FTL weapons, continued

[M...@psuvm.bitnet]

Boy, do I feel dumb. I forgot to finish my second point I got so
sidetracked. Ok, so if there is a bottom limit of C then anything
fired at a speed about C, couldn't go below until it hit something.
Well, that's what I was trying to say in my own inimitable, if not
moronic, style...
-------

"I always lie ... and I'm always right."
-J.R. "Bob" Dobbs, The Church of the SubGenius

Michael S. Weiss
The Pennsylvania State University
M...@PSUVM.BITNET

<* The opinions expressed by me do not reflect those held *>
<* by my school nor those of my employer. (If I had one.) *>

[KW Heuer]

In <3...@astroatc.UUCP> jo...@astroatc.UUCP (John F. Wardale) writes:
>Does any non-physics type out there want to take a crack at explaining
>their theory as to how the Big E can fire these [weapons at FTL]?

My first reaction was that there should be no difficulty. As pointed
out by M...@PSUVMA.BITNET in <4595MIQ@PSUVMA>, an FTL weapon should be
no harder than an FTL ship. Moreover, if you assume additive velocity,
the weapon can be slower than light relative to the ship (as mentioned
in articles <4609MW9@PSUVM><4610MW9@PSUVM> by M...@PSUVM.BITNET).

Now I'm not going to invoke Einstein because [0] you wanted "non-physics
types"; [1] Einstein's equations don't behave nicely for v > c; and [2]
Star Trek seems to have taken a leap beyond Einstein, all the way to
Aristotle. :-)

Note that in the Star Trek universe, FTL is some sort of abnormal state.
"No natural object can travel faster than light!" (I don't remember the
episode.) It strains the engines to _continue_ to travel at warp 10;
they can't just coast. In fact if they turn off the engines, don't they
revert to sublight? Perhaps even "stop"? (Relative to what?) Given
this, one would expect that the weaponry must have its own propulsion
system, once it leaves the field that propels the ship. Has there ever
been any mention of such a system? (I remember that the Romulan weaponry
had a tracking device.)

Note also that the sensors, since they can observe an oncoming FTL object,
must transmit FTL information (probably instantaneously).

Karl W. Z. Heuer (ihnp4!bentley!kwh), The Walking Lint

[Andy Toy]

In article <6...@bentley.UUCP> k...@bentley.UUCP (KW Heuer) writes:
>Note that in the Star Trek universe, FTL is some sort of abnormal state.
>"No natural object can travel faster than light!" (I don't remember the
>episode.) It strains the engines to _continue_ to travel at warp 10;
>they can't just coast. In fact if they turn off the engines, don't they
>revert to sublight? Perhaps even "stop"? (Relative to what?) Given
>this, one would expect that the weaponry must have its own propulsion
>system, once it leaves the field that propels the ship. Has there ever
>been any mention of such a system? (I remember that the Romulan weaponry
>had a tracking device.)

I recall some episodes where the the Enterprise is going *really* fast
and they have to reverse engines to slow down. I think one of them is
the one where they mix matter and anti-matter *cold* because the
engines were shut down and they didn't have time to get them to
operating temperature since they were trying to get out of a decaying
orbit.
--
Andy Toy, Mapping Analysis and Design Group (MAD),
Faculty of Environmental Studies, University of Waterloo,
Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA N2L 3G1 (519) 885-1211 x6592
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[Paul Gardner]

In article <11...@watnot.UUCP>, at...@watnot.UUCP (Andy Toy) writes:
> I recall some episodes where the the Enterprise is going *really* fast
> and they have to reverse engines to slow down. I think one of them is
> the one where they mix matter and anti-matter *cold* because the
> engines were shut down and they didn't have time to get them to
> operating temperature since they were trying to get out of a decaying
> orbit.

The Naked Time.
While I'm here:
What is the episode in which our heroes are in a similar situation and Spock
is telling Scotty, who is in that slanted engineering tube, "Mr. Scott, you
have 3.8 seconds in which to complete the repairs", and Scotty says "Mr.
Spock, I don't need a bloomin' cuckoo clock!"
Classic line.

---------------
Paul C. Gardner
UUCP: ..!{allegra,seismo,decvax,cmcl2}!rochester!gardner