How fast is a Warp?

[Mightybec]

Just curious if any of you Star Trek fans know how fast a Warp is, and if it's a linear exelleration (Warp 2 is twice as fast as Warp 1).

Mightybec

[argent]

In Classic Trek, the warp factor is the number by which the speed of light is "cubed", i.e....
Warp 1 = Lightspeed
Warp 2 = Lightspeed x 8
Warp 3 = Lightspeed x 27

And so on. The warp factor calculation was refigured for ST:TNG; something about wanting to make Warp 10 the ultimate, unattainable speed equivalent to teleportation (i.e., you're there already). I could be more specific, but unfortunately I don't have my tech manual with me right now....

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Mightybec
Just curious if any of you Star Trek fans know how fast a Warp is, and if it's a linear exelleration (Warp 2 is twice as fast as Warp 1).

It's not linear. According to the latest Star Trek RPG (which gets its info from the source), it breaks down like this:

 Warp      # of Times
Factor   Speed of Light
  1             1
  2            10
  3            39
  4           102
  5           214
  6           392
  7           656
  8          1024
  9          1516

[Rigel]

If you're interested in a more detailed breakdown of warp speeds, check out the warp speed chart from startreksite.com. This data is from the printed Star Trek Encyclopedia.

[Syberdwarf2]

It all depends on who you ask. For me, since I just went to the used bookstore today, I looked up in my recently accquired copy of ST:TNG Technical Manual.....

From page 55:
"Field intensity increases geometrically and is a function of the total of the individual field layer values..... For example, a ship travelling at Warp Factor 3 is maintaining a warp field of at least 39 cochranes and is therefore traveling at 39 times c , the speed of light."

Also according to the book:
Warp Factor
1=1 cochrane = x1 c (speed of light)
2=10 cochranes=x10
3=39= x39... and so on.

The full 'progression' is 1, 10, 39, 102, 214, 392, 656, 1024, 1516.
Hope this answers your question.

[Steve Long]

At the risk of tooting my own horn (what? me? never!), I'd recommend that you go to TrekRPG.Net and download the four or five books I give away free in PDF format there: Spacedock and four Ship Recognition Manuals created using the Spacedock rules. They're the best condensation of info on Star Trek starships I know of.

[Rigel]

Steve, I agree. I have downloaded your starship recognition manuals and there's a lot of great stuff in them. Now, I'm just waiting for you to translate them into HERO stats so I can compare them to the TE ships.

BTW, for whatever reason, the TrekRPG URL has changed recently. It is www.trek-rpg.net now.

[Steve Long]

I think it changed due to some server switchover problem or the like.

Hmmm, a Spacedock-Hero conversion... Not on the agenda for anytime soon, but worth considering just for fun if I ever have the time.

[Darth Sarcastic]

Originally posted by Steve Long
I think it changed due to some server switchover problem or the like.

Hmmm, a Spacedock-Hero conversion... Not on the agenda for anytime soon, but worth considering just for fun if I ever have the time.

Don't tease me like that!! It's bad enough that Decipher can't get thier ships right (I like the system though), but to have the creator of Spacedock/HERO dangle a really good idea like a crossover (when are you going to help those poor guys at Decipher get thier ships together??) in front of me...aiigghh!!

[5 Sided D6]

Well not "official" but one of the novels says Warp was figured as a Exponent-which of course would lead to speed WAY above the Speed of Light lol..... Warp 9 would be 9x9x9x9x9x9x9x9x9 times the speed of light....387420489 times the speed of light to be exact lol - I think the author was smoking something when he came up with this...

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by 5 Sided D6
Well not "official" but one of the novels says Warp was figured as a Exponent-which of course would lead to speed WAY above the Speed of Light lol..... Warp 9 would be 9x9x9x9x9x9x9x9x9 times the speed of light....387420489 times the speed of light to be exact lol - I think the author was smoking something when he came up with this...

If my calculations are correct, this would make the travel time from Earth to Alpha Centauri about 1/3rd of a second. That seems a bit fast, even for warp 9, I must agree.

However, the "official" way seems a bit slow, honestly. At warp 9 if warp 9 = 1514c, then it takes about 24 hours to get from Earth to Alpha Centauri. That seems like a lot of travel time for a super-advanced ship at maximum speed to get just to the nearest star of a far-flung Federation. This is just intuitive, though... I haven't actually looked at how many G-type stars are within a certain radius of Sol or whatever...

[TheImperialKhan]

Ah but you have failed to account for the Cochrane's Factor.

What's the Cochrane's Factor you ask? It something that the 1st and 2nd generation fans used to explain the sometimes absurd speeds that the Enterprise would travel at in TOS.

Follow this link to page on Warp Drive at my website to see basically how it works.

http://www.geocities.com/blademaster...FTTN-warp.html

[Bartman]

Originally posted by Derek Hiemforth
If my calculations are correct, this would make the travel time from Earth to Alpha Centauri about 1/3rd of a second. That seems a bit fast, even for warp 9, I must agree.

However, the "official" way seems a bit slow, honestly. At warp 9 if warp 9 = 1514c, then it takes about 24 hours to get from Earth to Alpha Centauri. That seems like a lot of travel time for a super-advanced ship at maximum speed to get just to the nearest star of a far-flung Federation. This is just intuitive, though... I haven't actually looked at how many G-type stars are within a certain radius of Sol or whatever...

It's not too far off. Remember that everytime they went anywhere in TNG they were always 2-3 days out from wherever they were going. And they could go what? 9.7 for a few days at a time. Voyager prety much proves with their 70 years to cross the galaxy bit, that normal crusing speed is less than 1000c.

[Derek Hiemforth]

Originally posted by Bartman
It's not too far off. Remember that everytime they went anywhere in TNG they were always 2-3 days out from wherever they were going

But they were rarely rushing about at warp 9. Later in the series, they were restricted to warp 5 except in extreme emergency. At that speed, it would be about a week from Sol to Alpha Centauri.

And of course, they were often going only warp 1 or warp 2. S'Gonna take 'em ferever to git annywhere at that rate!

[Bartman]

You are right that it does seem slow Derek. But it appears to be the case. Here are all the distance/travel times I am aware of that were quoted on the shows. All the numbers are roughly rounded. And while the ships do seem to go faster than 1000c, they only seem to do so in response to some emergency. Cruising speeds are fairly slow.

Over Warp 8 = 260,000c (10 kly in 2 weeks) - VOY "Equinox"
Warp 9.9 =13,000c (4 Tm/sec) - VOY "The 37's"
Top Speed (???) = 13,000c (3 ly in 2 hrs) - VOY "Critical Care"
Max Warp (9.6) = 9000c (2.7 million ly in 300+ years) - TNG "Where No One Has Gone Before"
Warp ??? = 8,800c (2 ly in 2 hrs) - VOY "Unimatrix Zero"
Warp ??? = 6,700c (2 Tm/sec) - VOY "Maneuvers"
Max Warp (???) = 3,000c (0.7 ly in 2 hrs) - VOY "Inside Man"
Max Sustainable Warp (???) = 2700c (7000 ly in 2yrs 7mo) - TNG "Q Who"
Max Warp (???) = 1600c (264 ly in 2 months) - VOY "Friendship One"
Max Warp (???) = 1000c (70 kly in 75 years) - VOY "The Caretaker"
Warp 9 = 800c (300 Tm in 20min) - TNG "Bloodlines"
Warp 9 = 700c (7 kly in 100 years) - TNG "The Price"
Warp ??? = 650c (0.54 parsecs in one day) - TNG "Clues"
Warp 3 = 39c (0.1 ly in 23 hours) - TNG "The Most Toys