posted October 30, 1999 10:25 AM
Baloo: If you lost any more screws, we'd be really worried. Sorry - I couldn't resist.
Anyway, I think have that calculation you posed
Acceleration from zero velocity to just under lightspeed, c, in one minute = (roughly)
a = [3* 10^8 m/s] / [60s] = 5 * 10^6 m/s^2.
Assuming a mass of say 3000kg for the missile and it's illustrious occupants, and it travelled about 200,000km, then F = ma => F = 3000kg * 5*10^6m/s^2 = 1.5 * 10^10 N.
Therefore, energy required to move it x = 200,000km, at constant speed, is E = F*x = 1.5*10^10N * 2*10^8m = 3 * 10^18 joules.
From E = mc^2, => m = E / c^2 = 3*10^18J * (3*10^8m/s^2)^2 m = 2.7 * 10^35J !!!
You were right, Baloo: even if my assumptions are off by a few orders of magnitude, there sure as hell isn't 0.27 bilion billion billion kilograms of matter aboard the Phoenix, science fiction or not.
But what does this imply? The existence of a SIF field and it's generators? I have to think so - otherwise we'd have seen Riker-pizza. Now wouldn't that be a shame.
------------------ "Fire, Fire!" said Mrs O'Dwyer. "Where, where?" said Mrs O'Hare. "Down in the town." said Mrs Brown. "Lord bless us and save us" said old Mrs Davis. "I never knew a herring was a fish."
posted October 30, 1999 01:32 PM
That's how much energy a SIF would have to counter. It takes energy to counter energy.
The SIF doesn't protect the people but the structure of the vessel. If the ship is accelerating at maximum impulse (about 200 gees for the Ent-D) the SIF keeps bits from fracturing and breaking off. The inertial dampers are what keeps people from becoming chunky salsa.
I still think that the "acceleration" due to the warp field affects the ship (and it's contents) as a whole, and is therefore not felt. Impulse engines, however, work on Newtonian action/reaction. Kick out the jams without the inertial dampers going and everyone will become so much loose protoplasm. Since the Phoenix doesn't have a 200-gee thruster, it would be quite simple to avoid the requirement for an SIF or inertial dampers by simply keeping the throttle below the "Strawberry Jam" setting.
posted October 31, 1999 08:08 AM
Yes Commander Paris. I'm assuming (and hoping) it's just a Halloween thing.
------------------ "This is where the adventure is. This is where heroes are made." - Dr. Bashir Federation Starship Datalink - Now with a pop-up on every page...damn you Tripod!
posted October 31, 1999 04:29 PM
Yes, it's just a holiday gimmick. Don't worry... :-)
------------------ "I think you people have proven something to the world: that a half a million kids can get together and have three days of fun and music� and have nothing but fun and music." -Max Yasgur; Woodstock, NY; August, 1969
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