#warp factor

Writing!

Wait, hold up. In the TNG episode "Bloodlines", the Enterprise is trying to cover the distance of 300 billion kilometers but even at Warp 9 it would take 20 minutes.

I know this is the nerdiest shit ever, but I am trying to do the math here because that immediately sounded wrong.

If light travels at 300,000 kilometers per second, that also means it goes at 5000 kilometers per minute. So, Warp 1 is a speed of 5000 kilometers per minute. So at Warp 1 the Enterprise can cover 300 billion kilometers - or 300,000,000,000 divided by 5000 - in 60,000,000 minutes. Looking up how Warp factors actually increase from 1 to 2, to 2 to 3 is giving me mixed answers as I try to look it up - nobody seems to fucking agree. What I do see is that at least 500 times the speed of light seems rather doable and mid-cruise speeds. So!

60 million minutes divided by 500 is 120,000. And some sources state that even 1800 times the speed of light is possible. So, 60 million divided by 1800... nets 33,333 minutes. And I found one guy saying Warp 9 is 6,561 times the speed of light. So. ONE MORE TIME! 60 million divided by 6,561 is... 9,144 minutes. Or about 6 days.

The old adage really is true. Warp speed is as fast as what the writers need for it to be (or they simply do not have a sense of scale, which really is a fault in most science fiction writers).

My math assuming that warp factors multiple by the speed of light says that 70,000 light years should take 933years (nearly a millennia) to travel at warp 9.95.

Assuming that warp factor is a power of light speed would make 70,000 light years an infinitesimal distance taking only 3*10^-64s to travel at warp 9.95.

Star Trek Voyager states that at max speed, it would take at least 75 years to travel 70,000 light years. It is also stated that the ship has an engine that can travel at warp 9.95.

I have spent nearly an hour of my life trying to figure out a simple equation for warp factor without specifically looking up anything past the speed of light, one light year, and (double checking) that warp one is light speed

Like there’s a Warp Factor….

                        ….launching from a nuclear carrier….

PHILIPPINE SEA (October 23, 2020) -- An E/A-18G Growler electronic warfare jet launches from the flight deck of United States Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76).

Star-date 20201023....on the far side of planet Earth, Milky Way galaxy

                                    ________________________

>>Top two photos: Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Gabriel A. Martinez, USN