

Thresholds, the power consumption per cochrane rapidly drops to a much lower However, as we take into account the peak transitional In other words, the faster a ship goes, the higher is the energy consumption If we imagine for a moment that the peaks are smoothed out, the power consumption (yellow sawtooth curve) overall increases stronger with the warp factor than the speed v/c (white for the TNG scale) does. We have to bear in mind that warp propulsion is non-Newtonian and a constant power supply is required to maintain a constant speed. 6.1 also shows a reason why ships customarily travel at integer warpįactors or slightly above but never slightly below. In other words, the scale isĭesigned in a way that the warp factors count up certain events that occur as the warp field isīeing expanded and intensified, which corresponds with an increase in speed.įig. That the scale is based on these prominent points. Their existence is evidence that something significant happens at integer warp factors, justifying These peak transitional thresholdsĪre located at the integer warp factors 1, 2, 3, and To the next subspace layer) to be crossed. Supposedly a physical threshold (in one possible interpretation, the transition

Thresholds, the points at which the power expenditure rises steeply because there is The sawtooth are the so-called peak transitional warpĭiscussed in 3.3 Subspace Fields and Warp Fields isĬanon since it appeared on screen in ENT: "First Flight". The sawtooth curve of the power expenditure vs. (most often by Data), revealing the "true" significance of warp factors.įig. In TNG that a correlation between all of the three figures was routinely made on screen Obscuring the real speed of the ship, calculation errors between speeds, timesĪnd distances mentioned on screen were less likely to occur. Than "increase to three light years per day". Precise than "half speed ahead", and it sounds much more to the point Side note Gene Roddenberry may have originally conceived warpįactors for the sake of the dramatic impression of Kirk's commands. Reflects how strong a warp field must be to achieve a certain speed.

In other words, the function of speed vs. In the physical principle and/or the technical implementation of the propulsion Introduced the apparently abstract and strangely non-linear warp factor must lie Generally, it may have been possible to switch to something like light years perĭay or similar manageable time and distance units. Would end up with unreasonably large and unhandy figures when describing FTL Per hour as they are used for the speeds of today's planes or spaceships we High as 3*10^8m/s, it is obvious that with conventional units such as meters per second or kilometers Of a subspace field, it may as well apply to the field generated by the driverīearing in mind that the speed of light c is already as
WARP SPEED CALCULATOR DRIVER
That the impulse drive makes use of subspace driver coils the latter makes senseĪlso technically, because if the warp factor generally describes the formation
WARP SPEED CALCULATOR MANUAL
With the note in the TNG Technical Manual Warp scale is simply extrapolated below Warp 1, even if only the impulse drive Warp 0.5 could either mean that the warp drive also operatesĪt sublight speeds, without a need to activate the impulse engines, or that the The question whether something like Warp 0.5 exists Star Trek, mostly in the scope of the 24th century scale. Warp factors below Warp 1 are occasionally mentioned in Often travel at integer warp factors 7, 8, 9, etc. The warp scale is continuous, meaning that real numbers suchĪs "Warp 8.179" are possible, although it seems that starships most In all known warp scales "Warp 1" corresponds to X" (written with a capital "W") or, now rather antiquated, In spoken language they are referred to as

There is no common canon symbol or abbreviation for warpįactors, although "WF" or "wf" are sometimes used in textbooks. TheĮxponent is subject to vary between the scales. Variant of the warp scale the speed rises exponentially with the warpįactor, meaning that from Warp 1 to Warp 2 the speed more than doubles. Non-linear dependence between the warp factor and the effective FTL speed. Speed of a starship or of a signal traveling faster than light.
