rubin@mtuxn.UUCP (M.RUBIN) (07/20/85)
Warp drive as found in ST doesn't seem to bounce you out of one part of space and suddenly into another; instead you cruise steadily, at (warpfactor^3)*c. Even stranger, stars keep their normal colors; no blue shift ahead nor red shift astern. Therefore I suggest: the Enterprise's warp drive creates a zone of Newtonian physics around the ship. F=ma with constant mass regardless of velocity, and those big antimatter engines just accelerate the ship right past c. But, hmm, why do they always have problems with decaying orbits when their power runs down? Aha -- it's not Newtonian, it's ARCHIMEDEAN physics; all objects tend to remain at rest unless propelled by an impulse! (cf. Scientific American, "Naive Physics", I don't have the issue in front of me but it was sometime in '83-'84.)