2007-08-30

Oh Please No

Oh my.

Plenty of thoughts come after seeing 'the horror, the horror'.

For instance:

- I hope he simply lost a bet. A massive, massive bet.
- I'm really quite glad I missed Celebration IV.
- Trekkies may go to conventions at which they dress funny, but I've never seen one cross-dress-funny.
- Add this to the list from this old post.

2007-08-21

Redshirts: Hope Kirk Scores

On the DITL Forums, the following link appeared.

Analytics According to Captain Kirk

I can't vouch for the numbers, but the whole thing is hysterical if true.

Notable quotes:

"It was found that red-shirted crewmembers tended to die in groups."

"When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and "makes contact" the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%."


Classic!

2007-08-07

Delta Flyer II Acceleration

In "Drive"[VOY7], the new Delta Flyer is taking part in a race, and unbeknownst to the crew it's rigged to explode at the finish line, with the explosion feared capable of wiping out anything within a million kilometers.

The vessel comes to a dead stop at a stated distance of "less than a million kilometers" from the finish line, where Voyager and other vessels are gathered within a handful of kilometers. "Less than a minute" from the detonation, those aboard the Flyer realize what's going on and Paris sets a course for a nearby small nebula, hoping it will contain the blast to some extent. He books it and arrives just in time to dump the rigged warp core and get far enough away to survive.

Shortly after the winner crosses the finish line, Voyager is rocked by the explosion. Tuvok reports that it was the shockwave from an antimatter explosion, "approximately 1.2 million kilometers from here".

Now, besides the fact that it was clearly one helluva bang, this example also gives us the opportunity to compare two distances from a known stationary point. Voyager, after all, was right at the finish line. If the Delta Flyer was stopped relative to the finish line less than one million kilometers away, and then was approximately 1.2 million kilometers away circa the time of the blast, then obviously it must've travelled about 200,000 kilometers, assuming a straight line away from the finish line. (That assumption is actually not supported by the episode, so the true distance should be further, but whatever.)

And, of course, that's 200,000 kilometers in "less than a minute".

To travel 200,000 kilometers in one full minute would require a velocity of 3,333.333 kilometers per second. From zero, then, the Delta Flyer would've had to have reached a final speed of 6,666.666 kilometers per second.

To do that in 60 seconds would require an acceleration of 111.111 kilometers per second per second, or 111,111m/s^2.

That's 11,330.2g, or over 3 times the Earth-to-Jupiter performance of the Enterprise in TMP, and over 18 times the maximum estimated value for an ISD (from a preliminary (and sadly incomplete) analysis of the highest acceleration known in Star Wars).

Top Gear, eat your heart out.