My take on the Warp Scale
Posted: 2003-02-24 12:40pm
Following is a list of known incidents that help quantify Star Trek warp speeds. Please note that some of these are hearsay, since I haven't seen all of the listed episodes (particularly some of the Voyager episodes), so confirmations/corrections are welcome.
TNG "Encounter at Farpoint" - At this time, top speed for the Enterprise is about warp 9.3. Warp 9.5 may be possible, but it may also destroy the ship.
TNG "Where None Have Gone Before" - Maximum warp speed is about 9000c. (Data reports the distance as 2.7 million ly, and Geordi reports a 300+ year travel time). As of the pilot, maximum warp is about 9.3."
TNG "Q Who" - Data reports they are 7000 ly and 2 years and 7 mos of travel from Federation space, indicating that maximum sustainable warp speed is about 2700c.
TNG "Bloodlines" - 20 minutes to travel 300 billion km at warp 9; this would put warp 9 at 833c, an anomalously low figure. Assuming a misplaced decimal, this would be more like 8333c, which would be more compatible with other estimates.
VOY "The 37's" - According to Tom Paris, warp 9.9 is 4 billion miles per second, which is 21,473c. Since the Federation is totally metric and Paris probably doesn't even know the actual length of a mile, 4 billion km/s (13,333c) may be more accurate.
VOY "Unimatrix Zero" - Voyager travels 2 light-years in 2 hours when responding to a distress call. This is about 8,766c.
TNG "Clues" - 0.54 parsecs is about a day's travel at cruising speed. This would indicate a cruising speed of 644c.
VOY "Maneuvers" - Harry Kim gives a current speed of 2 billion kilometers per second, about 6,667c.
VOY "The Caretaker" - According to Janeway, at "maximum warp", Voyager's 70,000+ ly trip back to the Federation would take 75 years. This is about 1,000c. "Maximum warp" may represent the best speed they could sustain over that distance with their limited resources.
TOS "That Which Survives" - Spock predicts that the Enterprise can travel 990.7 ly in 11.33 hours at warp 8.4, for a speed of 766,503c. This is an extraordinarily high figure; much higher than TNG-era speeds at higher warp factors. The actual time it took the Enterprise to get back to Kirk's location was about 11 hours, so the original distance figure is probably the weak point.
VOY "Equinox" - The USS Equinox supposedly traveled 10,000 ly in about 2 weeks at warp 8+, for a speed of 260,893c. Another exceptionally high figure, this time from the TNG era. Equinox was supposedly using an extremely exotic fuel to achieve high speed, but that doesn't explain why the claimed warp factor between 8 and 9. Misinformation or even deliberate disinformation seems like a possibility in this incident.
VOY "Friendship One" - A 132 light-year side-trip to investigate a planet would require two months round-trip at "maximum warp". This equates to a speed of about 1584c.
TNG "The Most Toys" - Kivas Fajo's merchant ship, with a maximum speed of warp 3, could have traveled no more than 0.102 light-years in 23 hours. This is about 39c (which seems anomolously low, actually).
VOY "Critical Care" - When Janeway asks how quickly Paris can get Voyager to an asteroid 3 ly away, Paris replies 2 hours. This is approximately 13,149c. The "How fast can you get us there?" question suggests top speed.
VOY "Inside Man" - "The Carolina's 0.7 light-years away. At maximum warp it could reach them in two hours." This indicates a speed of about 3,068c.
TNG "The Price" - According to Data, it would take almost 100 years at Warp 9 to travel 70,000 light-years. This is approximately 700c, another anomolously low figure.
ENT "Broken Bow" - Warp 4.4 is reportedly 30,000,000 km/s. This is 100c. It can also travel make a round-trip from Earth to Neptune in about 6 minutes at Warp 4.5. This equates to an average speed of 80-90c, but unspecified acceleration and deceleration times may explain the discrepancy.
Speeds statements from the TNG era pretty consistently allow for travel at thousands of times the speed of light, but they seldom exceed a couple of thousand C except in emergencies.
If you derive figures from literal dialogue and place the known figures in order by speed, you get the following chart. Note that the actual warp factor is unclear in most of them, and the most anomolous figures have been left out.
Warp-----Speed----------Episode
9.9------21,473---------VOY "The 37's"
???------13,149---------VOY "Critical Care"
???------9,000----------TNG "Where None Have Gone Before"
???------8,766----------VOY "Unimatrix Zero"
???------6,667----------VOY "Maneuvers"
???------3,068----------VOY "Inside Man"
???------2,700----------TNG "Q Who"
???------1,584----------VOY "Friendship One"
???------1,000----------VOY "The Caretaker"
9--------833------------TNG "Bloodlines"
???------644------------TNG "Clues"
3--------39-------------TNG "The Most Toys"
If you want to attempt some rationalization of the figures and suggest reasonable warp factors, you might get the following chart.
Warp----Speed----------Episode
9.9-----13,333---------VOY "The 37's"
9.85----13,149---------VOY "Critical Care"
9.2-----9,000----------TNG "Where None Have Gone Before"
9.1-----8,766----------VOY "Unimatrix Zero"
9-------8,333----------TNG "Bloodlines"
8.5-----6,667----------VOY "Maneuvers"
7.1-----3,068----------VOY "Inside Man"
7-------2,700----------TNG "Q Who"
6-------1,584----------VOY "Friendship One"
5.5-----1,000----------VOY "The Caretaker"
5-------644------------TNG "Clues"
3-------39-------------TNG "The Most Toys"
I selected the warp factors to help the speeds fit on a clean curve. That curve just happens to match Warp^4.1 pretty closely. You can view the resulting graphs on the Star Trek tab of my spreadsheet at http://www.thehedgemaze.com/tcollins/Sc ... ations.xls.
NOTE: That's a link to an MS Excel file; only IE will directly open it.
I've never really seen much discussion of my warp speed estimates, so I thought I'd throw this out for review.
TNG "Encounter at Farpoint" - At this time, top speed for the Enterprise is about warp 9.3. Warp 9.5 may be possible, but it may also destroy the ship.
TNG "Where None Have Gone Before" - Maximum warp speed is about 9000c. (Data reports the distance as 2.7 million ly, and Geordi reports a 300+ year travel time). As of the pilot, maximum warp is about 9.3."
TNG "Q Who" - Data reports they are 7000 ly and 2 years and 7 mos of travel from Federation space, indicating that maximum sustainable warp speed is about 2700c.
TNG "Bloodlines" - 20 minutes to travel 300 billion km at warp 9; this would put warp 9 at 833c, an anomalously low figure. Assuming a misplaced decimal, this would be more like 8333c, which would be more compatible with other estimates.
VOY "The 37's" - According to Tom Paris, warp 9.9 is 4 billion miles per second, which is 21,473c. Since the Federation is totally metric and Paris probably doesn't even know the actual length of a mile, 4 billion km/s (13,333c) may be more accurate.
VOY "Unimatrix Zero" - Voyager travels 2 light-years in 2 hours when responding to a distress call. This is about 8,766c.
TNG "Clues" - 0.54 parsecs is about a day's travel at cruising speed. This would indicate a cruising speed of 644c.
VOY "Maneuvers" - Harry Kim gives a current speed of 2 billion kilometers per second, about 6,667c.
VOY "The Caretaker" - According to Janeway, at "maximum warp", Voyager's 70,000+ ly trip back to the Federation would take 75 years. This is about 1,000c. "Maximum warp" may represent the best speed they could sustain over that distance with their limited resources.
TOS "That Which Survives" - Spock predicts that the Enterprise can travel 990.7 ly in 11.33 hours at warp 8.4, for a speed of 766,503c. This is an extraordinarily high figure; much higher than TNG-era speeds at higher warp factors. The actual time it took the Enterprise to get back to Kirk's location was about 11 hours, so the original distance figure is probably the weak point.
VOY "Equinox" - The USS Equinox supposedly traveled 10,000 ly in about 2 weeks at warp 8+, for a speed of 260,893c. Another exceptionally high figure, this time from the TNG era. Equinox was supposedly using an extremely exotic fuel to achieve high speed, but that doesn't explain why the claimed warp factor between 8 and 9. Misinformation or even deliberate disinformation seems like a possibility in this incident.
VOY "Friendship One" - A 132 light-year side-trip to investigate a planet would require two months round-trip at "maximum warp". This equates to a speed of about 1584c.
TNG "The Most Toys" - Kivas Fajo's merchant ship, with a maximum speed of warp 3, could have traveled no more than 0.102 light-years in 23 hours. This is about 39c (which seems anomolously low, actually).
VOY "Critical Care" - When Janeway asks how quickly Paris can get Voyager to an asteroid 3 ly away, Paris replies 2 hours. This is approximately 13,149c. The "How fast can you get us there?" question suggests top speed.
VOY "Inside Man" - "The Carolina's 0.7 light-years away. At maximum warp it could reach them in two hours." This indicates a speed of about 3,068c.
TNG "The Price" - According to Data, it would take almost 100 years at Warp 9 to travel 70,000 light-years. This is approximately 700c, another anomolously low figure.
ENT "Broken Bow" - Warp 4.4 is reportedly 30,000,000 km/s. This is 100c. It can also travel make a round-trip from Earth to Neptune in about 6 minutes at Warp 4.5. This equates to an average speed of 80-90c, but unspecified acceleration and deceleration times may explain the discrepancy.
Speeds statements from the TNG era pretty consistently allow for travel at thousands of times the speed of light, but they seldom exceed a couple of thousand C except in emergencies.
If you derive figures from literal dialogue and place the known figures in order by speed, you get the following chart. Note that the actual warp factor is unclear in most of them, and the most anomolous figures have been left out.
Warp-----Speed----------Episode
9.9------21,473---------VOY "The 37's"
???------13,149---------VOY "Critical Care"
???------9,000----------TNG "Where None Have Gone Before"
???------8,766----------VOY "Unimatrix Zero"
???------6,667----------VOY "Maneuvers"
???------3,068----------VOY "Inside Man"
???------2,700----------TNG "Q Who"
???------1,584----------VOY "Friendship One"
???------1,000----------VOY "The Caretaker"
9--------833------------TNG "Bloodlines"
???------644------------TNG "Clues"
3--------39-------------TNG "The Most Toys"
If you want to attempt some rationalization of the figures and suggest reasonable warp factors, you might get the following chart.
Warp----Speed----------Episode
9.9-----13,333---------VOY "The 37's"
9.85----13,149---------VOY "Critical Care"
9.2-----9,000----------TNG "Where None Have Gone Before"
9.1-----8,766----------VOY "Unimatrix Zero"
9-------8,333----------TNG "Bloodlines"
8.5-----6,667----------VOY "Maneuvers"
7.1-----3,068----------VOY "Inside Man"
7-------2,700----------TNG "Q Who"
6-------1,584----------VOY "Friendship One"
5.5-----1,000----------VOY "The Caretaker"
5-------644------------TNG "Clues"
3-------39-------------TNG "The Most Toys"
I selected the warp factors to help the speeds fit on a clean curve. That curve just happens to match Warp^4.1 pretty closely. You can view the resulting graphs on the Star Trek tab of my spreadsheet at http://www.thehedgemaze.com/tcollins/Sc ... ations.xls.
NOTE: That's a link to an MS Excel file; only IE will directly open it.
I've never really seen much discussion of my warp speed estimates, so I thought I'd throw this out for review.
