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Teaos wrote:Didnt it replicate Janeway a metal coffe cup? That proves it can do metal.

Industrial replicators can do advanced bits so there is no reason given time they could replace stuff.

Some metal no doubt. But you can't make a metal coffee cup from algae (lets assume they use that as food stock). It was stated in DS9 that they can't replicate gold or latinum.

Replicators are just an advanced way of building stuff, you still need the base elements. Otherwise they'd be replicating ships instead of constructing them.

They've always been fuzzy on replicators. Probably to avoid writing themselves in a corner. But I think that's the idea.

One nit. They'd don't just need hydrogen, they need deuterium. Which I believe is one atom in 6500.

So it's a bit more of a pain to collect.

On another side note they did do some trading stuff for "minerals" which could be for the replicators.

And even if they could collect all the deuterium they needed and convert it to hydrogen it doesn't me it isn't a colossal waste of time if you don't need to do it. If you had the right kind of still you could presumably drive around brewing up ethanol as you go. Doesn't mean that's what you want to be doing.

sunnyside wrote:One nit. They'd don't just need hydrogen, they need deuterium. Which I believe is one atom in 6500.

Isn't deuterium the most unstable version of hydrogen, which means it has the most explosive potential and why it's used over other forms of matter? I'd think destablizing hydrogen would be child's play, and even if they couldn't they could still use normal hydrogen. Wouldn't be as efficiant but could still work.

Deuterium is basically heavier hydrogen; a more stable isotope. Primary in the unstable category would be tritium.

Deuterium is a heavier isotope of hydrogen: 99 percent of the hydrogen in the Universe has nuclei with just one proton, while Deuterium has a neutron and a proton. The unstable isotope you're thinking of is called Tritium, which has two neutrons. Because it is unstable, Tritium is not found in nature.

Deuterium exists naturally in nature in small amounts; some fraction of the water you drink has deuterium bonded with oxygen (called Heavy Water). Deuterium is more favorable to nuclear fusion because the presence of the neutron makes it easier for two nuclei to fuse. This is why the mode of fusion being pursued today is the Deuterium-Deuterium reaction, it requires less energy than ordinary hydrogen. The type of hydrogen used makes no difference in the matter-antimatter reaction (mass of reactants being equal) but it would help the fusion reactors in the impulse engines.

Tsukiyumi wrote:Deuterium is basically heavier hydrogen; a more stable isotope. Primary in the unstable category would be tritium.

oops. Not sure how I got those confused.

It's okay. I'm sure most people wouldn't know the difference either; not everyone is a student of chemistry.

Great:The ship design, the Doctor, Tom and Harry's friendship. Neelix.

Good: Some of the aliens, Year of Hell.

Average: The Kazon.

Bad: Too many ensigns getting killed off. Tension between the Maquis and Starfleeters underplayed and shoved under the carpet. Janeway.

Terrible:

Great: The Doctor. The few-and-far-between story arcs: Year of hell, Scorpion (which was largely wasted, IMO), etc.

Good: Character interactions, special effects.

Average: The characters, the story-of-the-week plots.

Bad: Captain Janeway, the general disregard for real science, the lack of logistics.

Terrible: The overall wasted premise and potential.

Tsukiyumi wrote:It's okay. I'm sure most people wouldn't know the difference either; not everyone is a student of chemistry.

I did have half a semester of chemistry, and other factors in my life should've meant I would know that. It's a tad disterbing when I realize that something in my vast database of stuff that's useless in daily life was wrong.

While in theory regular hydrogen should work fine for a matter/anitmatter reaction they use deuterium for that too.

Who knows, maybe the deuterium plasma is just more warpy?

sunnyside wrote:...Who knows, maybe the deuterium plasma is just more warpy?

Dude, did you just say "warpy"? Hi-larious.

The reason they dont replicate ships is becuase of the size and complexity. They can replicate the bits and then assemble them.

Teaos wrote:The reason they dont replicate ships is becuase of the size and complexity. They can replicate the bits and then assemble them.

We don't have any actual proof of that. If replication is as power intesive as Voyager implies it's probably not employed for large scale projects to conserve energy.

sunnyside wrote:Who knows, maybe the deuterium plasma is just more warpy?

Is that the technical term for it?