How Santa gets round the world in a night

Published on Wednesday 23 December 2009 21:41

IT IS a mystery that has captured children's imaginations for generations – how does Santa Claus get round the world to deliver gifts to all the good girls and boys in just one night?

• John Brown says Quantum mechanics can aid Santa. Picture: Robert Perry

A fast sleigh is a must, as is a well-trained team of reindeer.

But according to Scotland's top astronomer, Santa might also benefit from a passing knowledge of the theories of astrophysics.

Quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity both distort space time and could speed him on his way, said Professor John Brown, tenth Astronomer Royal for Scotland.

Worm holes could also provide a useful short-cut as he goes on his rounds.

In an effort to make sense of a science which many consider to be beyond their grasp, Prof Brown, regius professor of astronomy at Glasgow University, has applied the theories of astronomy to some of the more popular Christmas traditions.

Rudolph the reindeer's nose, for example, would appear blue, not red, according to the basic rules of astronomy.

Prof Brown explained: "If you listen to the words of the song Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and looked up into the sky expecting to see Rudolph rushing towards you with a red nose, you'd get a bit of a shock.

"The Doppler effect, discovered by Austrian physicist Christian Doppler in 1842, looked at how we experience the changing frequencies of a wave of sound from a moving object.

"The Doppler effect on light is also used in astronomy, such as to find the speed at which stars and galaxies are coming towards or away from the Earth. A light rushing towards you looks bluer than when it rushes away from you and looks red. So Rudolph is actually a blue-nosed reindeer."

Despite debunking Rudolph's nose colour, Prof Brown, who leads a research group in theory and modelling of solar and stellar plasmas and is involved in diagnosing solar high-energy particles using data from spacecraft, said science gave clues to how Santa and his team could make deliveries across the solar system in a single night.

"Time travel is discussed in scientific circles and it seems that there are effects in relativity, quantum physics and black hole gravitation theory which may make it possible," he said.

"The theory of relativity and quantum mechanics both have curious implications and definitely distort space and time.

"Relativity says that length is relative, so in terms of asking how Santa covers Earth in a night, the answer may be that if he could travel near the speed of light he could achieve this, though he would need a huge source of energy – almost all the energy everyone uses on the planet in a year.

"Another quantum mechanical idea – quantum teleportation – might involve deconstructing Santa's team and beaming their parts faster than light, to be reconstructed in the next chimney, and so on.

"Finally, if Santa carried a black hole, that might help. If you could squash his team small enough, super light speed travel to elsewhere through a black hole worm hole and reassemble them there, he could teleport our Christmas presents around very fast."

"The trouble with this idea is that we're quite big things, and to pass us through a worm hole is not easy. Such a trip is likely to, using the technical term, 'spaghettify' us."

Prof Brown concluded: "While I'm still a bit sceptical, I keep an open mind and wouldn't say 100 per cent 'No' to such time travel being Rudolph's secret."