Area of the Galaxy.

[All Seeing Eye]

Ok the Galaxy is 100,000 lightyears across but i'm not sure how deep it is (i'm aware its depth alters especially at the centre), does anyone know the cubic area in lightyears of the Galaxy?
I'm trying to determine how much area of the Galaxy is within each quadrant and then I wanna work out what percentage of the Alpha Quadrant the Federation (8000 cubic lightyears) makes up.

Can Anyone help?

 

[FalTorPan]

This question might be best answered in the Science & Technology forum. Just a suggestion.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

This question might be best answered in the Science & Technology forum. Just a suggestion.

Good point, never thought of it.

 

[Hofner]

Calculating the volume isn't too hard. 'Area' in this context usually refers to 2d surface area.

First you can calculate the area of the galaxy with the formula Pi time radius squared. The radius of the galaxy is about 50,000 ly so multiply 50,000 by 50,000 then multiply by Pi, approximately 3.14.

That is:
50000 x 50000 x 3.14

and you've got the area. To get the volume, multiply the area by the average thickness of the galaxy. We could assume an average thicknes of 2000 ly. To get the volume of a quadrant, next divide by 4.

You're gonna get a huge number!

Robert

 

[Bill Morris]

Maybe more like 15 trillion cubic light-years or so.

 

[Hofner]

Oh, by the way. Want to know the volume of a sector if it measures 20 by 20 by 20 lightyears?

8000 cubic lightyears.

I think the Federation might be a bit bigger than a single sector.

Robert

 

[All Seeing Eye]

8000 cubic lightyears.

I meant it as in 8000ly x 8000ly but I get your point.

 

[Bill Morris]

Here's a link that gives an estimate of 17.5 trillion cublic light-years arrived at by a good method. That's higher than my guess of 15 trillion but doesn't take into account the unevenness of the shape of the galactic bulge (like dimples on an orange, which may not seem like much but would add up to more than a trillion cubic light-years in this case).

http://members.aol.com/bpl1960/n.htm

 

[All Seeing Eye]

Thanks!

 

[Sector 7]

I have a headache now.