jdd@cbscc.UUCP (Jim Doan) (10/29/84)
<WHAT do you mean "We're no orbiting Triacus anymore"? I just sent 2 red men> Well, I figured I would throw in my two cents worth on the subject of warp speeds. I found some interesting information that might explain/confuse the matter of what warp speeds really are. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine found in a bookstore some Star Trek maps. This included 2 double-sided maps of interstellar space that the Federation has mapped, showing many of the solar systems the the Enterprise has visited. (These Star Trek (TM) Maps are published by Bantam Books, who have a exclusive license from Paramount Pictures Corp. The following information is being transmitted WITHOUT the approval of Bantam Books.) Anyhow with the maps, came technical manual titled: INTRODUCTION TO NAVAGATION Star Fleet Command Technical Publications Section The following is an excerpt from that manual (it is lengthy) ================================================================================ 1.2 WARP DRIVE Fundamental to today's interstellar travel has been the development of warp drive. Basically, warp drive consists of the generation of a field about a spacecraft which bends or warps space in the direction of travel. A reaction of the bending propels the ship forward. Since space is being moved relative to itself in a smoothly increasing rate as the center of the field is approached, no neighboring regions exceed the speed of light. How- ever, the total effect on the ship of these incremental speed differences is multi-light velocities. This gradual increase of velocity avoids the speed constraints imposed by the theory of relativity. The first survey vessles equipped with Cochrane's new space warp drive, such as teh S.S. Bonaventure, were able to cross interstellar distances in weeks instead of years. A discovery of almost equal magnitude to warp drive was made in 2160's (Terran), when the Quantum II or "time warp" space drive was perfected. This system is still in use today, and is calibrated on the exponential scale of time warp factors (or simply warp factors). The new time warp drive, so called because of the time dilation effects experienced at warp speeds, enabled the Archon class starships to open vast new frontiers, and extend the boundaries of the Federation by hundreds of parsecs. The third great breakthrough came in 2243 (Terran), when the "time barrier," warp factor four, was broken by improvements in matter/anti-matter engine design. This made much more energy available, so that more powerful warp field generators could be used. The new propulsion units were quickly installed on the Constitution class starships, and, although capable of speeds up to warp factor eight, they were limited in normal operation to warp factor six by the structural strain caused by the limitations of the ship's compensation field's ability to adequately protect it from the effects of the warp field. Recent discoveries, however, suggest that this limit will soon be exceeded. In theory, warp speeds hundreds of times greater are not impossible for properly designed ships and engines. 1.3 WARP SPEEDS The classic (W^3) * c = v formula (where (W^3) is the warp factor cubed and c is the speed of light, or about 300,000 kilometers per second) has often been used to determine faster-than-light velocities; but it is obvious that this formula is insufficient if we consider that starships have visited the galactic center,** approximately 30,000 light years distant (a trip which would take thirty years even at warp factor ten, using this formula). As Zefram Cochrane pointed ou in 2053, actual warp speeds relative to the speed of light may be calculated by multiplying the warp factor cubed by a variable that accounts for the curvature of space in a fourth dimension by the presence of mass; subspace, a continuum in which a vessel under warp drive travels, is not curved in a fourth spatial dimension, and therefore offers a linear "short cut" between points in our galaxy. This variable, called Cochrane's factor and sometimes indicated by the greek letter chi (X) [which I can only use a capital X for it], can be as high as 1,500 in dense dust and gas clouds and as little as 1 in intergalactic void. It is larger neat massive objects such as star and black holes, as space is curved around such as objects to an even greater extent. For practical reasons, warp drive is not used in the vicinity of massive objects, as the disproportionately high warp speeds tend to produce a "slingshot effect," catapulting a starship out of this space-time continuum altogether. Between galaxies, where negligible matter exists, space is not perceptibly curved, and the short cut afforded by Cochrane's factor disappears. Warp speeds attain their "ideal" (W^3) * c = v values, and the transit time to the Andromeda galaxy becomes thousands rather than hundreds of years. The correct warp factor formula is therefore expressed as X * (W^3) * c = v where the value of X varies with the local density of matter. This variable, somewhat analogous to the winds or ocean currents in sailing, explains why greater interstellar distances may sometimes be transversed at greater speeds and in less time than shorter distances. Accordingly, a navigator must take into account any variations in the density of matter along a given route before he is able to estimate the arrival time at his destination. Table 1.1 shows the corrected values for warp speeds, given an average value for X of 1292.7238 within Fedreation space. Table 1.1 Corrected Warp Speeds W (W^3) X (W^3) Ti per parsec hrs min sec -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 1 1,292.7238 22 05 29 2 8 10,341.7904 02 45 41 3 27 34,903.5426 00 49 05 4 64 82,734.3232 00 20 43 5 125 161,590.4750 00 10 36 6 216 279,228.3407 00 06 08 7 343 443,404.2634 00 03 52 8 512 661,874.5856 00 02 35 9 729 942,395.6502 00 01 49 10 1000 1,292,723.8 00 01 19 ** See the log of the U.S.S Enterprise, stardate 1254.4 ================================================================================ Well, I bet that will give all you out there something to munch on. I will be waiting to see some response to this. -- Jim Doan [ ... cbosgd!] cbscc!jdd AT&T-BL CB 1E275 (614)-860-3294 [8-353]-3294