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daresay · Newbie Joined: Nov 24 2006 Posts: 8 Offline

//I'm no Physics scholar so don't bother debating with me. Just figured it would be an interesting holiday post.

Think back to when you were a child. What types of rational arguments would be used to convince you that there is no Santa Claus?

The legend of Santa dates back to the 5th Century (making him 1500 years old). However, the concept of age was challenged in the 19th century by a scientist named Allen Michaelson. He found that the speed of light is constant for all observers regardless of their position.

Michaelson's experiment:
If you point a flashlight at a wall and try to time the light as it hits the wall, you will get the same speed regardless of your relative position. Einstein stated that if velocity of light is constant, values like time and speed, which were always considered absolute, would have to be relative.

c = speed of light

Consider this diagram:

Santa is cruising around doing a preliminary run of his Christmas Eve route. He only has one reindeer, whos nose happens to emit electromagnetic radiation. He is feeling festive, so he has his sleigh bells attached to the reindeer's antlers. He is over the Pacific ocean when he decides to conduct some physics experiments.

He attaches a photo sensor to the reindeer and decides to measure the velocity of the light from the reindeer's nose to the sleigh bells (distance "d"). The readings of the sensor are displayed on Santa's precision watch, which is calibrated in Santa Time (ts).

Knowing that speed = distance/velocity:

Speed of light = d/ts

This particular time, Santa is over a small isle in the North Pacific. A little boy named Billy happens to live there and is also measuring the same event using the atomic clock which Santa gave to him last Christmas. If Billy sees the light he won't think it traveled the same distance that Santa thinks it did.

Consider this example: You are throwing a ball vertically upward while sitting on a moving train. To you, the ball appears to be moving straight up and down. However, to someone sitting outside of the train looking into a window, the ball seems to move in a diagonal path rather than straight up and down.

So back to our problem. Consider the distance from Billy's position to the light as eath distance (de). The velocity of the sleigh will be referred to as 'Vs'. Making a right triangle with the three components, we get:

We can use the Pythagorean Theorem to derive an equation:

de = Square root(d^2/D^2)

This isn't a very useful equation though, but we can substitute in different terms for the three variables:

d = c * ts
D = Vs * te
de = c * te

Putting these into the above equation, we get:

c * te = Square root([Vs * te]^2 + [c * ts]^2)

We are going to solve this formula for earth time (te), which gives us:

te = ts/Square root(1 - Vs^2/c^2)
AKA. Einstein's theory of relativity

Say the sleigh is moving at 100 MPH. If you were to put that in and divide it by the speed of light you would get a very small value. The sleigh needs a higher speed.

Assume that Santa is around 80 years old and started his job when he was 18. From his perspective, 62 years have gone by.

However, if Santa could travel at 99.9% of the speed of light, it's possible that he started at age 18 in the 5th century. It is well-known that the faster you go, the slower you age. If he traveled at that speed, from our perspective about 1400 years would have passed.

Einstein was accused of being a nut when he derived his equation, so he conducted an experiment. Consider three atomic clocks: one in Washington D.C., one on a jet flying east, and one on a similar jet flying west. The clock that flies east gains time, because it is travelling faster than Washington D.C. The west-bound clock loses time, because it is traveling slower than the D.C. clock. This is what is known as special relativity

Obviously, our earlier diagram doesn't work anymore. If Santa traveled at that speed in the sled we gave him him and his poor reindeer would burn up in the Earth's atmosphere. To take care of the heat, he could fit an ion heat shield to his sled, protecting him from the atmosphere. The speed could be achieved using a nuclear-powered thruster. In order to deliver the presents without being noticed, Santa would use a mass compression device to launch him (wiith the aid of a homing beacon) into the chimney and deliver the presents without losing any of his speed.

Have a nice holiday folks.

Dr Brain · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 4:40 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

Many, many, of your details are wrong.
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The Apache · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:02 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

Santa does not exist.

BDwinsAlt · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 5:27 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

WTF! He doesn't?

Bak · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 8:10 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

BD, if you don't believe he won't come to your house.
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Assassin2684 · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:19 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

As most of you should know.. Nick (santa) did exist along time ago. He made toys for the little kids in his town and has a slay to carry them. Now after many generations it was carried a bit to far with him having flying reindeer and whatnot.. but he DID exist. Besides.. ive heard santa on my rooftops..

BDwinsAlt · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 10:55 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

I'll try to keep believing, but hearing my mom saying she is buying santa on the phone, we are hiding them in the storage room, and seeing recipts with her drivers license number (which I memorized a while back) have lead me to belive..... MY PARENTS ARE SANTA. Isn't that cool!

Bak · Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 11:30 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

why would her driver's lisense number be on receipts?

Assassin2684 · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:46 am *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

Sounds like some store is trying to hijack a person.

BDwinsAlt · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 2:02 am *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

I dunno, I guess she wrote a check or something, because it was on the top of the receipt. It was for K B toys or w/e in the mall. It had the toy and the price and all.

Oh yea, I cried.

The Apache · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 9:27 am *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

Cyan~Fire · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 11:28 am *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

XXXXXXXXXXXX4085 isn't a driver's license number, sorry.
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BDwinsAlt · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 12:14 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

It was on there dude. Cause I saw her drivers license and memorized the number, then I saw it on the top of the receipt. When walmart had lay-away they always put your drivers license number on there to verify it was you. I remeber that too. But this was K B Toys in the mall.

CypherJF · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:00 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

Just thought I'd point out they got rid of the lay-a-way here at our local walmart due to lack of interest.
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BDwinsAlt · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 4:04 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

They did it to all walmarts. Don't you read the news?

It's gone...

Animate Dreams · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:08 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

Assassin2684 · Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2006 8:30 pm *Post maybe stupid* Post subject:

I thought he made toys and gave them to kids.. Mabye I heard the wrong story or something.