Santa's magic unveiled

By CP

TORONTO -- A Canadian space scientist has calculated how Santa Claus manages to deliver presents to almost a billion children around the world during Christmas Eve - at least the ones who haven't been naughty.

All it takes is precise orbital mechanics, fast-working elves, multiple time zones and a helping hand from NASA's shuttle, says Andrew Yau at the University of Calgary. It also requires a sleigh longer than two football fields that orbits the Earth at 23 times the speed of sound.

Yau worked out the details at the behest of a federal granting agency, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, which posted a summary on its website, www.nserc.gc.ca.

"It's about as believable a story as you can get, but it's still got holes," says Yau.

Part of the magic is that Santa begins his long night aboard a sleigh NASA's shuttle has carried into an orbit 300 kilometres high.

That altitude lets the reindeer really move, says Yau, because there's almost no air to slow them down.

The sleigh travels at 28,000 kmh, the same as many orbiting satellites, which works out to 23 times the speed of sound. That may explain why some children report hearing reindeer bells on Christmas Eve. It's really sonic booms.

That speed whips Santa around the Earth every 90 minutes, from the North Pole to the South and then back again as the world revolves beneath.

Not so simple is getting the presents down to each child's house from a fast-moving sleigh.

Yau figures St. Nick has some special apparatus. "But it's unknown to science," the researcher admits.

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