What if Santa really had to deliver presents in one night?

Have you ever wondered how long it would take Santa to deliver all the presents in one night if that were really possible? According to Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Larry Silverberg of North Carolina State University, about six Christmas months!

According to the POPSCI website, Silverberg presented this complicated - and important - question to his students, who set some numbers to solve the problem. Let's get to the calculations, then: it is assumed that Santa needs to deliver gifts to about 200 million children living in homes distributed over an area of ​​approximately 518 million square kilometers.

Christmas calculations

Considering that each house has an average of 2.67 children, this means that the old man will need to visit about 75 million homes. The average distance between each household is 2.6 kilometers, so Noel will have to travel over 196 million kilometers in 24 hours. But for that to be possible, the sleigh would have to travel at an average speed of 8, 180, 297 kilometers per hour!

But think about it: It's not very safe for a chubby old man to travel at such a speed, especially with some reindeer and ride elves, isn't it? Therefore, the students of Silverberg proposed a slightly more realistic scenario based on the theory of relativity.

"Christmas Time"

Students suggested that Santa take advantage of the Theory of Relativity and stretch the time like a rubber band. That way the good old man would have months to deliver all the toys, while for us it would have only been a few minutes.

Now, if the old man decided to develop a delivery system based on Theory of Relativity, using 750 sleds instead of just one, the job could be completed in just 24 Christmas hours - equivalent to 5 Earth minutes - and at a much safer speed. to the Noel gang, which is only 130 kilometers per hour. Nothing a pair of jets attached to the sides of the sleighs won't solve!