CatmanV2
Member
- Messages
- 48,907
Ok on this festive day, how fast does Santa have to travel to complete all his deliveries on Christmas Eve?
According to Steve Christmas 150000 mph
C
Ok on this festive day, how fast does Santa have to travel to complete all his deliveries on Christmas Eve?
According to Steve Christmas 150000 mph
C
Depends if Santa has to go round the M25. You don't wanna do that!
But he was happy to let that one child down
It's disgraceful, I know. But in the tradition of good Christmas stories everywhere, he came right in the end
Back to the question
Back of a napkin calculation: Circumference of the earth is roughly 40k km. Assumed width of sleigh is 2m. If he has to cover the entire surface of the earth, that puts him at something like 1.6*10^6 km/h
Or maybe not
C
Maths was never my subject, I will take a speed in Miles or KM per hour or second - don't forget he has to criss cross the world to cover all the children
Maybe some data will help you make the calculation
1. 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.
2. At an average (census)rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes.
3. One presumes there's at least one good child in each - Obviously this may not be correct for SM families if the parents are anything to go by
4. 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).
5. 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 .78 miles per household
Hmmm
OK, continuing the seasonal trivia: Most of us know and sing (at a guess) Auld Lang Syne on New Year's Eve. However it is sung rather more frequently by a specific organisation.
Name that organisation. Clues throughout the day if anyone is still playing
C
A little known fact is that in Japan (and Taiwan) this is played over the PA / tannoy of shops to tell people the shop is closing!
Closer to home, I think the Armed Forces May use it in various passing out ceremonies...
Certainly the Japanese thing is true C
Certainly the Japanese thing is true No idea about the armed forces.
We are talking about a quasi-military organisation, but not that close to home
C