Rikki Simons ([info]rikkisimons) wrote,
@ 2009-05-11 20:06:00
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Current music:Dr. Demento's Star Trekking played loud at babies.

It was the Romulan Ale
I calculated Warp 5 all wrong and I have brought shame to the Vulcan order. Vulcan children may now bully me until I run weeping from the education pit.

In my insomnia I calculated 1 Astronomical Unit as 149.598 kilometers instead of 149,598,000 kilometers. Which means the Earth would be inside the Sun's corona had I been God. I KNOW, RIGHT?!?

SO!

Light speed is 1,079,252.8 kilometers an hour.

Warp 5 (1,000 times c) = 1,079,252,800 kilometers an hour.

After 6 hours, the Enterprise was 6,475,516,800 kilometers away.

Which is 43.29 Astronomical Units.

So the Enterprise was not 21.59 LY away when Scotty and Kirk beamed aboard, it was only a little farther than the distance between the Sun and Pluto.

I hope you will see fit to forgive me.

-Rikki


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[info]blindlavender
2009-05-12 03:21 am UTC (link)
You is smart. My brain has just imploded...several times.
Oooo...look a black hole.

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[info]brian_s
2009-05-12 03:28 am UTC (link)
Just to try to out-nerd you, I wanted to point out that while "Star Trekkin'" was a big hit on the Dr. Demento show, it was recorded by a band called The Firm, and not the good Doctor himself.

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[info]sdskuld
2009-05-12 03:40 am UTC (link)
If the Enterprise only got that far in all that time, then there are much bigger problems than your calculations. That's much, much too slow for interstellar travel.

Unless the time travel caused the entire Universe to scrunch together. Then it makes sense.

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[info]emptycages
2009-05-12 05:21 am UTC (link)
This made me think. Then laugh.

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[info]rikkisimons
2009-05-12 07:50 am UTC (link)
Warp Factor 5 is only 1000 x c. It goes up exponentially with every factor. Now, at no point did they say they were doing 5. I just thought 1000x c was easier to calculate than the higher velocities.

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[info]dreamliner
2009-05-12 02:16 pm UTC (link)
Well in The Original Series, the warp factor equated to the cube of light speed so the ship's cruising speed of Warp Factor 6 was equivalent to 216 times the speed of light, which I agree is powerfully slow for a civilization that spans a galactic arm.

TNG went with an asymptotic scale that peaked at Warp 10 (which itself was equivalent to infinite velocity) so you could go as fast as you wanted by just adding digits to the right of the decimal point after Warp Factor 9.

Of course, the ship really is as fast as the plot requires it to be. ;)

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[info]bitpig
2009-05-12 04:30 am UTC (link)

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[info]bfirrera
2009-05-12 05:04 am UTC (link)
which is even more aggravating...

...because they couldn't do that in TNG's time-frame, even!

What kills me the most about this is all the people who are going to shout that it's because the time-line changed that they can now do this...yeah, right!

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[info]zonereyrie
2009-05-12 05:27 am UTC (link)
Remember in Trek the meanings of 'Warp X' changed over time - TOS Warp 5 isn't TNG Warp 5.

No idea what the movie uses, it might not be the same as any others.

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[info]oh6
2009-05-12 06:24 am UTC (link)
I think you slipped a few decimal places, but if your unit of measurement is the aphelion of Sedna, then it's 44.4 Sedna aphelion units, which is not too unwieldy.

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[info]changelingdj
2009-05-12 08:00 am UTC (link)
Calculating Warp Factors... I did that when I was younger. By warp 3 I was screaming...

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[info]sexualcabinetry
2009-05-12 08:55 am UTC (link)
Which means the Earth would be inside the Sun's corona had I been God. I KNOW, RIGHT?!?

What does God need with a star ship?

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[info]rikkisimons
2009-05-12 09:05 pm UTC (link)
To meet himself halfway, of course. Messiahs are so last millennia.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Awesome...
[info]grx
2009-05-12 06:40 pm UTC (link)
I officially hand my "King Of The Geeks" scepter over to you! You are now the coolest person on t3h 1nt34w3bz.

~Jean-Paul Mayden

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[info]rohantm
2009-05-12 10:04 pm UTC (link)
Well, good. That was the only bit of bad science that I could not pat on the head and tell it to run along so I could fully enjoy the film. =)

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[info]doubledgedsword
2009-05-12 10:08 pm UTC (link)
No!!! I shan't forgive you! You gave me the brain worms with all this mathematical talk!

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[info]jaycet
2009-05-27 02:49 pm UTC (link)
Star Trek. ^^

Just popping by to add a note that I've added your blog's feed to your Goodreads profile...please tell me (If you have an account, my goodreads profile -- or you can just email me -- jennkei at gmail dot com) if you mind, and I'll take it down! (Alternatively, you could just claim the page yourself and do whatever you want with it, I think. Authors get spiffy features. :) )

Cheers,
Jenn.

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