{"id":1345,"date":"2021-12-24T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-24T20:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/?p=1345"},"modified":"2025-02-26T13:37:27","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T13:37:27","slug":"leicester-physics-students-prove-santas-christmas-magic-is-real","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/2021\/12\/24\/leicester-physics-students-prove-santas-christmas-magic-is-real\/","title":{"rendered":"Physics Special Topics: Santa\u2019s Christmas magic is Real"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A group of Physics students at the University of Leicester have \u2018proved\u2019 that there is such a thing as Santa\u2019s Christmas magic.<\/em><\/strong>

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After calculating the amount of energy Santa needs to make his annual trip around the world and how much energy he would take in from all the mince pies and cookies left out for him, the students discovered the equation was missing a crucial portion \u2013 which could only be explained by Santa\u2019s Christmas magic.

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Using a simplified kinetic energy model, the team calculated that the amount of energy needed to power Santa\u2019s sleigh around the world uses energy equalling 1.42 x 1027<\/sup> J.

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If each house gives Santa two 20 g cookies, a 25 g glass of milk and one carrot for each reindeer, this would generate only 1.723 x 1026<\/sup> Joules \u2013 leaving a net energy of around 1.25 x 1027<\/sup> J unaccounted for.

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In a research paper published in the University\u2019s Journal of Physics Special Topics<\/em>, the students surmise that this missing energy can, therefore, only be explained by Christmas magic.

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Adam Hennessy is one of the co-authors of the study and is now a Research Postgraduate within the School of Physics and Astronomy. He said: \u201cWe were astounded at the result of our paper! It\u2019s hard for us to grasp where this energy is coming from. We would love to develop our model and conduct further research on the so-far under-studied concept of Christmas magic.\u201d

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Santa Doesn\u2019t Eat All the Treats<\/a>\u2019 is published in the Journal of Physics Special Topics<\/em>.

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Journal of Physics Special Topics is an in-house journal from the University of Leicester which enables undergraduate Physics students to learn about the process of peer review by writing and reviewing papers by applying theoretical concepts to light-hearted ideas.

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Other topics covered include the science behind film favourites like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory<\/a><\/em> and Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark<\/a><\/em>, plus what Formula One could look like on the surface of Mars<\/a>.

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Dr Mervyn Roy is Director of Learning and Teaching in the School of Physics and Astronomy and editor-in-chief of the journal. He said: \u201cOur student-led journal can be great fun \u2013 but it also gives students a really good grounding for real science. They have to think creatively, solve problems and write articles \u2013 and they\u2019re involved in managing the whole journal process. It\u2019s great experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A group of Physics students at the University of Leicester have \u2018proved\u2019 that there is such a thing as Santa\u2019s Christmas magic. After calculating the amount of energy Santa needs to make his annual trip around the world and how much energy he would take in from all the mince pies and cookies left out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":256,"featured_media":1346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-undergrad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/256"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1348,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1345\/revisions\/1348"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staffblogs.le.ac.uk\/physicsastronomy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}