What would the "Warp Formula" look like if...

[GandalfTG]

Graham,

If one is to ignore my own personal least favorite episode, Threshold, how do you think it would that change the Warp Formula for determining just how fast one is going for a given warp factor?

Personally, I don't see any change to it, but then, I didn't come up with it, so I may just be wrong...

[Teaos]

Would you care to rephrase that question?

[GandalfTG]

Ok, Threshold is the episode that establishes, quite ridiculously, the "Warp 10 Barrier" as an impenetrable limit, except that, Tom Paris figures out how to beat it.

Because of this, Graham theorized that speeds above warp 10 were possible (due to All Good Things hitting Warp 13); just that it was 'unsafe' to travel AT warp 10.

So, if one was to ignore the foolishness of 'Threshold,' there would no longer be an interruption in the graph at each multiple of 10.

Personally, I never understood why the extra factors in the equation were necessary above warp 9, but not below it.

Oh well, when I write Trek fan-fiction, I tend to simply stick with Vc = WF^[10/3] no matter how fast they are going. I was mainly just curious as to Graham's opinion, though, I wouldn't turn anyone else's away either... (or I would have sent an email instead, obviously)

[Teaos]

I would theorise that they are using two different warp scales at once. While traveling under normal warp they use the warp scale that stops at 10. But while using a transwarp drive in the future they tack on a new scale that goes 10<.

Its like when we travel normall we talk in kph or mph but when traveling really fast we tend to talk in mach scale or as a fraction of light speed. Two different scales used at the same time.

[Mikey]

Good point, Teaos. The scales in question could be just a naming convention, for ease of conversation. However, with (TNG scale) Warp 10 having been termed an "impenetrable" barrier, I think GK's hypothesis fits nicely - that there are speeds beyond it, after which the warp factor curve replots itself in an altered reflection of the <10 scale.

[Graham Kennedy]

Ok, Threshold is the episode that establishes, quite ridiculously, the "Warp 10 Barrier" as an impenetrable limit, except that, Tom Paris figures out how to beat it.

Because of this, Graham theorized that speeds above warp 10 were possible (due to All Good Things hitting Warp 13); just that it was 'unsafe' to travel AT warp 10.

So, if one was to ignore the foolishness of 'Threshold,' there would no longer be an interruption in the graph at each multiple of 10.

Personally, I never understood why the extra factors in the equation were necessary above warp 9, but not below it.

Oh well, when I write Trek fan-fiction, I tend to simply stick with Vc = WF^[10/3] no matter how fast they are going. I was mainly just curious as to Graham's opinion, though, I wouldn't turn anyone else's away either... (or I would have sent an email instead, obviously)

Threshold isn't really to blame in having Warp 10 as it is. It was Gene's idea from the beginning of TNG that Warp 10 is infinite speed. Threshold has many and varied problems to be sure, but warp 10 as infinite speed is one thing where they were perfectly consistent with what had gone before.

I said elsewhere recently, personally I think the redrawing of the warp scale for TNG is an absurdity that should never have happened. Personally I'd have gone with a straight mathematical progression, and pegged it so that warp 8 was about 350,000 x c, as shown in "That Which Remains". But hey, they didn't ask me.

If you want to make your own fan interpretation of it where the WF^(10/3) thing just carries on that's perfectly reasonable... it's contradicted by episodes all over the place, but they've messed speeds and distances about so much at this point that any attempt to fit things to canon is going to run into problems, so you may as well go with what works for your stories.

But if you want to stick with canon, we're stuck with warp 10 = infinite speed. Silly, but there you have it.

[Lt. Staplic]

this here is why i recalculated my own, it doesn't fit cannon percisely either but when graphed it averages out with all of the different levels of transwarp from Gene's graph (atleast under Warp 50)

V/c=WF^(log8760)

[Graham Kennedy]

Any particular reason why you picked 8760?

[Lt. Staplic]

so that when you solve for the velocity at warp 10, you'll be travelling at 1 light year per hour.

[Bryan Moore]

so that when you solve for the velocity at warp 10, you'll be travelling at 1 light year per hour.

Smart. I've seen similar suggestions on fan sites. Makes a lot of sense, honestly.

[Lt. Staplic]

yes only problem is that it's way faster than either of the warp formula's used in the 'treks.

[Mark]

I know something even faster than your scale, Staplic......................



PLOT POWER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tsukiyumi]

Which is WAY faster than any warp scale.

[Mark]

Warp Speed - Pinto

Plot Power - Porsche

Nuff said?

[Sionnach Glic]

Good thing ENT had one.