[net.startrek] Warp speed is peanuts

andrew@orca.UUCP (Andrew Klossner) (10/17/83)

Even with the super-turbo-hyper-charged warp drive which allows
"emergency" speeds of warp 12 (= 12^3 c = 1728 light-years/year), it
would take 22 hours to travel from here to Alpha Centauri, the nearest
star.  Yet the Enterprise flashes by stars so fast you can hear them
"whoosh" (-:

Star Trek works best if you ignore the whole question of how fast the
ship is going.  Even if a true space warp is involved, several
well-understood facets of relativity are violated.

  -- Andrew Klossner   (decvax!tektronix!tekecs!andrew)  [UUCP]
                       (andrew.tektronix@rand-relay)     [ARPA]