Time travel? A present cannon? Here’s how Santa could deliver all those gifts

Theory #2: The Einstein theory

In a nutshell If Santa was travelling at the speed of light, space would actually contract – known as Lorentz contraction – so very large distances would become very small distances.

If Santa was travelling very fast, in theory, he could shrink that line of children down to a more manageable distance.

Some people have suggested the reason that Rudolph has a red nose is because he is travelling so fast that the force of friction on it is a little bit like a spacecraft coming back to Earth’s atmosphere. The frictional force of the atmosphere causes a lot of heat to dissipate on the nose of the spacecraft, perhaps that’s why Rudolph has a red nose.

However, as you travel close to the speed of light, your mass increases as well. Your body becomes heavier. If Santa is going round the planet at 25,000mph, he is experiencing 1000 G-forces, which is way more than the human body can cope with.

Potential pitfalls Santa’s belly implodes like a bowl full of jelly.

Theory validity 6/10

Theory #3: Time travel

In a nutshell A few years ago, theoretical physicist Miguel Alcubierre found that it is theoretically possible to construct something like the warp drive that they have in Star Trek. You would have a sort of engine which distorts the space around the sleigh.

Theory #4: Quantum time travel

In a nutshell In principle, there is no reason you can’t stop or reverse the arrow of time. When you look at small systems, atomic systems, you can reverse the clock, you can make them move backwards – time travel, on a very small scale.

But once the laws of thermodynamics kick in, the whole thing breaks down.

Thermodynamics says, for example, if you have a hot cup of coffee that goes cold, there is no way you can heat it back up again, without adding more energy (microwaving it, for instance).

But at the quantum level – if you make a quantum espresso – it is theoretically possible to reverse time so that it heats up again. The problem lies in making those espressos something you might be able to drink. Scaling up makes the physics break down.

At the quantum level, however, it seems like time travel is possible.

There might be a way of harnessing this effect and being able to control it in some way to make time travel possible.

Maybe Santa knows a lot more about quantum mechanics than we do.

Potential pitfalls Flouting the laws of thermodynamics

Theory validity 8/10

Theory #5: The Von Neumann Theory

In a nutshell There is a thought experiment about space exploration called the Von Neumann probe. The idea is you would send out one spacecraft, and once it finds a distant galaxy or lands on a planet, it then uses the raw materials it finds there to construct another space probe. Now there are two and they go out and construct more. By doubling up every time, the amount of space you can explore increases exponentially.

Maybe Santa has created a Von Neumann sleigh. Say on Christmas Eve, he sends out seven sleighs, one for each continent, and when they are there, they use the materials they find to construct another.

Feasibly, you could do this with nanotechnology – and create a self-replicating sleigh. Divide and conquer, as they say.

This is a technological solution to the problem of present delivery, but it doesn’t allow Santa to be in more than one place at one time. He could, I suppose, be tapping into another quantum effect – the idea of an uncollapsed wavefunction, which would allow him to be present everywhere all at once.

That would make it a doddle because he only has to rock up at one house, but he can be at all of the houses simultaneously, along with his functionally infinite number of sleighs.

Potential pitfalls Santas, Santas everywhere…

Theory validity 9/10