Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/5/84; site sunybcs.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!sunybcs!acsgjjp
From: acsgjjp@sunybcs.UUCP (Jim Poltrone)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: Re: new question (stardates)
Message-ID: <781@sunybcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 30-Oct-84 12:04:11 EST
Article-I.D.: sunybcs.781
Posted: Tue Oct 30 12:04:11 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Oct-84 23:45:03 EST
References: <183@ttidcb.UUCP> <2999@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Organization: State University of New York @ Buffalo,NY
Lines: 60

[Captain's log, stardate 6935.2.  We are in orbit around the planet Schwartz.]
> >		How do stardates work?
> The explanation that I have always heard from Roddenberry has been that
> stardates take your location in the galaxy into account, and there are
> also supposed to be corrections for relativistic effects.

(This time I have received Barry's reply before I add my two cents.)
   The reason that stardates are confusing is because there is no fixed
reference (with respect to anything else besides the starship).  I had
always thought that the stardate was a count of how many "time units" have
elapsed on the ship.  Confusing?  Let me put it another way.
   I'll use the example of earth days as the basis for star dates; the .1 
represents 2.4 earth hours.  The Starship (damn! what else can I use 
besides Enterprise? ... Aha!) Asimov leaves UFP Starbase at stardate 1000.0.
(earthdate:  Nov. 1, 1984, 00:00 GMT).  Now, if Asimov goes to Andromeda
at Warp 7 (343 * 8.0 E+8 m s -1) ... aw, heck, how far is Andromeda anyway?
Let me say 500 light years (I know it's wrong, and Debbie Byrd of net.astro
fame is not here to help me with this) ... it should get there around
1.46 years from now (earthdate: around Apr. 15, 1986).  Now, if the
crew thinks that the journey took 200 earth days, the stardate upon
reaching Andromeda would be 1200.0.  
   From there, they make the Kessel run to Cygnus X-1 (3.14 parsecs,
whetever that is :-)), which is, oh, say, 1200 light-years.  They proceed
at warp 8 (512 * c), getting there in what seems to be 180 days.
(Stardate now is 1380.0).  Back on Earth, the date is 2.35 years from
the time they left Andromeda (somewhere in August, 1988).  Now, the
crew of the Asimov heads home; a distance of 1300 light years.  (Oh wow,
a Pythagorean triple!)  Proceeding at warp 6 (216 * c) because the engines
"canna take any more", the crew spends 400 days (to them) going home.
Stardate is now 1780.0.  Estimated earth-date of arrival to Starbase is
somewhere in the neighborhood of September 1, 1994. 
   The net result is that the crew thought their mission took a little over
two years, but it really lasted for about ten years. My figures might be off
a bit, but this is the best way of explaining what I understand the method 
of calculating the stardate is.  The conventions I used were:
   Warp factor n = (n**3 * c)
   Speed of light c = 8.0 x 10 E +8 m/sec
   Light year = distance light travels in a year =
     c * 86400 sec/day * 365.25 days/yr. = ?
   Now, according to Einsteinean physics and the Lorentz transformation,
as one approaches the speed of light (asymptotically), mass becomes greater,
length (in the direction of motion) decreases, and time slows down.  At the
speed of light (which requires infinite energy to travel at), mass is infinite,
length is infinitesimal, and time stops.  At FTL (faster-than-light) speeds,
time goes backward, and I don't know what else happens.  
   So why can the Enterprise (or any other Federation ship) travel at such
impossible speeds?  The answer is that Star Trek is Science Fiction, and
Science Fiction does not have to obey the laws of Physics.
   On an related note:  if the Enterprise was capable of time travel, I 
wonder if they would be able to use the same system.
   Comments are welcome.
-- 
From under the smogberry trees.... 
Jim Poltrone  (a/k/a Poltr1, the Last of the Raster Blasters)
uucp: [decvax,watmath,rocksvax]!sunybcs!acsgjjp
ARPAnet, CSnet: acsgjjp%buffalo@CSNET-RELAY

   "But someday soon we'll stop to ponder 
    What on earth's this spell we're under
    We made the grade and still we wonder who the hell we are..."