Painting of Central London

 

Is it real?

Yes, it is real. A real painting. The artist is just finishing off the final few brushstrokes of his painting, while some spectators are watching his work.

The place is Trafalgar Square in the centre of London.

Does Santa exist?

Image via Wikipedia

There are probably no young children who read this blog, so I am sure the title is not a shock to you. I read a report recently which now proves that Santa can’t exist and it gives all the reasons.

Firstly reindeer can’t fly. But humans don’t know everything so there is a very very small chance that a flying reindeer exists, only we haven’t yet discovered it.

Secondly there are about 378,000,000 (378 million) Christian children in the world. If there are 3.5 children in each house then Santa needs to visit about 92,000,000 (92 million) homes. If Santa flies from east to west he has about 31 hours to deliver the gifts. This means he must visit about 800 homes every second. So he jumps down the chimney, puts a present in each stocking, eats a snack, and gets back up the chimney and into the sleigh in about 0.001 seconds. And Santa is overweight!

Thirdly there is the speed of Santa’s sleigh. Santa needs to travel about 1 hundred million (100,000,000) kilometres in 31 hours, which is a speed of about 1,000 kilometres every second. The fastest speed for any man-made vehicle is about 30 km per second (the Ulysees space probe), so this speed is much much faster than anything we now know.

Fourthly is the weight of the presents. If every child gets a small size present then the sleigh would have to carry about 300,000 tons, and would need about 200,000 reindeer to pull the sleigh. The total weight of the presents, the reindeer and of course Santa would be about the same as 4 cruise ships, and the amount of power needed to make this fly is too huge to calculate.

Lastly 300,000 tons travelling at 1,000 km per second would heat up the reindeer so quickly that they would catch fire and burn in about 0.004 seconds, and so would Santa.

So, if Santa exists, he is killed less than a second after his sleigh starts to move. I hope this doesn’t spoil your Christmas.

Stonehenge in snow

These stones have seen a few winters

Stonehenge has been standing for more than 4,000 years, and will not worry about  a little snow.

Once in a blue moon

 

We could see a blue moon this morning

It happens once in a blue moon is a phrase sometimes used in English. A blue moon rarely occurs, so once in a blue moon means rarely.

However a blue moon could be seen this morning. Just after a lunar eclipse the moon appeared to be blue for a short time, and this is what we had today.

Snowmen on the beach

Snowmen in Ireland

Even a snowman likes to go to the beach from time to time, and the freezing weather is just the time.

Loch Ness in winter

Nice place for a monster to live

Loch Ness, in Scotland is famous for a monster that may, or may not, be living in its waters.

But it is also a place of outstanding natural beauty.

Related Articles

• Loch Ness monster ‘seen twice’ (telegraph.co.uk)

FC Twente 3-3 Spurs

FC Twente stadium

Spurs continue their European adventure with another good result.

Although FC Twente (Holland) scored three goals Spurs also scored three times, og, Defoe-2, and a draw was enough for Spurs to win their group and qualify for the next stage of the European Cup.

There are now only 16 teams remaining, and Spurs have already progressed much further than anyone expected.

Related Articles

• Match Reports: Twente Enschede 3-3 Tottenham Hotspur (clubcall.com)

Newton’s rainbow

 

An illustration of Newton's famous experiment

The great scientist Sir Isaac Newton did not invent rainbows. But he did discover that white light consists on many colors, and can be split using a prism.

Related Articles

• Facts About Sir Isaac Newton: 10 Interesting Facts You Didn’t Know (brighthub.com)
• 5 Amazing Lessons from Sir Isaac Newton (dumblittleman.com)

Robin

 

A typical winter scene

The snow of winter has come early in Europe.

One of the best known images of winter, which can be seen on so many Christmas cards is that of the robin bird.

Related Articles

• Fewer robins will be keeping gardeners company this winter (telegraph.co.uk)

Oymyakon sunset

 

The sunsets make it all worthwhile

This is the sunset in Oymyakon, which is in Siberia, Russia. It is the coldest city in the world, where temperatures can reach lower than -60°C. No need for any fridges.