Christmas Kinematics

This article applies the Travelling Salesman Problem (TSP) and basic physics to analyze Santa Claus's Christmas Eve route across the UK. Using the 300 most populous UK cities and the Concorde TSP solver, it calculates an optimal path of 5,993 km. Assuming a 12-hour night and proportional time allocation, Santa would need an average velocity of 36,000 mph and acceleration of 4,000g, requiring reindeer with thrust far beyond real-world animals. The post blends humor with technical concepts like algorithms, acceleration, and escape velocity, making it relevant to IT/technology topics such as optimization and computational problem-solving.