mutation has morphed the epidermal proteins on Rudolf’s nose.

-The logistics behind the day itself.
As Christmas is only celebrated by a number of religions, and in places like Denmark they celebrate Christmas on the 24th Dec, Santa has more than 24hrs to play with. He has at least 31 hours due to the timezones, if we say he can Denmark and some other countries out of the way on the 24th in the evening, let’s say he has 42 hours in total. Figures:
~390m millions children in total
3.5 kids per household = 93.5m houses (assumes >1 good kid in each)
681 houses / second. Pretty unlikely……

-How can reindeer fly?
Given there are 30,000 undiscovered species in our world, it is possible that flying reindeer do exist. The vacuum force theory is also in existence here.
Speed is an issue, the reindeer would have to move so fast they would burn up almost instantaneously. To combat this Santa uses a protective ion-shield created with a very large magnetic field.

Some good links:
http://www.noradsanta.org/en/index.html

http://www.chainreactionbicycles.com/santaclaus.htm

http://www.physorg.com/news2487.html

If you have any further questions do let us know – we’ll try our best to discover the truth!

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)

Written by Brian Christensen

Brian graduated from TCD with a degree in Medicinal Chemistry in 2005, and has worked in science recruitment since. He currently specialises in Pharma, Biotech and Connected Health