Things are pretty slow in SciTech this week. I want to take this opportunity to offer this small diary highlighting a scientific/technical issue the world faces. Every year, there are two or three stories on various sites about the analysis of Santa's challenge to deliver presents to the children of the world in the limited time he has. One of those this year comes from the Technology section of The Atlantic. It was an impressive use of CIA world facts to determine the ages and religions and number of children on his list. There are many supporting graphics. Well done and fairly convincing. But, there are some realities that were left out.
Since my background is physics teaching, I feel the technically superior report is the Fermilab Santa-nalysis. They bring up such effects as the Cerenkov radiation when particles are exceeding the speed of light in air. They also analyze the color change to Rudolph's red nose due to the Doppler Shift. Finally, their analysis discusses the Lorentz contraction and simultaneity effects as Santa tries to fit himself into the chimney at relativistic speeds. Of course, the effects depend upon which frame of reference you use. You cannot just leave those things out and expect to get an answer that makes any sense. Kudos to Fermilab. No Higgs Bosons were detected.
You can follow Santa with the help of
NORAD radar. He is well on his way and being tracked at this time. If you celebrate Christmas, I wish you a very merry and peaceful day. For everyone, may your coming year be rewarding and bring you happiness.
jim