Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum Here for all of you Santa Claus doubters out there wondering how the Big guy could possibly make it across the world in one night. Take a good look at Star Trek. Although the USS Enterprise is a fictional spaceship from a fictional television show, the idea of traveling at superliminal speeds that is faster than the speed of light is a concept that a lot
of scientists have considered. When Einstein wrote down his famous E equals MC squared formula, he was saying that mass is energy in a very concentrated form. If you could take matter and convert it into energy, it could create an incredible source of power. Let's think about it. That C squared in the equation is the speed of light times the speed of light. That's three thousand meters per second squared. Even if you had a tiny bit of mass the letter M in the equation, the letter E
on the other side could be really big. So how do you make that e big enough to travel around the world in one night on a sleigh with nine or more reindeer? For that matter, Although no one may
ever know for sure how Santa operates. The House to works crew has what we think are the most logical explanations for how the big guy accomplishes everything that he does science and technology, and we think that Santa could have mastered the power of anti matter, which is one of the concepts that NASA has examined to build an engine that could propel a ship to Mars using a chunk of fuel smaller than an eminem, So we think Santa and his elves would have to outfit his sleigh
with an anti matter propulsion engine. This device will allow Santa to deliver toys around the world in one night and be back in North Pole in time for a Christmas Day feast. So what is anti matter and what makes it so important in santa sleigh? Antimatter is sort of what it sounds like, the opposite of matter. Antimatter particles are like mirror images of normal particles with the same mass, but some properties reversed, like their electric charge.
When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other, creating a complete conversion of matter into energy. NASA's research eventually fizzled, but Santa is way ahead of the game. One reason it's so hard for us to build a matter antimatter engine is because of the lack of antimatter in the universe. The scientists believe that during the Big Bang there was more matter than antimatter, and that most of the antimatter
was annihilated. Unfortunately, we can make antimatter ourselves with big atom smashers like cern. We think that Santa could have a large stock of antimatter in the North Pole. Another big problem with antimatter propulsion drives is the intense amount
of gamma radiation released from the matter antimatter collision. Since this type of radiation is very harmful, it could put Santa and the reindeer at risk, so we surmise that he must have some kind of shielding system in place, perhaps in his suit, sleigh bells, or in the sleigh itself. Now that we've explored the science behind Santa's sleigh, let's
look at who else is tracking the flight path. The North American Airspace Defense Command or nora AD, is a military organization run by both the United States and Canada, and its job is to monitor all possible aerial attacks coming into North America. With a massive amount of radar systems installed across Canada, nora AD can track quite a lot of airspace movement. NORAD keeps an eye on more than just potential attacks, however, as they have tracked Santa's
movements for more than fifty years. The tradition began in nineteen fifty five when NORAD's predecessor, the Continental Air Defense Command or KANAD, received several calls from children hoping to speak with Santa. A Sears department store had mistakenly listed Santa's number as kanad's operations hotline. The director of operations at the time, one Colonel Harry Shop, located Santa Sleigh on radar, and the tradition was passed a NORAD when
it formed. In Today, you can still call or send emails, and hundreds of volunteers spend their Christmas Eve relaying information to thousands of children curious about Santa's whereabouts and so how do they do it? They simply take the same technology used for detecting missiles and apply it to Santa Sleigh. NORAD uses heat seeking geosynchronous satellites to track missiles, and since missiles give off lots of heat when they're fired,
it's fairly easy to track them. Since Santa's antimatter propulsion rocket would get pretty hot as it travels around the world, no ad could figure out his general location throughout the night. Rudolph's nose might give off some extra heat to making it all the easier to follow the slaves progress throughout Christmas Eve and if evidence from one major organization isn't enough, As of two thousand and six, the Federal Aviation Administration or f a A cleared Santa for flight and during
normal years. This organization is responsible for ensuring this safety of millions of holiday travelers with a complex network of air traffic control systems, so it's only fitting that they've recognized jolly old st Nick's flight path. Today's episode was written by John Fuller and produced by Tyler Clang. For more on this and lots of other curious topics, visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
I Heart Radio. Or more podcasts by heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.