Supersonic Santa
Captured by the spirit of the season, physicists of the Museum of Sciences in Wolfsburg, Germany, aimed their calculators at the most prominent man of Christmas to illustrate the magnitude of his job, delivering gifts to all children within a single night. The resulting numbers - although covering only Germany - are mind blowing, myth shattering, and possibly not suited for children or republicans.
There are nearly eleven million children age 15 and younger in that country. Averaging this and the number of households results in one chimney/child set every 204 feet. To visit them all, Santa will have to travel about 424,000 miles - roughly the distance a German bullet train travels in a whole year - at a speed of 17,657 miles per hour.
That's 23 times the speed of sound. No wonder we never hear his "Ho Ho Ho!" It explains the color of Rudolf's nose, though. Anything traveling through the atmosphere at that speed will burn up thanks to friction. Although Santa and his team most certainly enjoy some form of divine protection, Rudolf's nose appears not to be covered under that plan.
Even if each child were to receive only one gift (do they still make low-maintenance children like that?) It would require the cargo space of 150 train cars that need to be towed by two diesel engines with a combined power output equaling that of 3,000 reindeers.
Gift delivery is a masterpiece of low altitude flying, timing and precision aiming. Sled and team have to approach the house at roof-level, then start a steep climb to about three times the height of the chimney, before steeply descending to the roof level again. The top of this parable flight path has to be exactly over the chimney because at this point the travel speed will be zero for a fraction of a second. Santa has to aim and release the gift at exactly that moment to make sure it doesn't miss the chimney due to inertia. We must not forget that this has to be done without the help of artificial illumination. 11 million times in one night.
And that's just Germany.