Quantum Santa

The best thing about growing up is not forgetting something fundamental: that we were also children once. Perhaps I think this now because sometimes, without realizing it, we can destroy the illusions that children weave around fantastic stories, which are the food for their creative capacity, and we, being older and «knowing» how things are, tear down that magical world with two words: «DOESN’T EXIST».

But, do these worlds and characters from our children’s imagination really not exist? The answer is: «We don’t know. Just because we haven’t seen them doesn’t mean they don’t exist.» And physics can help us a bit with this.

In this case, I will only mention the fantastic Santa Claus.

In quantum mechanics, there is something we call Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, according to which we can only know with exactness one of two conjugate variables. If we know its velocity, we do not know its position, and vice versa. We know how extensive the Earth is, and with UNICEF reports we know the child population, so calculating Santa’s speed would not be a major problem. We know his speed, but we don’t see him.

The other thing is that Santa, as a quantum body, could be found in a quantum superposition of states, which means that there are many possible configurations—in this particular case of position—somewhere on Earth delivering a gift to a different child, and all of these simultaneously. But be careful, children, go to bed early on Christmas Eve; if you see Santa in your house, you will provoke something catastrophic: his quantum state will collapse in your house, so Santa will not be able to continue delivering gifts.

Well, there are many more theories. Great researchers and men of science have tried to explain the Santa phenomenon, but so far, only speculations.

To see others, you can read Physics of Santa Claus (it shows some simple calculations), and the link that motivated me to write this note, which mentions other possibilities such as a relativistic cloud or a very technological Santa, with the latest in nanotechnology.