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Even if it prove that Russians actually have Scottish accents.

Well, no worse than a certain Spartan king having a Scottish accent, I guess.

Or even a King of England.

Clearly there has been a secret Scottish conspiracy throughout history.

Hmm... Does that mean that CARNEGIE-Mellon University, in the heartland of America, is actually a highlander-terrorist training camp?

Actually, I thought that the Caterpillar drive was called that because it used Caterpillar (brand name) diesel engines.

And as far as aligning molecules, how could they be closer? You're not adding any - if the got closer, the damn ship would shrink!

The hull would be thinner, but the phaser chain-reaction seems to be less effective against denser materials, so the theory seems to fit quite well.

I was under the impression the hull got charged up which helped spred the impact damage over a larger area somehow thus reducing the damage in one place.

That's kinda what I thought, too.

Yeah, simply putting energy into the hull may help diffuse the energy, or something, as a normal shield would.

Hmm, perhaps it's like a hull-hugging shield?

Yeah they dont have the tech to project it away from the ship thus a lot of the energy bleeds through.

Rochey wrote:Yeah, simply putting energy into the hull may help diffuse the energy, or something, as a normal shield would.

Like energy running through it to counter any energy hitting it. I had a similar idea about how the Power Ranger's armor works. That's sad that I can compare Power Rangers tech to Star Trek tech. Although I think the idea is sound in principle, that doesn't work with the "hull is down to 25%" stuff. Unless it works on a battery because of power limitations. That actually makes sense, but that doesn't work with sheilds since ships take more damage as the shield weakens. Although that for the NX-class that works since the hull can only be powered up so much in one area. As it loses power it may get more sluggish in replacing the deflection energy resulting in more damage to the ship. Then when the hull isn't 'polorized' the batterys are recharged by the warp core.

Reliant121 wrote:True. I raerly get involved in these technobabble debates but Oh well, here we go.

The Plates would likely be constructed of some easily chargable material. They charge it with...uh something...and polarize the energy flow. The polarity absorbs the energy of weapons fire or something... I dunno. This is why i don't bother with technobabble. I'm crap at it.

Obviously, they are charged with Polarons...

Rochey wrote:Clearly there has been a secret Scottish conspiracy throughout history.

Aye, there has. First we shall take your engine rooms! And then your historical kings! And then we shall rule the world with a tartan fist!

Whoa, wonder why I only got an email for the last post and wasn't notified about the rest of them? Oh well.

Anyway, the energy theory is sort of like my theory of aligning molecules, at least in the final *result* that you have to continually expend energy in order to diffuse the weapons fire. Yes, I was indeed thinking that the hull would shrink; but on the inside, too, so it would get thinner (as was mentioned) and that the ship's design could account for this via dynamic connectors from the inner to outer hull (i.e. warp-age spring suspension system ;P). I think something similar was talked about in the Encyclopedia or some other non-canon but official work, about the separation of hulls being attained with something that functioned as springs.

As for the hull-hugging shield, I don't think so - it's not until S1E22 "Vox Sola" that force fields are mentioned, and as it is Starfleet hadn't been able to create a stable one (although Reed can do it *on his own* with crap that he "jerry-rigged" [looks pretty uniform and professional for a jerry-rig] in the damn cargo hold on short notice with no outside help). This would seem to preclude the idea that their starships had any sort of shield, hull-hugging or otherwise. But the SIF must be *some* kind of force field, so maybe polarizing the hull plating meant allowing the SIF to permeate it? Like how polarized glass can allow only certain kinds of light to pass through it, light that's polarized the same way.

Edit: I'm going to take a cap later of the Enterprise getting hit with weapons fire and upload to an image storage service so you can all see what I meant about the blue 'radiation' or 'bloom' when they get hit.

Yes, I was indeed thinking that the hull would shrink; but on the inside, too, so it would get thinner (as was mentioned) and that the ship's design could account for this via dynamic connectors from the inner to outer hull

OK, I'm glad a more rational mind than mine saw that issue as well. And I agree that whatever the NX-01 was doing can't be considered true shielding, but it certainly could be a precursor; especially if something analagous the Cherenkov radiation is produced. I look forward to seeing your cap to clarify.