The Warp Scale

Although highly ambiguous in several areas, the theories of faster than light travel are generally feasible (to the open minded..). Current thinking involves the likes of manipulating the fabric of space to 'pull' a vehicle to its destination, rather than a simple linear rocket thrust effect. But such a manipulation would require huge energetic forces. There are several theories that exist surrounding 'hyper-luminary propulsion', but the scientific institution only 'barely' acknowledges that faster than light velocities could be possible.

To help envision how fast the speed of light really is, take a moment to absorb the fact that it is approximately 186,000 miles per second. With such an enormous velocity value, it is impossible to actually visualize and comprehend. So to better illustrate roughly how huge it is, first consider the Earth's circumference, which is approximately 25,000 miles. Then, imagine that from your precise geographical location, you could send out a pulse of energy in front of you at the speed of light. The pulse would have rounded the entire globe, traversing continents and oceans to hit you in the back, after an overall flight time of roughly 1/10 of a second. Basically in the blink of an eye. Now one can understand how hard it is to believe how a manned space vessel could travel at such a speed.

For those that don't know or understand why, in physics, the speed of light is considered the ultimate universal speed limit, let's first examine Einstein's famous equation...

(E signifies Energy, m signifies mass, and c signifies the speed of light).

So the equation basically describes the effect of an object's energy exponentially increasing its mass when approaching the speed of light. This increase obviously makes further acceleration more difficult, because the closer an object gets to c, the more energy it will require to speed up. In this manner, actual light speed cannot be attained, for at this juncture the object's mass would have become infinite, and would have used up an infinite amount of energy to get it there. So relativity demands that physical objects must be confined to sub light speeds. Only energy waves such as light and other particles that have virtually no mass can travel at the speed of light.

That famous equation m=mc² actually expresses the duality of matter and energy, and denotes an object's rest energy (add the kinetic energy and you get the object's total energy, mc²+(mv²)/2). The equation for mass increase is M=m/(sqrt(1-(v/c)²)), where M is relativistic mass and m is the rest mass. (By the way, 1/(sqrt(1-(v/c)²)) is known as the Lorentz Transformation, and it can also be used to find time dilation and length contraction along the axis of relativistic motion.) As v gets closer to c, the denominator gets smaller and smaller, with M tending to infinity until v reaches c and the denominator contains 0. So nobody really knows what mass an object would have at light speed, but it is impossible to reach since mass goes up indefinitely and by F=ma requires an infinitely increasing force to keep accelerating. (material submitted by Peter Behr)

With this theory, it would be impossible for our Starfleet friends to move in a starship beyond the speed of light. But, the only linear travel undertaken in normal space is via the Impulse engines. And this has its restrictions, for, with high yield impulse propulsion certain time dilation effects (slowing down) would render this method of space travel impractical, so the calibrated 'full impulse' speed for a starship is roughly equivalent to a more manageable 1/4 the speed of light.

The two key technological devices on Star Trek are transporters, and Warp. Telling the story of this Star Trek Universe in the 23rd and 24th centuries would be impossible without warp. And unlike other science fiction shows, it has gone a long way to actually describing and explaining the physics behind this very real feeling technology. For specifics see Anti-matter, Dilithium, Matter/Anti-Matter Reaction Chamber, Nacelles/Warp Coils, Subspace, and Warp...

In a way, Warp theory is an ingenious fictional conception, for it avoids the restricting laws of linear light speed described by various Einsteinian conventions. This propulsion system transcends the physical speed of light barrier by utilizing spatial distortion as a means of transit. This is the primary advantage, for the 'magical' properties of subspace permits the manipulation of spatial geometry, which in turn appears to propel a vehicle, but it would be more accurate to say that it is in fact like pulling point A and point B together, rather than having a vessel laboriously use rocket thrust to travel between the two points in a linear fashion.

The effect of the Warp system basically draws from the Warp Field it creates (fuelled by the energy of a controlled anti-matter reaction) which effectively distorts the substance of the spatial continuum.

Many types of warp 'engine' have been utilized by Starfleet over the centuries as the technology has slowly been refined and improved. They even dabbled with the idea of 'transwarp' for a while. Transwarp is the velocity of Warp 10 on the contemporary scale. This theory is analogous to old light speed theories, in that it is thought impossible. The actual existence of a vehicle travelling at warp 10 is impossible, as it is theorised that one is not in fact travelling at any velocity at all, whether linear or trans-dimensional, but one would in fact be existing at all individual points in the entire Universe, and at each moment in the history of time simultaneously. It is the quasi God-like state of omnipresence.

(This is my opinion of warp 10, and what I perceive it to be, even though Tom Paris and his lizards may disagree ! -see comments on 'Threshold' on 'The Worst of Trek' page...)

The table below outlines the values of warp via their calculated 'factors'. This is considered the Contemporary Scale, as older, differently configured warp scales have existed in the Trek past. (This old scale was used throughout TOS, and explains their somewhat extraordinary speeds noted on certain occasions, such as the Enterprise travelling at Warp 14 in 'That Which Survives'. During this era, warp technology did not allow the fantastic speeds current starships enjoy, as their maximum cruising factors might have been only warp 6 or 7 when calculated for the Contemporary Scale. Warp 14 for instance may be equal to perhaps warp 9.9 on today's scale, a warp factor the first Enterprise was not designed to cope with, hence its extreme structural discomfort at such a velocity).

"The Star Trek Encyclopedia -A Reference Guide To The Future"

Speed	Kilometers Per Hour	Times Speed of Light (equivalent)	Earth to Moon	Across Sol System	To Nearby Star	Across 1 Sector	Across Federation	Across Galaxy	To Nearby Galaxy
Speed	Kilometers Per Hour	Times Speed of Light (equivalent)	(400,000 KM)	(12 million KM)	(5 Light Years)	(20 Light Years)	(10,000 Light Years)	(100,000 Light years)	(2,000,000 Light years)
Full Impulse	270 million	0.25 c	5.38 seconds	44 hours	20 years	80 years	40,000 years	400,000 years	8 million years
Warp 1	1 billion	1	1.34 seconds	11 hours	5 years	20 years	10,000 years	100,000 years	2 million years
Warp 2	11 billion	10	0.13 seconds	1 hour	6 months	3 years	992 years	9,921 years	198,425 years
Warp 3	42 billion	39	0.03 seconds	17 minutes	2 months	1 year	257 years	2,568 years	51,360 years
Warp 4	109 billion	102	0.01 seconds	7 minutes	18 days	2 months	98 years	984 years	19,686 years
Warp 5	229 billion	214	0.006291 secs	3 minutes	9 days	1 month	47 years	468 years	9,357 years
Warp 6	421 billion	392	0.003426 secs	2 minutes	5 days	19 days	25 years	255 years	5,096 years
Warp 7	703 billion	656	0.002050 secs	1 minute	3 days	11 days	15 years	152 years	3,048 years
Warp 8	1.10 trillion	1,024	0.001313 secs	39 seconds	2 days	7 days	10 years	98 years	1,953 years
Warp 9	1.62 trillion	1,516	0.000887 secs	26 seconds	1 day	5 days	7 days	66 years	1,319 years
Warp 9.2	1.77 trillion	1,649	0.000816 secs	24 seconds	1 day	4 days	6 years	61 years	1,213 years
Warp 9.6	2.05 trillion	1,909	0.000704 secs	20 seconds	23 hours	4 days	5 years	52 years	1,048 years
Warp 9.9	3.27 trillion	3,053	0.000170 secs	13 seconds	14 hours	2 days	3 years	33 years	655 years
Warp 9.99	8.48 trillion	7,912	0.000170 secs	5 seconds	6 hours	22 hours	1 year	13 years	253 years
Warp 9.9999	214 trillion	199,516	0.000007 secs	0.2 seconds	13 minutes	53 minutes	18 days	6 months	10 years
(Warp 10)	¥	¥	0	0	0	0	0	0	0