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So, I just had this idea for a potent weapon the Federation could coveivably build. Here it is: you strap a runabout Warp engine onto a chunk of iron, say half a ton of iron. You then point this weapon at a target, and set off the engine at warp 6.

I nice, simple, FTL kinetic torpedo!

How fast is warp six, how much mass would the device have, and how much raw kinetic energy would it impart to it's target? I have very limited knowledge of physics, but perhaps it would be a lot....

As far as I know figuring FTL KE is pretty much impossible (since light-speed should yield infinite KE).

Thirdfain wrote:So, I just had this idea for a potent weapon the Federation could coveivably build. Here it is: you strap a runabout Warp engine onto a chunk of iron, say half a ton of iron. You then point this weapon at a target, and set off the engine at warp 6.

I nice, simple, FTL kinetic torpedo!

Nope. It's not FTL. Warp drive is pseudo-FTL, like a conveyor-belt. That's the whole idea of it; to achieve FTL travel times without actually moving at FTL.

Nope. It's not FTL. Warp drive is pseudo-FTL, like a conveyor-belt. That's the whole idea of it; to achieve FTL travel times without actually moving at FTL.

I haven';t watched my ST beyond the movies, so I don't know much about warp. Please explain- this info is important for me, I have a Secret Project...

Thirdfain wrote:

Nope. It's not FTL. Warp drive is pseudo-FTL, like a conveyor-belt. That's the whole idea of it; to achieve FTL travel times without actually moving at FTL.

I haven';t watched my ST beyond the movies, so I don't know much about warp. Please explain- this info is important for me, I have a Secret Project...

The idea of warp drive is that if you can distort spacetime cheaply, then you can simply contract space in front of you and expand it behind you in order to cover a lot of ground quickly, without actually having to go quickly relative to your local piece of space. Like a conveyor belt.

The idea of warp drive is that if you can distort spacetime cheaply, then you can simply contract space in front of you and expand it behind you in order to cover a lot of ground quickly, without actually having to go quickly relative to your local piece of space. Like a conveyor belt.

Oh, so a warp 6 projectile would hit the target at subluminal speeds, it would just LOOK ftl...

Thirdfain wrote: Oh, so a warp 6 projectile would hit the target at subluminal speeds, it would just LOOK ftl...

not 100% sure on the phyics they use, simply because in conflicts so much with what I understand of real life pyhics of the way they claim it can happen. (if you can understand that cause I can't )

but to make it as simple as possable, its like what a worm hole does. where a worm hole is basically a short cut between 2 points in space where you can travel thousands of light years in a second because the distance between the 2 points in 0 in a wormhole, what warping does is shrink space infront of the ship and expands it behind, meaning the ship itself stands still but the universe moves around it. meaning the ship doesn't go faster then light....

lol I don't really have much off a clue what i'm talking about, I accept the star trek theory of how it happens in show but don't understand it somebody help....

Let's put it this way: even in Star Trek, there is some recognition of the fact that the ship cannot create more energy than its fuel supply can generate. If FTL propulsion required enormous amounts of energy, then the implication would be that as soon as a ship reaches FTL, it now contains more energy than it can possibly generate.

That's why they have a rationalization even for high sublight propulsion, where the same problem occurs: the "mass-lightening field", nicknamed by fans and described in "Deja Q".

In short, the idea of finding a shortcut to generate huge amounts of energy without having the requisite fuel supply is doomed.

Thirdfain wrote:I have a Secret Project...

You do do you?

*scurries off the the STGOD*

I like my own little secret project [Project Blade Runner] better.

You do do you?

*scurries off the the STGOD*

I like my own little secret project [Project Blade Runner] better.

Well, the Secret Project is dead now >:(

My idea for a supepowerful kinetic torpedo is doomed. Imagine if warp really did give FTL speeds- I would have a superluminal direct-fire weapon which hits for a huge amount, maybe even star-wardsa range yield...

Thirdfain wrote:

You do do you?

*scurries off the the STGOD*

I like my own little secret project [Project Blade Runner] better.

Well, the Secret Project is dead now >:(

My idea for a supepowerful kinetic torpedo is doomed. Imagine if warp really did give FTL speeds- I would have a superluminal direct-fire weapon which hits for a huge amount, maybe even star-wardsa range yield...

it would still be a formidable weapon if it hit its target at .9999 c....especially if it were a high density alloy, shaped as a penetrator. it just wouldn't be of a star wars magnitude

Thirdfain wrote:How fast is warp six, how much mass would the device have, and how much raw kinetic energy would it impart to it's target? I have very limited knowledge of physics, but perhaps it would be a lot....

Since warp drive effectively reduces a ship's mass to a tiny fraction of its normal value (suberging most of the mass in subspace, supposedly), the actual kinetic energy that this device would carry is impossible to determine; we can only say that it's probably not nearly as much as you think.

Col. Crackpot wrote:it just wouldn't be of a star wars magnitude

*points at forum title*

Dump the throwaway lines, please.

it would still be a formidable weapon if it hit its target at .9999 c....especially if it were a high density alloy, shaped as a penetrator. it just wouldn't be of a star wars magnitude

Shut up, shut up, he'll kill us all....

*points at forum title*

Dump the throwaway lines, please.

Actually, he was making reference to my question, where I asked if this weapon could reach SW scale firepower.

Shut up, shut up, he'll kill us all....

Huh?[/quote]

Okay, then bring it up in SWvsST.

fuckin' a! people need to calm down. a question was asked in an open forum and i gave my opinion. and no need to jump of thirdfain either.