Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

The science of Santa

Belief systems are interesting from a scientific perspective. Why do we believe things? What should we believe? Where do beliefs come from? The answer is “we don’t really know” but we do know that our beliefs are powerful.
col-whitcombe.24.jpg

Belief systems are interesting from a scientific perspective.

Why do we believe things? What should we believe? Where do beliefs come from?

The answer is “we don’t really know” but we do know that our beliefs are powerful. Indeed, science is based, to some extent, on a belief system. If certain actions are repeated over and over, the results will come out the same.

For example, what use would there be for a law of gravity if when you dropped your keys, you had no idea where they would go? Imagine a world where dropping things might mean they float off to outer space.

Or consider a world in which the chemical reactions involved in making DNA changed by the moment. You could end up with some awfully weird creations.

Science depends on repeatability.

This is why I always find it a little perplexing at this time of year to receive e-mails telling me Santa Claus doesn’t exist. That he is scientifically “impossible”.

I would suggest the fact that Christmas comes every year, that millions or even billions of people believe, and that there are presents under the Christmas tree would be sufficient evidence to satisfy even the grinchiest of scientists. After all, isn’t that repeatability?

Alas, for some, no.

There are always those who would point out the fact that Santa Claus would never have enough time to travel around the whole world and visit every good boy and girl.

Their argument is invariably based on the notion nighttime averages 12 hours over the whole globe. They say something like: “If he started at the stroke of midnight, follows the terminator around the world, and is done in time for Christmas, he would have 30 hours to deliver presents.”

But that is terribly three-dimensional thinking. It is forgetting the other 24-dimensions of reality. String theory tells us the universe is much more complex than we can know or see.

Certainly every bit of modern physics tells us that time is just another dimension. And it can be manipulated in ways that we cannot yet imagine. Of course, Santa Claus can.

So, time is not really the issue. Santa has all the time he needs to deliver presents, eat cookies and drink a glass of ice cold milk, and move on to the next house. Indeed, some scientists believe Santa is capable of visiting every house in the world simultaneously and at the stroke of midnight local time.

Other grinchy scientists would point out that carrying presents for everyone would be darn near impossible given the masses and forces involved.

After all, if you consider the number of good children in world, then he would need to deliver 1,238,954,607 presents. That is a lot of presents.

If each weighed in at a mere 1 kilogram then moving that mass would be near impossible. “Near impossible” isn’t actually “impossible”, though.

You might have heard of the Large Hadron Collider and the search for the Higgs Boson (yes, that is its real name). This sub-atomic particle connects matter with the Higgs field which pervades the universe. The Higgs Boson gives rise to mass.

If you want to move 1,238,954,607 kilograms of presents around, the simplest way to do that is to turn off the Higgs Boson. Without it, the presents weigh nothing at all.

Indeed, without the Higgs Boson operating, eight reindeer could easily pull a sleigh filled with presents for everyone.

But how do you turn it off? You don’t think that Rudolph’s nose glows red by accident, do you? And incidentally, turning off the Higgs Boson also allows the reindeer to fly.

But along come the grinchy old scientists who want to know where all of the presents come from in the first place.

Well, I could just say “the elves make them” but from what?

The answer, of course, is from energy.

And where does Santa Claus get all of the energy to make all of the presents that he needs?

Simple. Where do you think all of the cookies and ice cold glasses of milk go?

More to the point, if you really want to help Santa out, then you shouldn’t leave out cookies. Rather, everyone should leave out the densest form of matter known to science: Christmas cake.

One Christmas cake has enough mass to meet the energy needs for thousands of presents.

Yes, despite what scientists might say, we all know that at this time of year Santa does what he needs to do because without Santa, Christmas would simply not be the same.

Scientists may not know why people believe things but we do know children believing in Santa Claus help to make this time of year magic.

May the season bring you love, joy, happiness, and peace.

Ho! Ho! Ho!