Estimated read time: Less than a minute
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Sarah Jane Reporting Santa Claus delivers presents to roughly 2 billion children all around the world in just one night. Is there a scientific explanation for his speedy travels?
University of Utah physics professor Clayton Williams has an explanation. He says the jolly old elf might know how to travel in different dimensions.
Clayton Williams, U of U Physics Professor: "In string theory its been postulated that there might be up to eleven dimensions. So the way it might work is if Santa Claus was in one home and then he went off into another dimension and in the mean time moved around, and then came back into the next home, he could do that in a way that would not violate the laws that we would normally recognize here."
For other scientifically sound explanations to all your holiday queries, Williams recommends the book the Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey, by Roger Highfield.
