There have been some explanations before about the ability of Santa Claus to deliver all the presents during a single night, but this explanation is new to me:
"Based on his advanced knowledge of the theory of relativity, Santa recognizes that time can be stretched like a rubber band, that space can be squeezed like an orange and that light can be bent," Silverberg says. "Relativity clouds are controllable domains - rips in time - that allow him months to deliver presents while only a few minutes pass on Earth. The presents are truly delivered in a wink of an eye."
Hat-tip: Josh
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(This post first appeared on December 23, 2009, but has been reproduced, edited, and improved for 2011.)
Tis the season of Santa Claus, and my neighborhood is full of these awful blow up Santa dioramas. The grinch in me hopes that some other grinch comes along with a sharp scissors and pokes a hole in all this inflatable lawn plastic.
David Ng at The World's Fair asks what kind of scientist Santa Claus might be.
089:32:50 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]
089:33:38 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston.
089:34:16 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8, over.
Well, that shoots down about 3/4 of the reasons my obnoxiously precocious 4-year-old self decided that Santa Claus wasn't a real live person (and then had to put up with another 4 or 5 years of feeling just a little insulted by so many adults telling me I was wrong).
I'm now trying to get my brain around the notion that if I'd known more about relativity (besides the obvious, that since Santa couldn't travel faster than the speed of light, he'd never be able to make the whole trip in one night), I could have hung onto my childish belief.