![]() ( ENT: " In a Mirror, Darkly" DS9: " The Sound of Her Voice" TOS: " The Changeling") This was due to energy output limitations of the warp core and limitations of other systems, such as the warp coils, the structural integrity field, and the amount of energy the propulsion system could handle without overloading. The maximum warp velocity and the time it could be maintained by a starship varied between classes. one fan has a really good (but complex) fit it's a graphic at this thread at Flare Sci Fi forums.In " The Corbomite Maneuver" and " Encounter at Farpoint", maximum warp was called "maximum acceleration". Region 2 is WF in the range 9-10, and the forumlae for the second range, which was a hand drawn curve, are hard to describe. Region 1 is to warp 9 it's a simple bump of the old method, using 10/3 power (=3.333. That curve is published in the ST:TNG Tech Manual, by Michael Okuda. In order to meet those benchmarks, it was required to produce an asymptotic and multi-regional curve. GR left it up to the production staff to implement it. The rescaling was in part a response to authors (both TOS and books) inflating speeds for their various stories, according to one interview with GR that was aired on TV in the late 1980's. Gene Roddenberry (GR) made a decision during the prep for Next Gen to rescale warp factors to keep the normal ranges low, but also to increase the values for the lower ranges. The TNG Technical Manual also contains a note alluding to Gene's decision. You can see this a few times in the first season where the Enterprise tries to outrun things, but cannot (Qs grid springs to mind). He put in a speed limit to keep writers from inventing more speed as the way out of trouble. Outside of canon, I recall an interview with Roddenberry. I liken this to the metric system, where they decide a gram was a rather small amount of mass, but rather than recalibrate, people just decided to measure things in kgs. So all the "undiscovered" plateaus between 9 and 10 had to be squeezed in. At that time, they decided Warp 10 was infinite power required. A larger spike is needed to get from Warp 1 to Warp 9. The idea here is that it's easy (power-wise) to maintain a particular speed, but a power spike is needed to make that jump from Warp 1 to Warp 2. In TNG, the scale was changed to the amount of power required to transition from one warp plateau to another. You could certainly figure out what your speed was for the last mile, but it may not be indicative of your speed for the next mile. I imagine this like driving a car at 6000 RPM over a surface that is at one second oil and the next sandpaper, with large rocks mixed in here or there. Since the engines aren't actually fluctuating power to maintain a constant speed, the observed (averaged) speed was little more than a guess. Since such great distances were being covered in such a short time, a great deal of turbulence exists. For instance you spend a few seconds traveling through a smallish eddy and it greatly reduces your velocity. The old scale was calculated based on "observed" speed (much like our MPH/KPH), but the amounts of energy needed to maintain that speed could be vastly different from one moment to the next based on interstellar conditions and quantum drag forces. If you're looking for the "canon-ish" answer for the change, according to the "Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual" the scale was recalibrated in the 24th century. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |