daniel@ihu1f.UUCP (D.F.Webster) (09/29/83)
Two questions that won't let me sleep?
1) How long is a stardate? (I once computed it to be 2.5 minutes
based on an error in one episode)
2) I know I have heard Khan's tirades in another movie, but for
the life of me I can't remember it. What was it?rtf@ihuxw.UUCP (sparrow) (09/30/83)
Beats me how long a stardate is, but Khan's death speech in TWOK is from 'Moby Dick' spoken by Captain Ahab (Gregory Peck). sparrow
rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (10/10/83)
Stardates *do* have meaning, although not very well defined. No attempt was really made in the TV series to make it consistent. Generally, they seem to be one solar day as measured at Earth, but I do NOT have adequate evidence for this. The idea was to provide a synchronizing mechanism when one has starships traveling at (possibly hyper-) relativistic speeds in distant parts of the galaxy. Since (using space inertial navigation systems) individual starships can measure their own speed, they can compute the "simultaneous" passage of time on Earth (when one defines "simultaneous" in the proper relativistic fashion). Thus a starship can assume any speed it is capable of, travel anywhere in the galaxy it can reach, and return to rendezvous with any other ship or starbase indicating the same current stardate (assuming they also did so at some specific time in the past). Further, ships with no relative velocity measure the passage of stardates at precisely the same rate with respect to onboard time. Obviously, different amounts of time could have passed for two observers but stardates would be the same. -- Roger Noe ...ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe