Talk:1464: Santa

Explain xkcd: It's 'cause you're dumb.
Revision as of 19:11, 29 December 2014 by 173.245.52.88 (talk)
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Merry Christmas! --RenniePet (talk) 06:29, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

I think I have done the transcript... 17jiangz1 (talk) 06:38, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

And I did the explanation and put everything in there, I think. Looks like we're already pretty much done! 173.245.56.174 06:44, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

It should maybe be mentioned that this comic is a turn of the screw on the many "The physics of Santa" joke articles - The usual chain e-mail or satire web page calculations that take it seriously the logistical calculations for Santa and end up concluding that he should beat the speed of light to deliver the presents. Randall doesn't settle on calculating the logistics for reindeer performance or route planning, he goes a step further and makes the calculations for the refuse. 173.245.49.106 08:31, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Well maybe all those calories are what allows him to move at the insane relativistic speeds needed to visit every house on Christmas eve. 108.162.216.56 08:47, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Exactly. And even if it wasn't, there'd still be a Mr Fusion for the poop. 108.162.250.214 22:18, 24 December 2014 (UTC)
There's no need to move at relativistic or trans-light speeds when you can appear in multiple places simultaneously [1]. - Equinox 199.27.128.117 17:41, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

We have video proof of how Santa handles this! http://youtu.be/b9TTz3R5SmI --Elipongo (talk) 09:03, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

No Christmas cat.? Halfhat (talk) 12:12, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Santa's metabolic system is perfectly efficient at converting cookies to CO2 hang H2O which is exhaled. He needs to be efficient at converting cookie energy if he plans on being so active. He is also the main source of global warming. 173.245.56.185 13:11, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

As a third option, what if Santa doesn't eat the cookies at all, but just redistributes them to other hungry children? --108.162.217.131 18:41, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

Perhaps understandably, I first read the line in the explanation as " ... butt off the side of his sleigh." Miamiclay (talk) 22:27, 24 December 2014 (UTC)

As a native English speaker, I'd like to say that "few" is relative, and defies any hard limits. A "few" transistors, for me, might mean dozens (as opposed to hundreds or more). A "few"lightyears might be 10 or so. The use of the word "few" can't be analyzed with such hard limits as 2 to 5. 108.162.221.169 17:47, 25 December 2014 (UTC)

There are only a few countries where kids leave cookies for Santa (I'm guessing North America and some European countries). That would mean fewer than 100 million kids. 103.22.200.195 05:36, 26 December 2014 (UTC)

32% of the world population are christians, and even some non-christians celebrate Christmas. 17jiangz1 (talk) 09:56, 26 December 2014 (UTC)
Yes, but leaving cookies for Santa is not integral part of christian Christmas celebration, not speaking about non-christian. There are more children who believe Santa is bringing them gifts than children who are leaving cookies for Santa. -- Hkmaly (talk) 13:53, 27 December 2014 (UTC)
Some children may be leaving cookies "for Santa", but suspect that their parents (or older siblings) are actually consuming them. It may be possible that Santa is not consuming as many cookies as this comic estimates. 108.162.237.186 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)
Maybe, but he's gotta be eating most of them. There's no way parents can eat all those cookies in one night! 108.162.221.169 07:24, 28 December 2014 (UTC)
Cookies aren't (traditionally) left in the UK. Even with the usual translation of "cookie" as "biscuit". A glass of sherry and a mince pie is our variant (at least locally to me), and of course a carrot for Rudolph. Or one or other of whichever of the on-duty reindeer is next due a nibble, which would somewhat mitigate the problem of "carrot throughput" similar to the cookie one, although ultimately mid-air ejection is probably the answer in their case anyway. 141.101.98.191 20:42, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

And despite the chill of the upper atmosphere where Santa would be flying, no one has yet made the joke that, even in this post-Cold War era, there's still reason to be concerned about Icy BMs.