Are there materials that a transporter cannot dismantle?

[Rossum]

Okay, from what I understand, Star Trek transporters work by scanning an object, disassembling it on the atomic (or sub-atomic) level, moving it to its new location, and reassembling it using the information gathered from the scan.

My question is about the disassembling aspect. In order to break matter down to the atomic level, one would need to break the molecular bonds that hook the atoms together. Thus, to transport a fist sized diamond or similar crystal one would break all of the molecular bonds in the diamond (which would take energy), move all the carbon atoms to the new spot and reconstruct all the molecular bonds to put it back together.

This means that a transporters energy usage might be linked to the strength of the molecular bonds of the objects it transports. Organic material has a relatively low boiling point when compared to metal, and I suspect that it takes less energy to reduce a human in red pajamas into a puff of movable plasma than it takes to do the same to a human wearing titanium reinforced power armor.

I recall an episode, either in TNG or Voyager where they were testing the transporter by sending a cylinder of solid titanium or something through and see what it looks like when it comes back out (it came out half-melted). Maybe transporter tests have to determine how much energy the system can put out reliably in order to dismantle the target and all its various component materials. Transporting redshirts with no armor is easy since their molecules can be disassembled and reassenbled easily, add armor and it adds stress to the system and makes it more difficult to use safely.

So, are there any examples in the shows that might support the theory that transporters have a harder time moving due to difficulty dismantling their molecular structure?

[Patrick Degan]

The episode you're thinking of, I believe, was "The Ensigns Of Command". The problem in that case was the weird radiation surrounding the planet Data was on, which made transport impossible because it scrambled the signal. The tests of the tritanium cyllinder were to determine the instability of the beam under those conditions.

Transporters have trouble with unstable or very dense materials: they were unable to use transporters to move hytritium ("The Most Toys"), nor could they beam through two kilometres of solid granite ("The High Ground") or even a loosely-constituted screen of victurium alloy ("Hero Worship").

[adam_grif]

They'd have a pretty sweet weapon on their hands if they just set it to disassemble everything in a fixed line, starting with the stuff closest to the ship. Obviously they wouldn't bother reassembling any of it.

[Rossum]

They'd have a pretty sweet weapon on their hands if they just set it to disassemble everything in a fixed line, starting with the stuff closest to the ship. Obviously they wouldn't bother reassembling any of it.

Yeah, they could have some sort of ship-based disintegration system. Basically target the vital components of an enemy ship and start dismantling. No real need to scan the object beyond whats needed to make sure its the target. Should be able to work on anything that a regular transporter beam can target and more.

When you think about it, if the enemy ship has enough of a transporter lock on you to beam out individual people, there's really nothing stopping them from just scrambling peoples internal organs or remote disintegrating chunks of your ship.

[Temujin]

The problem transporters have in transporting an object isn't always clear, aside from known interference/environmental conditions. One would have to look at every individual instance and determine the percentage of those likely caused by an object being too dense, something about its nature that prevents a lock, a sensitivity or instability that makes it too delicate / hazardous to transport, or something else entirely.

They'd have a pretty sweet weapon on their hands if they just set it to disassemble everything in a fixed line, starting with the stuff closest to the ship. Obviously they wouldn't bother reassembling any of it.

Yeah, they could have some sort of ship-based disintegration system. Basically target the vital components of an enemy ship and start dismantling. No real need to scan the object beyond whats needed to make sure its the target. Should be able to work on anything that a regular transporter beam can target and more.

When you think about it, if the enemy ship has enough of a transporter lock on you to beam out individual people, there's really nothing stopping them from just scrambling peoples internal organs or remote disintegrating chunks of your ship.

That's one of the many problems with ye olde matter transporter. Its often used primarily just as a transporter (aside from freaky one off as the plot dictates events), however if you look at the technological capabilities and their multitude of applications, you'll see just how poorly thought out the idea really is, not to mention the overall technology of said universe.

[Azron_Stoma]

I guess an overly simple way to say it would be that, Any material that they can't replicate, they can't beam over with a transporter.

[Alyeska]

I guess an overly simple way to say it would be that, Any material that they can't replicate, they can't beam over with a transporter.

Too simple. They cannot replicate anti-matter, but they can transport it.

[Sela]

And they can't replicate organic tissue due to 1-bit errors, but they most certainly can transport it.

[Sela]

Actually - for most the instances where they're having a hard time maintaining a lock or struggling to keep a transport going, the subject is already dematerialized, though the blue beam is still present at the starting site. . . could this mean that this first phase of transport happens beforethe help of full-signal, but after a signal lock?

[CaptainChewbacca]

Wasn't the premise of the episode 'The Most Toys' that the bad guy had a vital element used for ecological disasters which was too fragile/delicate to be transported, and therefore necessitated a shuttle transferring it from one ship to another?

[Darth Fanboy]

there's really nothing stopping them from just scrambling peoples internal organs or remote disintegrating chunks of your ship.

I hear transporters don't normally work through deflector shields. Oh, and that if the target is moving around fast enough it is much more difficult to lock on to it.

[Oskuro]

I also hear that straight out disintegration/vaporization of matter is pretty much what Phasers do.