Do you have to be tiny to fly at Transwarp?

[Guy Gardener]

The word "transwarp" was dropped in the DS9 episode where they shrunk a runabout to the size of a bread box. It does make sense that the smaller an object is the less energy is needed to push it, and the less resistance it will create trying to push through god knows what type of unreal space is the composition of a Transwarp conduit or naked Transwarp space itself?

If size really is an issue, size vs. Power generation and the sophistication of the application of the relationship betweeen the two aspects. Then the size to which a craft traveling through transwarp must shrink to, or can shrink to or has to shrink to... Might be radically different for different cultures meeting in transwarp space...

Yeah I'm thinking of Voyager fighting Borg ships after bunching in stolen transwarp coils wonkily into their engine ... What if they were the size of marbles while fighting tooth and nail? And would they have noticed the other Star Ships half the size of a grain of sand scooting past there massive stature and marble impersonators?

 

[Starlock]

Smaller is better?

The idea makes sense.

You could even generate a mini-wormhole and send an entire Micro Fleet through.

Remember that one of Star Trek's "lost technologies" (i.e.: was never mentioned again.) was the miniature warp drive from I, Mudd.

So, this implies that warp fields are not dependant on the size of the engine - but its efficiency.

Possibly it would have allowed warp drives to be built into individual spacesuits - if the power source was small as well.

 

[Trekker4747]

Don't confuse size with mass.

Size is meaningless in space.

Mass means everything in space.

In the DS9 episode the runabout (and its ocupants) were shrunk because of "crazy gravitational distortions around the pulsar" or whatever technobabbly excuse they made up.

The point is same number of mollecules pushed closer together means same ammount of mass. Same ammount of mass means the same ammount of energy requirments to move it.

In the Trekverse transwarp also requires an infinite ammount of energy, which makes sense if you are moving at infinite speed, so size and mass isn't even an issue here.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

Trekker4747 said:
Don't confuse size with mass.

Size is meaningless in space.

Mass means everything in space.

In the DS9 episode the runabout (and its ocupants) were shrunk because of "crazy gravitational distortions around the pulsar" or whatever technobabbly excuse they made up.

The point is same number of mollecules pushed closer together means same ammount of mass. Same ammount of mass means the same ammount of energy requirments to move it.

In the Trekverse transwarp also requires an infinite ammount of energy, which makes sense if you are moving at infinite speed, so size and mass isn't even an issue here.

Yep, absolutely correct in "conventional" thinking terms.

There are some esoteric extensions of basic math where there are (stating it in "layman's terms") different "levels" of being zero or infinity... an example is that (4*a)/a equals 4. That's true in any case, including if a equals zero or a equals infinity. However, 4*infinity equals infinity, right? So even "infinity" isn't always... um... the SAME infinity. Yeah, it has no real practical use I've ever heard of, and I don't claim to be the expert in this, but I've gotten this from several "advanced math" types I've known over the years... people far smarter than I am in this area.

 

[Deks]

Actually Borg Transwarp is NOT the Warp 10 Infinite velocity.
Why ?
It's far slower in comparison to the Warp 10 inf. velocity and more similar to Slipstream technology.

First version of the Slipstream technology was in fact an off shot of the Borg TW technology if a bit slower.
Later Voyager crew created a full blown second version of Slipstream which had a quantum matrix and utilized benemite crystals which were good for a limited amount of time.
That second version of the slipstream drive was FASTER than Borg TW conduits (10 000 Ly's in 1 minute).

The Borg later on when they re-assimilated 7 of 9's knowledge in season 5, they learned of this technology which they later on began to utilize.

The TW network in last episode of Voyager was remarkably similar in colorization effect and speed to the Slipstream 2 technology Voyager crew made.

In any case ... size hardly matters in these issues due to the technology of structural integrity fields.
Basically, if you want a big ship to fly at TW velocities then the SIF fields have to be adapted among other things, otherwise the ship would be torn to pieces.

As for mass ... mass is reduced by subspace fields that a star ship/station generates.
Ds9 had to have it's mass reduced in order to reach the Wormhole at impulse speeds in time, but they did it.

As for miniature warp engines.
They are a viable piece of technology.
Shuttles an operate an extended period of time and are warp capable.
To say torpedoes are incapable of achieving warp flight would be outright stupid because if shuttles (or further more PROBES) can do it, then a torpedo can have micro warp engines designed to operate for example a minute (it's range) at high warp speeds until they burn out and the torpedo explodes.

 

[Cary L. Brown]

I just want a "Legion" ring with warp engines... yeah, that's the ticket.