Warp 10

[Scinlao]

I have a quick question. Please tell if I should post this somewhere else...

In Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual, it explains that Warp 10 is, as Paris and Kim state, theoretically impossible. It also states the reason for this: Warp 10 is infinite speed. It uses infinite energy.

While warp technology makes nothing of the speed problem –– while at Warp SPACE is moving, not the ship –– the infinite energy is where it becomes a P.I.T.A.

If it uses infinite energy, and is so hard to accomplish, how can a Starfleet Ensign and a honorary Lieutenant who's been out of Starfleet for years, 'make it so' on a ship smaller than the Defiant, with very little resources, when the Federation has been trying for years with all it's capabilities in the Alpha quadrant and with huge Warp cores that can provide mass amounts of power?

 

[Admiral Shran]

If it uses infinite energy, and is so hard to accomplish, how can a Starfleet Ensign and a honorary Lieutenant who's been out of Starfleet for years, 'make it so' on a ship smaller than the Defiant, with very little resources, when the Federation has been trying for years with all it's capabilities in the Alpha quadrant and with huge Warp cores that can provide mass amounts of power?

Through the power of bad writing.

 

[Shatnertage]

^ Nailed it.

 

[F. King Daniel]

In "Where No One Has Gone Before", LaForge says "We're passing warp ten!" - yet there was no infinity speed and no mutation. The infinity speed thing is a nonsensical retcon in the old TNG tech manual and encylopedia that Mr. Braga clearly should never have been allowed to read while doing whatever it was he was on at the time.

I prefer to think of it as the experimental drive warped Paris into another dimension briefly, which caused weird mutations. Yeah that ignores much of what's said in the episode, but it makes a lot more sense.

All that said, I enjoyed "Threshold" It wasn't great and it didn't make sense, but it definitely wasn't boring. I put it in the same category as "The Magiks of Megas Tu"

 

[BlobVanDam]

If it uses infinite energy, and is so hard to accomplish, how can a Starfleet Ensign and a honorary Lieutenant who's been out of Starfleet for years, 'make it so' on a ship smaller than the Defiant, with very little resources, when the Federation has been trying for years with all it's capabilities in the Alpha quadrant and with huge Warp cores that can provide mass amounts of power?

Through the power of bad writing.

Lock this up right now folks, question answered

 

[USS Excelsior]

I don't think they ever said infinite energy, just infinite velocity. And plus in real life infinite energy would allow you to only travel at the speed of light.

 

[T'Girl]

–– while at Warp SPACE is moving, not the ship ––

That's a negative good buddy, the ship is stationary wthin the warp bubble true, however the warp bubble itself is moving through the subspace continuum or realm. The most accepted explanation is that the warp engine expands or compacts the subspace "substance" immediately in front or behind the ship.

 

[Udat]

If it uses infinite energy, and is so hard to accomplish, how can a Starfleet Ensign and a honorary Lieutenant who's been out of Starfleet for years, 'make it so' on a ship smaller than the Defiant, with very little resources, when the Federation has been trying for years with all it's capabilities in the Alpha quadrant and with huge Warp cores that can provide mass amounts of power?

Through the power of bad writing.

Shudder, correct.

 

[Saquist]

–– while at Warp SPACE is moving, not the ship ––

That's a negative good buddy, the ship is stationary wthin the warp bubble true, however the warp bubble itself is moving through the subspace continuum or realm. The most accepted explanation is that the warp engine expands or compacts the subspace "substance" immediately in front or behind the ship.

The ship is actually moving other wise there is no need IDF.

 

[Scinlao]

The ship is actually moving other wise there is no need IDF.

The ship is moving through space yes, but not within the warp bubble, correct? It's the Alcubierre metric principle. Space in front contracts, pulling the ship, and is expanded back into place behind the ship, pushing it. Like a treadmill.

I don't think they ever said infinite energy, just infinite velocity. And plus in real life infinite energy would allow you to only travel at the speed of light.

The Speed of light is NOT infinite speed. It take light YEARS to get from our sun just to our own closest neighbor. If it were infinite speed, it would take a literal instant.

 

[The_Baroness]

I don't think they ever said infinite energy, just infinite velocity. And plus in real life infinite energy would allow you to only travel at the speed of light.

The Speed of light is NOT infinite speed. It take light YEARS to get from our sun just to our own closest neighbor. If it were infinite speed, it would take a literal instant.

That's not what he said.

He said infinite energy would cause you to reach the speed of like in reality. Which is exactly what Einstein said.

He never mentioned infinite speed.

 

[Scinlao]

Sorry! I just glanced over that I guess...

 

[Cyke101]

In "Where No One Has Gone Before", LaForge says "We're passing warp ten!" - yet there was no infinity speed and no mutation. The infinity speed thing is a nonsensical retcon in the old TNG tech manual and encylopedia that Mr. Braga clearly should never have been allowed to read while doing whatever it was he was on at the time.

When LaForge says that, I think it was the writers somehow coming up with a cheat around their own system. "Passing" is different than being "at."

To me it seems that Warp 10 acts more like a hypothetical phrase and not really an actual indicator of speed, a phrase to denote a very fast speed indeed, but not something that can be really measured. Then again, that implies that the warp scale should be readjusted (again) when faster and faster but stille "less-than-infinite" speeds are reached in the future.

 

[T'Girl]

When LaForge says that, I think it was the writers somehow coming up with a cheat around their own system. "Passing" is different than being "at."

Similar to the ship never actual travels at the speed of light in normal space, at warp one it's surrounded by subspace, at less than SOL it in normal space.

Althrough I've always wonder if the ship could travel slower than light using it's warp drive, not very economical, just wondering.

 

[The Mole]

The way I see it is, there is a huge step between warp 9.9999 which is 215 trillion kilometers per hour (199,516 times the speed of live) and Infinite speed that there is room for a Warp 10 which is not infinite speed.

As for Paris managing it in a shuttle where Starfleet have failed, maybe it was a flook. A smaller ship needs less power to move as it has less volume and mass and there may have been something in the space they were in that reacted with the high warp speed that it opened a temporary anomaly in space.

 

[The_Baroness]

Here's a thought...

After Tom's test flight, the doctor obviously knew how to reverse the changes made to his DNA - we know this, 'cos he did so to Tom and Kathy after they did the nasty and made baby lizards.

So........seeing as how he knew how to do it, and wouldn't have been affected himself why didn't they just use the new drive to get home, and let the doc fix 'em all up when they got there?

 

[BlobVanDam]

Here's a thought...

After Tom's test flight, the doctor obviously knew how to reverse the changes made to his DNA - we know this, 'cos he did so to Tom and Kathy after they did the nasty and made baby lizards.

So........seeing as how he knew how to do it, and wouldn't have been affected himself why didn't they just use the new drive to get home, and let the doc fix 'em all up when they got there?

Because it would have ended the series

I don't think they had a lot of control where it dropped out of warp. How it managed to come back out of warp right next to the ship, I have no idea, but it seems like it could have just as easily dropped them out further away as it could have brought them closer to home.