Excerpt from Gizmodo
Written by Ryan F. Mandelbaum
There’s a controversial little interpretation of Einstein’s theory of special relativity that could affect what happens to masses moving at a really high speeds: they appear to get heavier.
The effect isn’t huge until something nudges right up to the speed of light, when its mass seems to shoot up to infinity. This happens because you can’t break the speed limit set by light speed. As an object approaches that limit, it requires more and more energy to accelerate it, until eventually, it seems like you’re trying to push an infinitely massive thing, which would require infinite energy.
But that got me thinking. Santa probably has to travel at speeds close to the speed of light if he’s hoping to hit every house and still be home to spend some time with Mrs. Claus on Christmas Eve. Does that mean that Santa’s annual present-delivering jaunt would cause him to pack on extra pounds?