A2_7 Santa Doesn't Eat All the Treats

Abstract

In this paper, we consider whether the traditional treats left out for Santa could generate enough energy to power his yearly race to deliver presents around the world. We calculate the energy requirement for the journey using a simplied kinetic energy model, nding that Santa requires 2.365x10^27 J of energy. Using Einstein's energy-mass relation we calculated the total energy Santa could collect on his trip as 1.722x10^26 J. This overall leaves a net energy of 2.193x10^27 J unaccounted for.