Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum Here for all of you Santa
Speaker 1: Claus doubters out there wondering how the Big guy could
Speaker 1: possibly make it across the world in one night. Take
Speaker 1: a good look at Star Trek. Although the USS Enterprise
Speaker 1: is a fictional spaceship from a fictional television show, the
Speaker 1: idea of traveling at superliminal speeds that is faster than
Speaker 1: the speed of light is a concept that a lot
Speaker 1: of scientists have considered. When Einstein wrote down his famous
Speaker 1: E equals MC squared formula, he was saying that mass
Speaker 1: is energy in a very concentrated form. If you could
Speaker 1: take matter and convert it into energy, it could create
Speaker 1: an incredible source of power. Let's think about it. That
Speaker 1: C squared in the equation is the speed of light
Speaker 1: times the speed of light. That's three thousand meters per
Speaker 1: second squared. Even if you had a tiny bit of
Speaker 1: mass the letter M in the equation, the letter E
Speaker 1: on the other side could be really big. So how
Speaker 1: do you make that e big enough to travel around
Speaker 1: the world in one night on a sleigh with nine
Speaker 1: or more reindeer? For that matter, Although no one may
Speaker 1: ever know for sure how Santa operates. The House to
Speaker 1: works crew has what we think are the most logical
Speaker 1: explanations for how the big guy accomplishes everything that he
Speaker 1: does science and technology, and we think that Santa could
Speaker 1: have mastered the power of anti matter, which is one
Speaker 1: of the concepts that NASA has examined to build an
Speaker 1: engine that could propel a ship to Mars using a
Speaker 1: chunk of fuel smaller than an eminem, So we think
Speaker 1: Santa and his elves would have to outfit his sleigh
Speaker 1: with an anti matter propulsion engine. This device will allow
Speaker 1: Santa to deliver toys around the world in one night
Speaker 1: and be back in North Pole in time for a
Speaker 1: Christmas Day feast. So what is anti matter and what
Speaker 1: makes it so important in santa sleigh? Antimatter is sort
Speaker 1: of what it sounds like, the opposite of matter. Antimatter
Speaker 1: particles are like mirror images of normal particles with the
Speaker 1: same mass, but some properties reversed, like their electric charge.
Speaker 1: When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other, creating
Speaker 1: a complete conversion of matter into energy. NASA's research eventually fizzled,
Speaker 1: but Santa is way ahead of the game. One reason
Speaker 1: it's so hard for us to build a matter antimatter
Speaker 1: engine is because of the lack of antimatter in the universe.
Speaker 1: The scientists believe that during the Big Bang there was
Speaker 1: more matter than antimatter, and that most of the antimatter
Speaker 1: was annihilated. Unfortunately, we can make antimatter ourselves with big
Speaker 1: atom smashers like cern. We think that Santa could have
Speaker 1: a large stock of antimatter in the North Pole. Another
Speaker 1: big problem with antimatter propulsion drives is the intense amount
Speaker 1: of gamma radiation released from the matter antimatter collision. Since
Speaker 1: this type of radiation is very harmful, it could put
Speaker 1: Santa and the reindeer at risk, so we surmise that
Speaker 1: he must have some kind of shielding system in place,
Speaker 1: perhaps in his suit, sleigh bells, or in the sleigh itself.
Speaker 1: Now that we've explored the science behind Santa's sleigh, let's
Speaker 1: look at who else is tracking the flight path. The
Speaker 1: North American Airspace Defense Command or nora AD, is a
Speaker 1: military organization run by both the United States and Canada,
Speaker 1: and its job is to monitor all possible aerial attacks
Speaker 1: coming into North America. With a massive amount of radar
Speaker 1: systems installed across Canada, nora AD can track quite a
Speaker 1: lot of airspace movement. NORAD keeps an eye on more
Speaker 1: than just potential attacks, however, as they have tracked Santa's
Speaker 1: movements for more than fifty years. The tradition began in
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five when NORAD's predecessor, the Continental Air Defense
Speaker 1: Command or KANAD, received several calls from children hoping to
Speaker 1: speak with Santa. A Sears department store had mistakenly listed
Speaker 1: Santa's number as kanad's operations hotline. The director of operations
Speaker 1: at the time, one Colonel Harry Shop, located Santa Sleigh
Speaker 1: on radar, and the tradition was passed a NORAD when
Speaker 1: it formed. In Today, you can still call or send emails,
Speaker 1: and hundreds of volunteers spend their Christmas Eve relaying information
Speaker 1: to thousands of children curious about Santa's whereabouts and so
Speaker 1: how do they do it? They simply take the same
Speaker 1: technology used for detecting missiles and apply it to Santa Sleigh.
Speaker 1: NORAD uses heat seeking geosynchronous satellites to track missiles, and
Speaker 1: since missiles give off lots of heat when they're fired,
Speaker 1: it's fairly easy to track them. Since Santa's antimatter propulsion
Speaker 1: rocket would get pretty hot as it travels around the world,
Speaker 1: no ad could figure out his general location throughout the night.
Speaker 1: Rudolph's nose might give off some extra heat to making
Speaker 1: it all the easier to follow the slaves progress throughout
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve and if evidence from one major organization isn't enough,
Speaker 1: As of two thousand and six, the Federal Aviation Administration
Speaker 1: or f a A cleared Santa for flight and during
Speaker 1: normal years. This organization is responsible for ensuring this safety
Speaker 1: of millions of holiday travelers with a complex network of
Speaker 1: air traffic control systems, so it's only fitting that they've
Speaker 1: recognized jolly old st Nick's flight path. Today's episode was
Speaker 1: written by John Fuller and produced by Tyler Clang. For
Speaker 1: more on this and lots of other curious topics, visit
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Or more podcasts by heart Radio, visit
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