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From: friedman@uiucdcs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: What's a warp?
Message-ID: <24900062@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Oct-84 10:10:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.24900062
Posted: Tue Oct 23 10:10:00 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Oct-84 03:17:23 EDT
References: <221@wjvax.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:wjvax:-22100:uiucdcs:24900062:000:700
Nf-From: uiucdcs!friedman    Oct 23 09:10:00 1984

Warp speed was indeed "officially" defined to be the cube of the warp number
times the speed of light.  Unfortunately, in this as in so many small
details, ST was not consistent.  It is certainly true that this "official"
definition does not yield speeds sufficient for the distances the stories
claim to traverse, in the times specified.

A few years ago, I wrote a computer ST simulation game, which is when I first
discovered this problem.  Consequently, in my game, I adopted a warp speed
formula of ten to the power (warp number minus 1) times the speed of light.
This seems to produce more realistic times of flight.  But this is just my
personal usage, and obviously has no official standing.