Santa Claus’ Secrets: Time Dilation, Other Physics Concept Comes to Rescue!

Does anyone enjoy the holidays? Santa is hard at work getting ready for his big night, and it would take a genuine Scrooge to refuse society's wonderful tradition with its holiday happiness, gifts, and merrymaking, as well as truly excessive amounts of drunken grandmother farts.

But Santa doesn't appear to be a day older than 1,143 years old for a man born about 280 A.D. How can he provide presents to around 2 billion children in a single night? What is his secret? Is it genetics or magic? Or perhaps he was just born with it (maybe Maybelline)?

Santa Claus Lands On Kollhoff Tower
BERLIN, GERMANY - DECEMBER 17: An actor dressed as Santa Claus pretends to retrieve a lost package near the top of the Kollhoff Tower on December 17, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. The premise of the short theatrical performance is that Santa, while passing overhead in his flying sleigh, loses a package that gets snagged near the Panorama cafe on the 24th floor of the tower, and he has to stop and try to retrieve it. After succeeding he then abseils down the face of the tower to greet visitors below at Potsdamer Platz. Carsten Koall/Getty Images

Gaute Einevoll, a Norwegian University of Life Sciences physicist, told NPR that the old guy could give gifts thanks to physics. And another physicist claimed that the theory of relativity is possible.

Physics Helping Santa Claus Do His Christmas Works!

According to Einstein's theory, Santa's appearance of being ageless results from time dilation. Physics Classroom said this phenomenon occurs when time passes more quickly for the observer. Santa is aging more slowly than he would if he were going at our pace since he is moving so quickly.

University of Exeter physicist Katy Sheen uses Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to help explain how that may be feasible.

She claims that the hypothesis explains his speed and why the man doesn't seem to have aged over time.

In a statement, Sheen said that Santa and his reindeer would need to travel at a speed of almost 10 million kilometers per hour to deliver gifts to every child in 31 hours (taking into account world time zones).


Additionally, Santa will need to go much faster as the population increases. When he does, he will move so quickly that he will first blur into a rainbow of colors before finally becoming completely invisible to human sight.

The light waves he would discharge would be compressed at such a rapid rate that it is due to the Doppler effect-more information may be found here.

"Some strange things happen when you start to travel that fast," Sheen told The Telegraph. "Firstly, time slows down. Second, Santa gets squished, which means that he can fit down a chimney more easily."

Doppler Effect, String Theory Possible

Children unable to hear Santa when he arrives at the house may be due to the Doppler effect. It was more likely that his ho-ho-ho-ing and sleigh bells would ring louder and louder before going quiet and unheard by humans.

For Einevoll, Santa Claus has been using string theory to labor nonstop for more than three dimensions. In four dimensions, objects that are quite far away in three dimensions can be very close.

Einevoll noted that Santa Clause might waste space when bringing gifts. Santa Claus is most likely manufacturing many gifts in outer space using asteroids, comets, and other things. And on Christmas Eve, you may have all these tiny gifts and parcels returned to Earth.

Check out more news and information on Physics in Science Times.

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