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Biggest Thing In the Universe
- Thread starter RawBert
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I was going to say Kim Kardashians ASS.
My ex wife's ass would argue about that with you.
Trek fan here, so I'll add my 2 bars of gold-pressed latinum...
At "true" Warp 10, the Enterprise could reach one end before leaving the other, although none of the ships called Enterprise ever attained the speed on the show. It was also referred to as transwarp, and was usually considered a theoretical "infinite" speed. Captain Janeway and Ensign Paris successfully reached this speed on the Voyager episode "Threshold"; Paris said that he felt himself being everywhere in the universe at once. Of course, there was a really strange physiological side effect, but I'll leave that to the viewer.
There have been several earlier mentions of higher warp factors being achieved (such as the future Enterprise-D in TNG's final episode being equipped for warp 13), but these were either in "alternate timelines" or later re-evaluated as Warp 9.9999999.... or something similar.
As far as safety is concerned:
At speeds higher than Warp 6, use of warp engines start to do small yet cumulative damage to subspace fields (and, connected as they are, to portions of regular space-time), and could harm nearby habitable planets. Thus, the Federation originally set a "speed limit" of Warp 5 for standard missions, in order to minimize subspace damage. However, variable warp nacelle geometry (such as the "folding nacelles" shown on Voyager) proved to reduce subspace tearing and eventually resulted in the later raising of the limit to 6.
Warp 9.975 is the maximum an Intrepid-class starship with a Class 9 warp engine can sustain under normal use; if I'm not mistaken, that's even faster than the Enterprise-E. However, this done repeatedly in the same region of space would likely cause permanent damage in the "fabric" of spacetime, making warp drive locally nonfunctional.
Let's do the math.
Just off the top of my head I think the age of universe is roughly 14.5 billion years and the size of the observable universe, depending on which source you prefer, is something like 46 - 100+ billion light years. The interesting point is that means the space between (far away) objects is expanding faster than the speed of light.
"The best estimate of the age of the universe as of 2013 is 13.798 ± 0.037 billion years[2] but due to the expansion of space humans are observing objects that were originally much closer but are now considerably farther away (as defined in terms of cosmological proper distance, which is equal to the comoving distance at the present time) than a static 13.8 billion light-years distance.[3] The diameter of the observable universe is estimated at about 28 billion parsecs (93 billion light-years),[4] putting the edge of the observable universe at about 4647 billion light-years away."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observable_universe
According to Einstein, human stupidity is the biggest thing in the universe.
You gonna argue with Einstein?!
You gonna argue with Einstein?!
Probably one of my favorite quotes. Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
Very interesting find OP, thanks for sharing!
Actually not a big fan of that quote. I don't like it when people attempt to minimize the things that humanity has done, or our ability to do great. Humans aren't stupid, so much as there is faulty information, or faulty reasoning. It was a pretty arrogant quote by AE.
Since it's my sig, I think it's only fair, in the service of full disclosure, to admit that there is serious question as to to whether Einstein ever really said it. It is frequently cited, but when I did some research on the quote, no one seems to be able to find it anywhere in his writings or records of his spoken issuances.
Since I never let facts get in the way, I've left it as a quote, but I'm not sure it is really Einsteinian.
(If anyone can actually reference/source the quote, I'd feel like less of a fraud...not that I'm actually losing any sleep over it.
)I would respectfully disagree.
Please don't ask me to source of my opinion...I can't. Just the nasty belief of a curmudgeonly misanthrope.
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Not all humans are stupid, but the ones who are have infinite capacity to act foolishly. You only have to watch five minutes of any randomly chosen "reality" TV show to prove that.
Well I wouldn't ask you to source your opinion. Only to source a factual claim.
Idk. I mean, humans are stupid compared to.... what? Other humans? Ok. But even the dumbest human is smarter than any creature on the planet.
I think it's more due to the fact that people have faulty information, religious and social indoctrination, and government which marginalizes groups into competition.
People thought Einstein was acting stupidly when he spent all this time chasing down the Theory of Relativity, and such. It was widely dismissed at first. Just as the notion of the earth being round was dismissed. They were called stupid, heretics, etc..., yet out of that stupidity, greatness.
So I think people act foolishly, sometimes on purpose, other times because the world has shaped them that way, but not because humans are innately stupid.
Come on guys, 4 billion light years is only a hop, skip, and a jump. It's nothing really. Compared to infinity that is
Trek fan here, so I'll add my 2 bars of gold-pressed latinum...
At "true" Warp 10, the Enterprise could reach one end before leaving the other, although none of the ships called Enterprise ever attained the speed on the show. It was also referred to as transwarp, and was usually considered a theoretical "infinite" speed. Captain Janeway and Ensign Paris successfully reached this speed on the Voyager episode "Threshold"; Paris said that he felt himself being everywhere in the universe at once. Of course, there was a really strange physiological side effect, but I'll leave that to the viewer.
There have been several earlier mentions of higher warp factors being achieved (such as the future Enterprise-D in TNG's final episode being equipped for warp 13), but these were either in "alternate timelines" or later re-evaluated as Warp 9.9999999.... or something similar.
As far as safety is concerned:
At speeds higher than Warp 6, use of warp engines start to do small yet cumulative damage to subspace fields (and, connected as they are, to portions of regular space-time), and could harm nearby habitable planets. Thus, the Federation originally set a "speed limit" of Warp 5 for standard missions, in order to minimize subspace damage. However, variable warp nacelle geometry (such as the "folding nacelles" shown on Voyager) proved to reduce subspace tearing and eventually resulted in the later raising of the limit to 6.
Warp 9.975 is the maximum an Intrepid-class starship with a Class 9 warp engine can sustain under normal use; if I'm not mistaken, that's even faster than the Enterprise-E. However, this done repeatedly in the same region of space would likely cause permanent damage in the "fabric" of spacetime, making warp drive locally nonfunctional.
Thank you, <3 that met my geek quota for the day.
Side Note: Loved the transwarp episodes in voyager!
From the previously cited Wiki page on the observable universe (which has a diameter of about 93-94 billion light years):
According to the theory of cosmic inflation and its founder, Alan Guth, if it is assumed that inflation began about 10−37 seconds after the Big Bang, then with the plausible assumption that the size of the universe at this time was approximately equal to the speed of light times its age, that would suggest that at present the entire universe's size is at least 10**23 (10 to the 23rd power) times larger than the size of the observable universe.
According to the theory of cosmic inflation and its founder, Alan Guth, if it is assumed that inflation began about 10−37 seconds after the Big Bang, then with the plausible assumption that the size of the universe at this time was approximately equal to the speed of light times its age, that would suggest that at present the entire universe's size is at least 10**23 (10 to the 23rd power) times larger than the size of the observable universe.
A larger ship such as the Enterprise-E, -D or Voyager would not have been a good candidate for the Kessel run-- too many asteroids, and sensors are not operational inside nebulas in the Trek universe either (remember the climactic Mutara Nebula battle between Kirk and Khan?).
The Defiant from Deep Space Nine, however, is much smaller and more nimble, and might be able to find its way on a 12- to 12.5- parsec route. Still, the Millenium Falcon has done better than that, considering that a Trek-style starship may have problems maintaining a properly aligned warp field that close to black holes, even at sublight speed.
Then again, the Defiant would probably just use its cloaking device and run the spice right across three Star Destroyers' bows at whatever speed it wants.
But that would make for a rather boring plotline, wouldn't you agree?
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This is what the deflector dish is for. (Well besides being a frequent plot device.)
Some Nebulae effect sensors more than others.
Deflector shields are also unstable in nebulas in the Trek universe, as also shown in that same famous nebula battle in The Wrath Of Khan. Khan's helmsman warned him as they were following the Enterprise into the nebula that "our shields would be useless".
The Defiant might-- might-- be able to lock onto the asteroids with tractor beams, but that would seem like such a waste.
The deflector dish is not part of the deflector shields. What it actually does is send out beams that push objects like small asteroids out of the ship's path while it's traveling at warp.
Well now Abrams is doing both franchises maybe we will find out. I just hope Disney doesn't buy up Star Trek as well because then who knows what junk they will turn out!