This is the difference between pulse and continuous use. I'm familiar with this from being in the vaping hobby. Batteries have ratings for short discharges and long discharges.
this post was submitted on 12 Jul 2025
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TenForward: Where Every Vulcan Knows Your Name
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vaping hobby
That's a weird way to spell addiction
They're not mutually exclusive. I'm addicted to nicotine, but I've been into vaping as a hobby for 15 years.
They're the opposite of mutually exclusive. I don't think there are many people with a vaping "hobby", that don't also have an addiction
Duty cycle.
That… and the damage to subspace caused by speeds over Warp 5, which soon gets forgotten about.
All warp caused damage, but they agreed to have a speed limit of warp 5 to manage the damage caused. It was still bad, but space had a chance to repair itself from that amount.
So that's where all the weird time loops and energy fields just floating in space come from.
Time loops are space state troopers.
Remember the part where it took basically ecoterrorism to get the point across?
So unrealistic, just woke agenda... Oh.
There are throwaway mentions of newer warp drives having solved the issue. The nacelles on the Intrepid-class moving is one of the methods.
And the separation of nacelles from the ship makes it more efficient
Just like climate change and the damage we’re doing to the planet!
Did they ever address why some ships have gone over warp 10, even though hitting warp 10 means you occupy all points in the universe simultaneously?
The scale changed from TOS to TNG. Then in All Good Things which is the only other time we've seen it presumably they changed the scale again.
And then back for Picard when the max sustainable is warp 9.99.
They did address it, featuring salamander babies.
several story lines, mostly in tng, refer to damage to subspace caused by warp engines being the reason for the imposed 'speed limit'
Who is enforcing the speed limit (beside in-universe physics)?
Don't worry! You only need to be at your best 8 to 10 hours a day, every year of your life, with maybe a week per year off! Much more manageable :(
Best? They don't pay the best, I don't work the best. Act your wage.
20 years ago I worked at a shitty chocolate shop in a tourist town that put up a massive banner over the front of the building, opposing the effort to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour.
These assholes would have literal temper tantrums if I wasn’t running at full speed through the back of the shop with knee-high sugar boilers cranked full bore, which I could have easily fallen face first into, to fetch whatever the customers wanted in that moment.
Like, you fuckers want maximum effort from me, while actively opposing an increase in the minimum that you are allowed to pay me? Fuck all the way off.
I would sometimes pick up lunch at the Taco Bell across the street and do my best to keep the total below the $6.75 per hour I was being paid. That wasn’t a lot of Taco Bell in 2005.
That's a good slogan that one.
"Act your wage."
I stole it. No idea from where :-)
And here I thought it was because of The Traveler that they didn't travel over warp 9.
I get that's a joke but the real answer is fuel efficiency.
As velocity increases, air resistance increases quadratically. The formula is:
F = ½ × ρ × v² × Cd × A
Where: ρ = air density v = velocity Cd = drag coefficient A = cross-sectional area
So as warp speed increases, the drag force skyrockets and so does the fuel usage. That’s just basic aerodynamics.
They did the math! If there is air resistance in space...
Actually, kinda. Space is not a true vacuum, the particles per cubic meter is just really low, low enough that it's basically close enough for most stuff humans do in space. But, IIRC, when you travel at relativistic speeds and keep closing in on light speed, these particles are enough that there's a similar effect to air resistance in terrestrial travel.
I could be wrong though, it's hearsay and I'm not even sure where I got this from. I think it might have been SFAA though.
Edit: found this:
It seems to me that with space travel, the speed of a spacecraft would be limited by the matter in space due to friction. Is this true?
The density of matter in our Galaxy is about 1 particle/cm³ (in the disk, with the halo being less dense). The density of matter in intergalactic space (between galaxies) is about 2 x 10^-31 gm/cm³, mainly hydrogen. At these densities, I don't think one has to worry about friction.
Dr. Louis Barbier
Does friction exist in deep space?
Yes, when two surfaces rub together in outer space, there will be friction. Friction is a surface effect and doesn't depend upon there being air. There is also a force like air resistance from the very sparse gas in space, but it will be very, very small, since space is a very good vacuum.
Dr. Eric Christian
At anything approaching relativistic speeds, the name for what would happen when those random atoms of mostly hydrogen impacted the spacecraft's hull would not be friction, but more likely, fusion, the formation of a high energy plasma and a bit of radiation that used to be that bit of hull. Can't imagine that ending well.
However, since the hypothetical warp drive doesn't actually push the ship through space, but bend space around the ship, there should be no contact between the ship and "space air" in the path of travel.
Preventing that sort of thing is the primary function of the deflector dish, and not just whatever they're jiggered it to do in order to solve the Negative Space Wedgie problem of the week this time.
And somehow they snork up hydrogen via the Bussard ram scoops, as well. I don't think anyone's ever adequately explained just how the hell that's supposed to work at warp speed, only that it does.
Maybe there's space gas in the future, you don't know
There is. That's why they have a deflector. When you're going any appreciable fraction of c, which impulse is, even atomic particles are going to cause problems for your starship. The deflector moves things out of the way so your ship doesn't hit it. If you need to collect that gas you turn off the deflector and turn on the bussard collectors.
What part of the equation takes warp and deflector shields into account?
Eh, let’s swap air density for deflectors, and drag for the warp bubble.
But… do you need deflectors at warp? Isn’t the bubble folding space around the obstacles you’d typically need deflectors for?
Deflectors are for impulse speed are they not?
Full Impulse is supposed to be 0.25c, at which speed i guess stuff starts coming at you pretty quick with no space time bubble to protect you
I've been a rabid trek fan for... let's just say a long time, and I never knew this detail. It makes sense though. I've really got a brush up on my fake trek science