Track Santa as he delivers toys around the world.

[ForeverAutumn]

You can track Santa's world wide trip on the Norad web site. A great site for kids (and kids at heart). There are video updates as he's sighted in different parts of the world, all narrated by Norad employees. He was last spotted in India, flying over the Taj Mahal.

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php

[Jim Clark]

Busy little site, cool though. The local rag made mention of it in today's edition but I hadn't got around to looking it up so thanks for doing the leg work on this one.

Hope Santa and the reindeer take a huge dump when they fly over Iraq only hitting the bad guys of course.

jc

[Swish]

(sigh)

Swish

[ForeverAutumn]

(sigh)

Swish

Well of course this wouldn't interest you...you're on the naughty list. :ciappa:

[kexodusc]

I found some Santa Physics and stats too:

The Physics of Santa Claus - Consider this from the National Association of Scholars: To appreciate what Santa accomplishes, understand that he travels 75.5 million miles all in 31 hours, thanks to the many time zones and Earths rotation. There are 2 billion children under 18 in the world and if you assume (as NAS does) that Santa does not deliver to those who are Muslim, Hindu, Jewish and Buddhist that leaves 378 million who may expect a visit from Santa.

The world census figures place 3.5 children in each household. So Santa must visit 91.8 million homes - that's 822.6 houses per second. That gives him 1/1,000th of a second to land the reindeer on a roof, jump down the chimney, distribute the goodies, chomp on some cookies, and move on. His sleigh must move 650 miles per second 3,000 times the speed of sound. NAS says the average Christmas gift (for example, Lego's or a Barbie Doll) weighs 2 pounds -- and that means the sleigh leaves Santa's Workshop at the North Pole carrying 321,300 tons of gifts.

NAS estimates a normal reindeer can pull 300 pounds but assumes Santa's Super-Reindeer can pull 10 times that amount. Even so, Santa will need 214,200 reindeer to do the job. That herd of deer increases the weight on your roof to 353,430 tons (better reinforce if you're expecting the Jolly One).

Not only that, but air resistance from 353,430 tons traveling 650 miles per second generates terrific heat, so the two lead reindeer absorb 14.3 quintillion joules of energy per second which causes them to spontaneously combust. They burst into flames as do the next 214,198 reindeer in 4.26 thousandths of a second. Santa probably doesn't notice as the deafening sonic booms and centrifugal forces that are 17,500 times the force of gravity have probably disoriented him. Santa is thrust into the back of his sleigh with 4,315,015 pounds of force.

NAS isn't sure anyone could survive, much less deliver gifts, in such conditions. Interestingly, children throughout the world could care less about NAS' scientific speculation because they believe in magic. (Which is another discussion entirely. See how one topic springboards to another?)