How Fast Does Santa Travel?

Dec 03 2014

Christmas is just around the corner and across the globe youngsters are already anticipating waking up to an overflowing stocking. Santa never fails to deliver. However, from a logistical point of view, his epic round the world journey does seem like an impossible feat. How does good old Saint Nick do it?

Read on for a serious number crunching analysis of how Santa works his Christmas magic…

How fast does Santa’s sleigh travel?

In order to circle the entire planet Santa would have to travel 510,000,000km. Taking into account changing time zones this would give him a total of 32 hours to get the job done. In terms of speed, this would require him to travel at a jaw dropping 10,703,437.5km/hr which equates to coverage of around 1,800 miles per second. It’s unbelievably fast and doesn’t even allow for any stoppage time. Surely he needs a minute to catch his breath… We’re assuming here that Santa has some sort of present shooting mechanism to catapult gifts down the chimney. He’d also need to be careful to ease up on the liquids pre-flight as 32 hours is a long time to go without a toilet break. Yikes!

How much does Santa’s sleigh weigh?

It would be impossible to weight every single individual present so for the sake of this study we’re going to assume that every child has their heart set on the hottest toy of the year. Last year the crown was taken by Optimus Prime, a wildly popular Transformers figurine that weighed in at 659g. If Santa had to carry 700,000,000 of these figurines, his sleigh would weigh a colossal 1,232,300 metric tonnes. This year, the burden is even heavier because kids have nominated Buzz Lightyear as the number one Christmas toy. Buzz weights a hefty 1.2kg which means Santa would set out with 840,000 tonnes worth of cargo on Christmas Eve.

How many reindeers would he need?

Traditionally Santa’s sleigh is pulled by ten reindeer – Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder, Blixem and of course, Rudolph! However, in order to pull a sleigh laden with 840,000 tonnes worth of Buzz Lightyear toys Santa would need an army of reindeers - 5,600,000 to be precise! When you add the weight of the reindeers (we’re going to assume each weighs 272kg) the entire convoy would weigh a massive 2,363,200 tonnes. Of course, the rapid speed of the sleigh would result in an increase of mass that would technically need to be taken into account. If Santa was indeed clocking up a speed of 10,703,437.5km/hr the procession’s apparent weight would increase to 2,363,310.33 tonnes.

But can reindeer fly?

This is an age-old question which has kids across the globe scratching their heads. It causes such controversy that Dr Roger Highfield, former science editor at the Telegraph, even wrote a book called Can Reindeer Fly? The Science of Christmas. You can read more about the book in the Telegraph, which is also the source of many of the stats used in this story. The publication explores a number of ways that reindeer could take to the sky, including warping space-time to create a bubble of air that propels the sleigh faster than the speed of light. Alternative theories include a wormhole for cosmic shortcuts, genetically altered reindeers with helium filled lungs or the concept that the reindeer’s antlers are, in fact, fractal vortex-shedding devices capable of inducing flight.

While Santa’s journey may seem out of this world, it’s important to remember that at the end of the day, a little Christmas magic can make anything possible. Merry Christmas!