I'm just wondering if anyone has found a good impulse speed calculator? I've found plenty for warp but there doesn't seem to be anything for sublight.
Impulse Speed Calculator
- Thread starter Bry_Sinclair
- Start date
Is there really a need for one?
According to ST:TNG Technical Manual:
I wouldn't be surprised if "Maximum Impulse" is capped at 0.25c through software limitations due to the "Time Dilation" issue with messing with the computer clocks. I'm sure future StarFleet STL Engineers will figure out how to bypass the engine & computer systems limitations, but until then. I wouldn't be surprised if that was what the "Hyper-Impulse" systems do.
This is the power requirements, look how high it is relative to using the same energy for low Warp Factor 1.X.
Given how much more efficient it is to bypass those speed ranges and go faster (Low FTL) for the same energy cost, along with the computer time synchronization issues with high STL.
According to ST:TNG Technical Manual:
It's not that 24th century StarFleet vessels can't go past 0.25c, it's that they generally don't bother due to technical limitations with computer clock synchronization due to Time Dilation.
I wouldn't be surprised if "Maximum Impulse" is capped at 0.25c through software limitations due to the "Time Dilation" issue with messing with the computer clocks. I'm sure future StarFleet STL Engineers will figure out how to bypass the engine & computer systems limitations, but until then. I wouldn't be surprised if that was what the "Hyper-Impulse" systems do.
Given how much more efficient it is to bypass those speed ranges and go faster (Low FTL) for the same energy cost, along with the computer time synchronization issues with high STL.
There are no calculators as far as I know. We usually hear "one-quarter impulse power", "full impulse" etc settings but those don't generally correspond to actual speeds. The only data point I recall is from TMP where the Enterprise on impulse power is at Warp 0.5 and went from Earth to Jupiter which works out to about 0.5c. A loose data point is in "First Contact" where the Enterprise-E paces the Phoenix as she approaches light-speed.
So if you're in the slower-than-light camp then max impulse would top out before light-speed. If you're in the FTL camp then max impulse could be upwards of Warp 5 speeds ("The Deadly Years").
Here is a chart I found on Time Dilation, Basically, there's not much of a difference until you get to 0.5, then steady curve till 0.9, then it spikes, sort of like Warp tables, with warp 9-10 being an infinite curve.
Also
https://www.fourmilab.ch/cship/timedial.html
Also
https://www.fourmilab.ch/cship/timedial.html
Those correspond to rated engine output percentages.
True. An engine that can only reach 75% of lightspeed is still at "full impulse" if at that speed, compared to full impulse on a ship that can hit 90% lightspeed.
This may explain ST3 - Kirk orders full impulse when the Enterprise clears Spacedock, but she doesn't immediately flash off the screen as you'd expect if she were reaching even .25c. Presumably her battle damage limits "full impulse" to a fraction of her regular capability versus the rapid exit from Earth orbit seen in TMP.
This may explain ST3 - Kirk orders full impulse when the Enterprise clears Spacedock, but she doesn't immediately flash off the screen as you'd expect if she were reaching even .25c. Presumably her battle damage limits "full impulse" to a fraction of her regular capability versus the rapid exit from Earth orbit seen in TMP.
It could be, or the damage to the system limits whatever they use to compensate the Time Dilation to a slower speed.
We've seen full impulse mean different things depending on the power available and the local space terrain. Has this .25c impulse limit ever been spoken or shown? We've seen the E-E pace the Phoenix right up to light speed in "First Contact" and in TMP the Enterprise cruises by Jupiter at .5c and later on when they finished rebalancing warp they are already starting from Warp 0.8.
Here’s a silly question. We generally assume “warp 0.5” is half the speed of light, but what if measuring sublight speeds in warp factors works the same way as faster than light speeds? Then it would be… 12.5% of light speed on the TOS scale. Warp 0.9, “critical velocity” before jumping to warp, to use the FC term, would be 72.9% of light speed.
We also know from Kirk’s log that they passed Jupiter 148 minutes after launch. Now, they didn’t go to impulse power immediately, and I’m not looking up the correct orbital positions of Earth and Jupiter in September of 2273, but the distance would be anywhere between 600 and 970 million kilometers, so the speed needed to go door to door without considering acceleration or course would be between 243 million km/h and and 393 million km/h, or 24% to 39% of the speed of light. Neither of which really matches any of the possibilities, but I guess if we do go with the conventional assumption, it could’ve just been a while before they went to warp 0.5 and they made most of their progress in the latter end of the trip.
Well, it was an interesting notion for explaining a bit of oddball terminology.
We also know from Kirk’s log that they passed Jupiter 148 minutes after launch. Now, they didn’t go to impulse power immediately, and I’m not looking up the correct orbital positions of Earth and Jupiter in September of 2273, but the distance would be anywhere between 600 and 970 million kilometers, so the speed needed to go door to door without considering acceleration or course would be between 243 million km/h and and 393 million km/h, or 24% to 39% of the speed of light. Neither of which really matches any of the possibilities, but I guess if we do go with the conventional assumption, it could’ve just been a while before they went to warp 0.5 and they made most of their progress in the latter end of the trip.
Well, it was an interesting notion for explaining a bit of oddball terminology.
Actually in my last reply I got lazy and just wrote ".5c" (vs my earlier post of "about 0.5c"). A more correct estimation from me:
Closest distance Jupiter-Earth is 588,500,000 Km and furthest is 968,100,000 Km.
So at 1.8 Hours travel time the average speed would range from .302c to .497c depending on actual position of the planets. Impulse engines set to Warp 0.5 would then be between 30% and 50% speed of light while in system.
We also have (warp drive) Warp 2 still slower than light while inside Earth's atmosphere from "The Voyage Home".
As to the "critical velocity" in "First Contact" we have Will's line that they were "approaching light speed". I'm assuming they were alot closer to light speed than "three-quarters light speed." IMHO.
I don't think anybody uses Warp 0.#, there's really no reason to go < Warp 1.0.
You just indicate what 0.#c you want to go.
Ordinarily, yes. However there have been a couple of instances where <Warp 1 have been phrased that way:
From The Motion Picture:
[Enterprise bridge]
KIRK: Impulse power, Mister Sulu. Ahead, warp point five. ...Departure angle on viewer.
SULU: Departure angle.
KIRK: Viewer ahead.
(external space, Enterprise passes Jupiter)
Moments later...
[Enterprise bridge]
KIRK: Warp drive, Mister Scott. Ahead, warp one, Mister Sulu.
SULU: Accelerating to warp one, sir. Warp point seven, ...point eight, ...warp one, sir.
KIRK: Mister Decker... Wormhole! ...Get us back on impulse power! Full reverse!
Also in the movie First Contact they have the Phoenix accelerating to Warp 1, though they use regular speed notion rather than fractional warp factors:
[Phoenix cockpit]
LAFORGE: Plasma injectors are on-line. Everything's looking good. I think we're ready.
RIKER: They should be out there right now. We better break the warp barrier in the next five minutes if we're going to get their attention.
LAFORGE: Main cells are charged and ready.
RIKER: Let's do it.
COCHRANE: Engage.
LAFORGE: Warp field is looking good. Structural integrity is holding.
RIKER: Speed, twenty thousand kilometres per second.
COCHRANE: Sweet Jesus!
(Cochrane has spotted the Enterprise in orbit)
RIKER: Relax, Doctor. I'm sure they're just here to give us a send-off.
[Enterprise-E engineering]
(Picard is on the Borg bio-bed)
DATA: I am bringing the external sensors on-line.
(the Phoenix appears on the viewscreen)
[Phoenix cockpit]
RIKER: Thirty seconds to warp threshold. ...Approaching light-speed.
COCHRANE: We're at critical velocity.
I wonder if Warp 0.# is using the linear scale to Warp 1.0 or using the Exponential scale that is the traditional Warp Factors.
The rest of the Warp Scale was linear during the era, so I would assume the latter in the absence of any alternative evidence.
During Kirk's time the order for and callouts for "Warp 0.x" only occurred in TMP.
Most of his sublight orders were "space normal speed", "full normal speed" or "sublight one quarter speed" or "sublight factor point zero three seven" or variations of "quarter speed" thru "full speed".
So we don't have any solid datapoints that can be used to convert impulse speed to actual speed since impulse appears to be dependent on how much power is fed to it.
Warp scale was never linear. TOS scale was something along the lines of v = f^3 * c . So Warp 1 was lightspeed, Warp 2 was four times the speed of light, Warp 3 was nine times... then they shifted it for TNG with Warp 10 being the maximum speed.
That's true actually, so I will revise my statement to "likely follows the same formula as the rest of the scale and therefore achieves a similar result".
