1) No known species of reindeer can fly. BUT there are 300,000 species of living organisms yet to be classified, and while most of these are insects and germs, this does not COMPLETELY rule out flying reindeer which only Santa has ever seen.
１。沒有任何一種已知的馴鹿能飛。但目前有300,000種生物還沒被分類，雖然其中大部分是昆蟲及細菌，但不能絕對抹煞那只有圣誕老人才見過的飛鹿的存在的可能性。
2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, & Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
２。世界上有二十億兒童（年齡在十八歲以下的人類），但據(jù)觀察圣誕老人不處理回教徒，印度教徒，*人，佛教徒的兒童，這樣，根據(jù)有關(guān)部門的數(shù)據(jù)，他的工作量將減至原來的15%即３億７千８百萬人。以平均一個家庭有3.5名兒童（US Census, World Health Oraganization, UNICEF)，則共有９千１百８０萬個家庭。為計算起見，我們假設(shè)每個上述家庭有一個好孩子。
3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with. This is due to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits/second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has .001 second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles/household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles; not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding & etc. So Santa's sleigh must be moving at 650 miles/second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles/second. A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles/hour.
３。如果我們假設(shè)圣誕老人的旅程是從東向西的（這看來合乎邏輯），圣誕老人共有31小時的圣誕節(jié)工作時間，這得要謝謝不同的時區(qū)及地球的轉(zhuǎn)。則計算所得的結(jié)果是每秒鐘822.6次探訪。也就是說每個基督徒家庭有一個乖孩子，圣誕老人共有0.0012秒來停車，跳下雪橇，躍進煙囪，放下禮物，吃掉剩下的零食，再回到雪橇，然后去下一站。假定圣誕老人的雪橇不采用量子隧道現(xiàn)象(Quantum Tunneling Behavior)運動，而且這９千１百８０萬個家庭是均勻分布在地球表面；我們知道這樣的假設(shè)的錯誤，但為計算的關(guān)系，我們接受這樣的假設(shè)；則我們有每家的平均距離為0.78哩，全程為75.5百萬哩，其中不包括31小時內(nèi)大部分人都要去的地方的路程。這樣，圣誕老人的雪橇需要一秒鐘跑650哩，這是音速的3,000倍。用以比較的話，最快的人造飛行器Ulysses太空探險器，每秒才不過27.4哩。普通的馴鹿要不是給狼群追趕的話，每小時才跑15哩。
4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 lb.), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 lb. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see #1) could pull 10 TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with 8, or even 9 reindeer. We need 214,200. This increases the payload - not counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth.
４。雪橇的負載又添加了些有趣的因素。假設(shè)每個小孩所得的不多于一盒中等的Lego（２磅），那雪橇的載重為321,300噸，還不算圣誕老人他自己這位在眾多記載中被形容為超重的人物。在地上，一只普通馴鹿能拉大約500磅左右。既使是飛鹿（見１。），在沒有地面磨擦力的情況下能拉十倍于正常的重量，我們還是沒法靠那八或九只馴鹿。我們大概需要150,000只馴鹿。這使負載在不計算雪橇和圣誕老人的情況下，依然等于353,430噸。用以比較的話，是伊利沙白二世的四倍重（記住，是那艘郵輪，不是人）。
5) 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles/second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat up the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within .00426 of a second. Meanwhile, Santa will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-lb Santa (seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 lb. of force.
５。353,430噸重的物體以每秒650哩的速度在大氣中飛行會遇到強大的空氣阻力，就象宇宙飛船由軌道回航一樣地把那些馴鹿加熱。那領(lǐng)頭的一對則要吸收每秒14.3 quintillion (14.2x10^18)焦耳的能量。換言之，他們會立刻化為灰燼，使后面的一對暴露在沖擊波前，并且產(chǎn)生出強烈的音爆。這使整對馴鹿在0.00426秒內(nèi)氣化。同時，圣誕老人需要承受17,500g的向心力，這使250磅，該算是苗條的圣誕老人，被4,315,015磅的力壓在雪橇上。
If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
若圣誕老人真是這樣送圣誕禮物的話，他已經(jīng)累死了。
１。沒有任何一種已知的馴鹿能飛。但目前有300,000種生物還沒被分類，雖然其中大部分是昆蟲及細菌，但不能絕對抹煞那只有圣誕老人才見過的飛鹿的存在的可能性。
2) There are 2 billion children (persons under 18) in the world. BUT since Santa doesn't (appear) to handle the Muslim, Hindu, Jewish, & Buddhist children, that reduces the workload to 15% of the total - 378 million according to Population Reference Bureau. At an average (census) rate of 3.5 children per household, that's 91.8 million homes. One presumes there's at least one good child in each.
２。世界上有二十億兒童（年齡在十八歲以下的人類），但據(jù)觀察圣誕老人不處理回教徒，印度教徒，*人，佛教徒的兒童，這樣，根據(jù)有關(guān)部門的數(shù)據(jù)，他的工作量將減至原來的15%即３億７千８百萬人。以平均一個家庭有3.5名兒童（US Census, World Health Oraganization, UNICEF)，則共有９千１百８０萬個家庭。為計算起見，我們假設(shè)每個上述家庭有一個好孩子。
3) Santa has 31 hours of Christmas to work with. This is due to the different time zones and the rotation of the earth, assuming he travels east to west (which seems logical). This works out to 822.6 visits/second. This is to say that for each Christian household with good children, Santa has .001 second to park, hop out of the sleigh, jump down the chimney, get back into the sleigh and move on to the next house. Assuming that each of these 91.8 million stops are evenly distributed around the earth (which, of course, we know to be false but for the purposes of our calculations we will accept), we are now talking about .78 miles/household, a total trip of 75.5 million miles; not counting stops to do what most of us must do at least once every 31 hours, plus feeding & etc. So Santa's sleigh must be moving at 650 miles/second, 3,000 times the speed of sound. For purposes of comparison, the fastest man-made vehicle on earth, the Ulysses space probe, moves at a poky 27.4 miles/second. A conventional reindeer can run, tops, 15 miles/hour.
３。如果我們假設(shè)圣誕老人的旅程是從東向西的（這看來合乎邏輯），圣誕老人共有31小時的圣誕節(jié)工作時間，這得要謝謝不同的時區(qū)及地球的轉(zhuǎn)。則計算所得的結(jié)果是每秒鐘822.6次探訪。也就是說每個基督徒家庭有一個乖孩子，圣誕老人共有0.0012秒來停車，跳下雪橇，躍進煙囪，放下禮物，吃掉剩下的零食，再回到雪橇，然后去下一站。假定圣誕老人的雪橇不采用量子隧道現(xiàn)象(Quantum Tunneling Behavior)運動，而且這９千１百８０萬個家庭是均勻分布在地球表面；我們知道這樣的假設(shè)的錯誤，但為計算的關(guān)系，我們接受這樣的假設(shè)；則我們有每家的平均距離為0.78哩，全程為75.5百萬哩，其中不包括31小時內(nèi)大部分人都要去的地方的路程。這樣，圣誕老人的雪橇需要一秒鐘跑650哩，這是音速的3,000倍。用以比較的話，最快的人造飛行器Ulysses太空探險器，每秒才不過27.4哩。普通的馴鹿要不是給狼群追趕的話，每小時才跑15哩。
4) The payload on the sleigh adds another interesting element. Assuming that each child gets nothing more than a medium-sized lego set (2 lb.), the sleigh is carrying 321,300 tons, not counting Santa, who is invariably described as overweight. On land, conventional reindeer can pull no more than 300 lb. Even granting that "flying reindeer" (see #1) could pull 10 TIMES the normal amount, we cannot do the job with 8, or even 9 reindeer. We need 214,200. This increases the payload - not counting the weight of the sleigh - to 353,430 tons. This is four times the weight of the ocean-liner Queen Elizabeth.
４。雪橇的負載又添加了些有趣的因素。假設(shè)每個小孩所得的不多于一盒中等的Lego（２磅），那雪橇的載重為321,300噸，還不算圣誕老人他自己這位在眾多記載中被形容為超重的人物。在地上，一只普通馴鹿能拉大約500磅左右。既使是飛鹿（見１。），在沒有地面磨擦力的情況下能拉十倍于正常的重量，我們還是沒法靠那八或九只馴鹿。我們大概需要150,000只馴鹿。這使負載在不計算雪橇和圣誕老人的情況下，依然等于353,430噸。用以比較的話，是伊利沙白二世的四倍重（記住，是那艘郵輪，不是人）。
5) 353,000 tons travelling at 650 miles/second creates enormous air resistance. This will heat up the reindeer up in the same fashion as a spacecraft reentering the earth's atmosphere. The lead pair of reindeer will absorb 14.3 QUINTILLION joules of energy. Per second. Each. In short, they will burst into flame almost instantaneously, exposing the reindeer behind them, and create deafening sonic booms in their wake. The entire reindeer team will be vaporized within .00426 of a second. Meanwhile, Santa will be subjected to centrifugal forces 17,500.06 times greater than gravity. A 250-lb Santa (seems ludicrously slim) would be pinned to the back of his sleigh by 4,315,015 lb. of force.
５。353,430噸重的物體以每秒650哩的速度在大氣中飛行會遇到強大的空氣阻力，就象宇宙飛船由軌道回航一樣地把那些馴鹿加熱。那領(lǐng)頭的一對則要吸收每秒14.3 quintillion (14.2x10^18)焦耳的能量。換言之，他們會立刻化為灰燼，使后面的一對暴露在沖擊波前，并且產(chǎn)生出強烈的音爆。這使整對馴鹿在0.00426秒內(nèi)氣化。同時，圣誕老人需要承受17,500g的向心力，這使250磅，該算是苗條的圣誕老人，被4,315,015磅的力壓在雪橇上。
If Santa ever DID deliver presents on Christmas Eve, he's dead now.
若圣誕老人真是這樣送圣誕禮物的話，他已經(jīng)累死了。