MISC: Santa Claus, winner of the Feynman Grand Prize?

From: Doug Bailey (Doug.Bailey@ey.com)
Date: Tue Dec 01 1998 - 07:29:52 MST


A book entitled _Can Reindeer Fly? The Science of Christmas_
by Roger Highfield attempts to tackle all those tough questions
asked by the discriminating child with no appetite for trite
answers to those inevitable "How does Santa do that?" questions.
Highfield supplies some scientific explanations for the feats
of St. Nicholas.

Notably, Highfield proposes that Santa doesn't need to carry
two million tons of presents on his sleigh, because they can be
built in the house of each child's house by molecular assemblers.
I guess that gives a new meaning to the term "Santa's elves". :)

Some other Highfield explanations:

The Immaculate Conception: Highfield speculates about Parthenogenesis
but concludes Mary Magdalene must have been a hermaphrodite (making
the book a gift idea for that special Catholic friend).

Santa's Sleigh: An awesome machine capable of speeds of Mach 6,395
which generates sound waves that are exactly out of phase with
sonic booms to mask its supersonic bursts.

Doug Bailey
doug.bailey@ey.com
nanotech@cwix.com



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