GettyEveryone’s favourite pop-star physicist, Brian Cox, has just explained the magic of Father Christmas.
Hearing a scientist explain the science behind fiction really makes your brain hurt, but we appreciate his efforts.
Speaking on This Morning, Cox, in between fringe swishes, explains that ‘Einstein gave us the answer in 1905 with his special theory of relativity’.
ITVAs Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes desperately tried to feign their best ‘santa is real’ faces, Brian said:
What Einstein told us, which is true, is that if you get closer to the speed of light you go faster and faster and then distances shrink.
Let’s say Santa’s going around the globe now, so he starts off in Canada and he goes whizzing across to Europe.
Now that’s 3,000 miles or something, but if you’re going very close to the speed of light – let’s say 99.99999 per cent of the speed of light – distances shrink, in that case by a factor of 7,000.
He explained it, and I one hundred per cent believe him, but I can’t say I understand it.
Thanks Brian, you really know how to make Christmas fun.
