The science of "Star Trek"

[All Seeing Eye]

Speaking of magma release and the beam hitting San Fran, it was in the river and the beam wasn't on all that long, chances are it was only just making it through the crust and even if it wern't the water of the river would have fallen into the hole probably cooling the magma quite rapidly and possibly solidifying it rapidly.
As for how can they drop the red matter down after reaching the core? perhaps the beam is special and causes the walls of the drilled hole to become glassified or something.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

"The Science of Sci-Fi" article

"The Science of Sci-Fi"
article from Popular Science.

Our resident film physicist tackles the final frontier and finds some key pointers for our own space travels

I wanted to post it in this old thread from October in the science and fantasy forum
How much science should be in science fiction?
but it is frowned upon as it is a 'dead thread' but not a closed thread.

 

[SonicRanger]

So the Genesis device is fine, but red matter is bad?

So site-to-site transporters are fine, but transporting at warp is bad?

So a moon exploding with subspace shockwaves is good, but a supernova with subspace shockwaves is bad?

So phasers vaporizing rock is good, but drills vaporizing rock is bad?

Not seeing the moon zip across the sky is good, but not seeing Vulcan zip across the sky is bad?

Is there anything else?

 

[mredom]

OK-about transporting to a ship at warp:

One of the myriad theories I have seen regarding warp-drive is that the warp bubble in reality warps space-time itself at a sub-space level. by "warping" space it bends the fabric of space to bring the destination point closer to the origination point. If you think about it, in relative terms the ship might not be that far from Delta Vega because Delta Vega is very close to the origination point of the warp. In fact, Scotty himself alludes to this by when he states that it "never occurred to him to think of space as the thing that was moving". Even though the ship was traveling in warped space, it's actual distance might not be that far from the planet at all.

The whole notion creates a can of worms down the line, as has been pointed out in other threads with this knowledge, what's to stop a hostile alien ship from beaming a weapon onto a ship at warp without their knowledge? In this way, you could destroy your opponent without being detected.

Just another fanboy explanation of how my disbelief can be suspended. Luckily, none of us really knows what will be reality in 200 years. But if they have time travel, they are probably scanning the BBS laughing at our primitive understanding of basic concepts they learned in "grammar school".

 

[RAMA]

I noticed a section in David gerrold's "World of Star Trek" (1984 edition) as I was going through it after cleaning the garage...he mentions the scientific inaccuracy of STII. Get used to it, ST is not a science project.

 

[Omega_Glory]

If the Enterprise was at warp three leaving Delta Vega, they could be anywhere from 1.5 light days to 7 or 8+. Just depends on how long it took Kirk to walk from the pod to the cave, BS with Spock for a while, and then walk to the outpost. If he managed it in 23 hours, and at warp three the ship was moving 27 times the speed of light, then the ship could be as far off as 8.6 light days.

The real interesting thing is that the Federation no longer needs to have in-system ships to move cargo or passengers around. Want to go to Neptune, just beam there. Want to go to the next star system, just step on a transporter pad. Makes spaceships kinda obselete. I think JJ wanted to incorporate some Stargate style travel into Star Trek.

 

[Photoman15]

I justified #1 (supernova destroying the galaxy) in my own little head by assuming that this supernova was merely the real space reflection of a much bigger upheaval at the subspace level...one that would potentially destroy the fabric of spacetime and manifest itself with the destruction of the entire galaxy if left unchecked.

And, yes, I do have quite a bit of time on my hands...

Except stars go supernova all the time and we're still here.

But they're not also sending sub-space shock waves which are then converting any matter in it's path into energy that is being reapplied to the subspace shock wave, giving it more power/intensity at each planet/sun it consumes.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

The science of "Star Trek" from the writer of The Physics of Star Trek

Prof. Lawrence Krauss, author of "The Physics of Star Trek" explains the physics behind Star Trek's transporter systems,
Tempe Center for the Arts, BEYOND center, ASU from 2007.
Science of Star Trek: Transporters
video Length: 4:21
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mD7X9vGMX0k

explains the physics behind Star Trek's warp drive and how it would be theoretically possible.
Science of Star Trek: The Warp Drive
video Length: 2:57
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNAEN8LmevQ

 

[jefferiestubes8]

‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in STIV:TVH

Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.

July 27, 2009
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/07/090727130814.htm

2nd source

 

[M'Sharak]

Re: ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in STIV:TVH

Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium... <snip>

Transparent to a narrow band of light frequencies at the exteme end of the UV spectrum for 4 x 10^-14 seconds.

I wouldn't be beaming the whales up just yet, if I were you.

 

[jefferiestubes8]

teleportation

you can view an actual patent for a teleportation device. In it, John Quincy St. Clair envisions: "a pulsed gravitational wave wormhole generator system that teleports a human being through hyperspace from one location to another."

from this article about teleportation in SciFi


the patent
Full body teleportation system patent
September 29, 2004
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph...122.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060071122&RS=DN/20060071122

 

[Irishman]

LOL

 

[JarodRussell]

Best thing is when Spock decides to create a black hole inside the super nova to suck it back. Fantastic science. When a star goes nova, what remains will be a neutron star, and if that has enough mass, it will implode into a black hole.

 

[OneBuckFilms]

If the Enterprise was at warp three leaving Delta Vega, they could be anywhere from 1.5 light days to 7 or 8+. Just depends on how long it took Kirk to walk from the pod to the cave, BS with Spock for a while, and then walk to the outpost. If he managed it in 23 hours, and at warp three the ship was moving 27 times the speed of light, then the ship could be as far off as 8.6 light days.

The real interesting thing is that the Federation no longer needs to have in-system ships to move cargo or passengers around. Want to go to Neptune, just beam there. Want to go to the next star system, just step on a transporter pad. Makes spaceships kinda obselete. I think JJ wanted to incorporate some Stargate style travel into Star Trek.

One should note, of course, that the formula came from the Prime future from Scotty (Some 150+ years in the future, with a lot more advanced research), and was likely experimental then.

Scotty was dubious about trying it.

It's something that won't be in general use, due to it's experimental nature.

It probably worked between Titan and Earth because of the relatively close proximity, and was still dodgy then.

A long way from being ready for general application.

Such long distance beaming is certainly not unheard of. Remember how Gary Seven got aboard the Enterprise on his way to Earth?

 

[jefferiestubes8]

5 science concepts and Star Trek

Professor John Barrick, who teaches Seven Ideas that Shook the Universe
& Daniel Wolfson, an instructor for the Academic Success Center on study strategies for physics,
discuss Warp speed, Transporters, Phasers, Photon torpedoes, Time travel in this article today:
Is 'Star Trek' technology actually possible?