Why don't they always use the highest warp in Star Trek?

[JTsyo]

Uh oh... I detect a disturbance of the space/time continuum :^D Jeordi definitely said they were going past warp 10 when it happened, but they never calculated a final speed.

The chart shows warp 10 as infinite. I think the problem is the floating values for warp speeds, nothing is set in stone.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Higher speeds are less efficient, and stress the engines and structural integrity field more, like in a car.
If you'd always drive at the highest speed your engine could handle, sure you'd get to your destination quick - assuming the engine could survive the trip.

The nice thing is that on Earth if your engine breaks down your generally aren't too far from civilization...

The same can't be said for space.

Also aren't the energy requirements supposed to go up exponentially?

 

[sdifox]

I just have to post this

 

[dainthomas]

<Shatner> Get a life! </Shatner>

 

[PlasmaBomb]

There is the warp 13 rule. Once you hit warp 13, it only takes a week to cross the universe. Gene Roddenberry touched on this in one of his interviews. TNG only did this speed once in the final episode. That is they keep the speed down. The subspace rift was something the TNG brought up, but max warp was set back on TOS.

The warp speed scale from TOS isn't the same as in TNG...

 

[MotF Bane]

Despite the attempt two attempts to steer this thread toward babes.. it has stayed on the topic of warp. So fail.

How about Jolene Blalock?

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Ok some explain to how they went back in time to get the whales in the one Star Track movie. Did they use warp speed to do that? Some how warp speed make you go back in time.

Wasn't that some kind of warp/gravity do hicky?

 

[MotF Bane]

Wasn't that some kind of warp/gravity do hicky?

They went past warp nine deep in the sun's gravity field.

 

[GrumpyMan]

You don't need a space ship anymore, just jump into the Stargate and you get spit out on the other planet. Unless you want to hang around in dark matter all the time of course.

 

[Muse]

Please, it's just fiction.

 

[EricMartello]

Based on what I could gather from the show it is the same reason you wouldn't drive your car by keeping the engine at the redline all the time.

Efficiency: The antimatter fuel it uses is expendable and not infinite.

Reliability: Higher warp puts more stress on the structure of the ship.

Uptime: Duty cycle of the engines operating near maximum will increase maintenance intervals and downtime.

And yea, I just saw that episode about warp fields making subspace rifts on SciFi the other day...I didn't like it much either, too much liberal environmentalist propaganda in there.

 

[rockyct]

I'm more curious about how special relativity doesn't seem to apply. The faster you go, the more time slows down in the universe relative to your ship.

 

[TheVrolok]

I just have to post this

Never saw that before. Nice! Just found http://www.merzo.net/ as well. Ugly site, but kinda neat.
If only games were included, they could add http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/DavikRendar/EVE_Shipchart_Apocrypha_Edition.jpg.

How about Jolene Blalock?

Haven't gotten around to watching Enterprise yet. But judging on what I see there, she'd get it.

 

[zoiks]

Good question. But why the fuck do you care?

 

[sdifox]

Never saw that before. Nice! Just found http://www.merzo.net/ as well. Ugly site, but kinda neat.
If only games were included, they could add http://go-dl.eve-files.com/media/corp/DavikRendar/EVE_Shipchart_Apocrypha_Edition.jpg.



Haven't gotten around to watching Enterprise yet. But judging on what I see there, she'd get it.

Merzo is the source of that picture. It was posted here a while back.

 

[irishScott]

Why don't you floor it every time you drive?

 

[HumblePie]

Why don't you floor it every time you drive?

I do though.

 

[sdifox]

Full power to structural integrity and forward shield

Ramming speed!

 

[Jeff7]

The chart shows warp 10 as infinite. I think the problem is the floating values for warp speeds, nothing is set in stone.

Funny thing is, the HMS Enterprise was capable of Warp 11.

 

[aigomorla]

Edit:
they went 2,700,000 light years in a few minutes. If anyone wants to do the warp calculations on that :^D

asgard hyperdrive from SG-1 > TNG warp engines.

little gray men with big eyes should not be underestimated.

 

[ultimatebob]

Funny thing is, the HMS Enterprise was capable of Warp 11.

Of course it does... all of the really cool shit goes to 11. Just ask Spinal Tap

 

[Newbian]

Of course it does... all of the really cool shit goes to 11. Just ask Spinal Tap

Maybe dials that went up to 11 were not invented in tng.

 

[PsiStar]

They grew up in a previous generation & had no idea what WOT means or could be done.

 

[Kadarin]

What do you expect from a namby pamby communist Federation where people only listen to classical music, paint, and watch Shakespeare for entertainment?

 

[techs]

This thread has broken the Nerd Barrier.
It's in an uncharted region of Nerdom.