Tis the season to be jolly, as the old song goes, but is it possible to calculate exactly how jolly we are through data sets? A scientific analysis of Christmas and all of its related traditions has long been a point of humorous inquiry, with scientists from serious organizations like the Institute of Physics spending time to calculate the physics of Santa, were he to accomplish his yearly one-night one-man package distribution mission.
Roger Highfield, a British science writer and current Director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group, penned an entire book called the Physics of Christmas that explores these numbers to great depth. This infographic shows some of his calculations.