Impulse:how fast is it?

Laird · Post by **Laird** » 2003-02-15 04:50am

Just for shits and giggles I took some screen shots to ethier help Gil Hamilton support his nemesis ramming calcs or distort them
In his eyes all other canon sources for impulse should be disolved and this should be a basis of how impulse is 1/3rd of a KM/sec from when picard orders "Full Impulse" it takes roughly 8 seconds from take off to impact with the schimitar.

So here are the screenshots I took for him that he belives help his case more so.

Especially screenshot # 2,I personally belive the latter and stick with the tech manuals .25C for what Impulse is yet many other eps in trek say Impulse is much faster.

http://members.shaw.ca/dmz/N1.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/dmz/N2.jpg
http://members.shaw.ca/dmz/N3.jpg

Post by **Beowulf** » 2003-02-15 05:06am

Maximum speed is a mostly non-sensical concept in space. You'd pretty much only reach that speed when you're out of gas...

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-02-15 05:14am

"Back and to the left..."

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-02-15 08:56am

Speed is useless in space. Aceleration matters.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-02-15 09:51am

I should explain this conversation. I was the first to point out how I hated the term "Full Impulse" because it implied a maximum speed in vacuum other than the speed of light. Then I pointed out that the Enterprise is not more than 3km from the Scimitar and if it took 8 seconds to cross, said difference, then if it was travelling at "full impulse", then it would be no quicker than .375km/s. I didn't believe it was "full impulse" mind you, but Laird kept insisting that it was full impulse (or .25C according to a manual) and that the Scimitar was really really far away from the Enterprise. I didn't buy that.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-02-15 10:14am

The series visuals have proven time and time again that Impulse is an acceleration rating. I wouldn't be surprised if different ships have different acceleration ratings. Impulse denotes the power being put behind the acceleration for that ship. A Tac-Fighter or Runabout can probably out accelerate a Galaxy at full impulse.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-02-15 08:52pm

Maximum impules speed is less then the speed of light.

Alyeska · Post by **Alyeska** » 2003-02-15 09:25pm

kojikun wrote:Maximum impules speed is less then the speed of light.

There is no such thing as maximum impulse speed. FYI, we have seen impulse used to go FTL before.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-02-15 09:54pm

There is no numerical maximum, but there is a limit.

Illuminatus Primus · Post by **Illuminatus Primus** » 2003-02-15 10:45pm

Alyeska wrote:
kojikun wrote:Maximum impules speed is less then the speed of light.
There is no such thing as maximum impulse speed. FYI, we have seen impulse used to go FTL before.

When was this?

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2003-02-15 11:35pm

DUDE! I'm having an argument with some dumbass on GameFAQ's, right now about this exact subject. Check it out:

http://s1.cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/genme ... 892&page=3

Basically, he uses circular logic to "defend" his own logic. Gee, how creative.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-02-16 02:28am

Alyeska wrote:There is no such thing as maximum impulse speed. FYI, we have seen impulse used to go FTL before.

Only because of lazy writers who didn't take the whole thrity seconds necessary to get a decent number. Writers with poor math skills don't count.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-02-16 02:31am

Illuminatus Primus wrote:When was this?

I believe he's refering to BoBW part 2 where the Enterprise was around circa Saturn on an intercept course with a Borg cube near Mars and had an expected intercept ETA of something like 20 minutes at impulse speed. It was shitty writing where Paramount's room full of monkeys banging on keyboards threw up a random number without checking to see if it was feasible.