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From: andrew@cadomin.UUCP (Andrew Folkins)
Newsgroups: net.startrek
Subject: Re: distance and velocity
Message-ID: <641@cadomin.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 8-Nov-85 14:22:22 EST
Article-I.D.: cadomin.641
Posted: Fri Nov  8 14:22:22 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 10-Nov-85 09:56:47 EST
References: <847@nmtvax.UUCP> <228@astroatc.UUCP>
Reply-To: andrew@cadomin.UUCP (Andrew Folkins)
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
Lines: 37
Summary: 

In article <228@astroatc.UUCP> johnw@astroatc.UUCP (John F. Wardale) writes:
>Now my questions: 
 
>2:  How big is our galaxy?
>	A: My astonomy notes say something like 100,000 Lyr by 60,000 Lyr
>		(Major/Minor axies of enclosing elipse)
>	Can anyone varify this?
 
The Milky Way galaxy is on the order of 100,000 light-years in diameter, with
a width of about 10,000 light-years for the disk and 30,000 for the core. 
New theories, however, imply that there exists a lot (!!) of dark matter 
outside the visible portion of a typical galaxy, meaning that the Milky Way
could be considerably larger than the figures given above, though it is 
doubtful that the extra matter would come as stars, seeing as it's dark.
 
>4:  When the XXXX's hijacked the Enterprise to go to Andromada,\
>	a: How fast did they make the big E go?
>	b: How long did thy claim it would take to get there?
>	c: How far away is Andromada?
>	d: What Xc rate do we get for this, and does it match anything????
>
>Name:	John F. Wardale

If I remember correctly, the transit time was 300 years.  The Andromeda galaxy
is about 2,000,000 light years away, giving an average speed of about 6660c.
If the velocity varies as the warp factor cubed, this would be about warp 19.
I think the Kalvans modified the Enterprise to do warp 11 (<-- questionable 
value), giving a fine relationship between warp speed, the speed of light, and
any random fudge factor. Personally, I think :
 
warp 1 --> slow, 
warp 2 --> not quite as slow, 
. . ., 
warp 9 --> Scotty := "She canna take it much longer, Capt'n", 
warp 10+ --> Enterprise += alien technology, which for some reason
ALWAYS disappears at the end of the episode (the cloaking device Kirk stole,
the modifications by Nomad, etc.).