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From: rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (Roger Noe)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Star Trek Flaw??
Message-ID: <220@ihlts.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 11-Oct-83 11:12:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlts.220
Posted: Tue Oct 11 11:12:52 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 13-Oct-83 01:03:43 EDT
References: <696@ihuxr.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, Il
Lines: 38

Actually, warp factors are "defined" as the warp factor cubed times the
speed of light (the "effective speed", I guess you could call it).  Thus
warp factor 2 would be 8c, warp 10 would be 1000c (the maximum emergency
speed of the uprated Enterprise).  Warp factors less than 1 are usually
not referred to, substituting instead some fraction of impulse engine
power, which is that fraction of the speed of light.

In order for any story about interstellar travel to be interesting, such
speeds are a necessity (excepting the case of a multigenerational ship
traveling to a nearby star at some fraction of c).  Perhaps this is
artistic license, but it could also be science fiction.  SF often requires
the reader to accept the possibility that some improbable event could
happen.  This suspension of belief does not detract at all from the
validity of the story--as long as the story does not explicitly contradict
known laws of nature.  One common method of getting around this is to
invent (hypothesize is too scientific a word here) new laws or extend known
laws to enable such far-fetched things to happen.

Warp speeds are a fine example of this practice.  Not enough is known about
the validity of special relativity, much less general relativity, to be able
to say that effective speeds faster than light are impossible.  Sure, it
appears that special relativity limits everything to less than the speed of
light and explains time dilation and other relativistic effects.  But there
is a loophole:  what if space itself changes?  Black holes have been
postulated and there is some evidence that they exist.  Their effects on
the space and time about them are just guessed at (so far).  Who is to say
that it would be impossible for a space ship to affect its surroundings,
creating a "warp" in the fabric of space?  (I am NOT implying the Enterprise
uses black holes in any way to create its space warp!)  If this were possible
then a starship might be able to appear some distance away in some amount of
time which seems to require a speed in normal space many times the speed of
light.  But special relativity may be preserved if the ship travels in its
own "bubble" of warped space at a speed (relative to its immediate sur-
roundings) less than c.  This is precisely how the Enterprise's warp
engines are postulated to function.

-- 
		Roger Noe		...ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe