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Does anyone know, where to find more detailled information about impulse and warp speed. What I'm trying to find out is, which distance would a ship cover in a year and how much time would it take to cover the same distance at warp 5.5

Maybe one of the tech manuals by Michael Okuda? I've got the Next Generation one, but it's still packed away in a box somewhere from the move. It seems to me that would be the kind of thing in there. Maybe if someone else has one they can look it up for you?

Perhaps this will help http://www.star-fleet.com/ed/warp-chart.html

Kotik wrote:Does anyone know, where to find more detailled information about impulse and warp speed. What I'm trying to find out is, which distance would a ship cover in a year and how much time would it take to cover the same distance at warp 5.5

Generally, Trek ships move at the "speed of plot," despite them stating that there is a formula (two, actually: pre-TNG warp speeds and post-TNG.) In regards to how much distance one travels, when you are using the Cochrane formula (pre-TNG), the warp factor being travelled (5.5 in the above-mentioned example) becomes 5.5x 5.5x 5.5c or 166.375 times the speed of light. Thus, a ship traveling at warp 2 moves at 8x the speed of light; warp 3 is 27x c; warp 4 is 64x c; and warp 5 is 125x c.

As to the actual distance traveled, well that's where the math gets sketchy and you have to factor in "warp highways" (wherein a starship actually moves faster to cover the amount of distance at their listed speed) or something. I think I did the math a long while back and determined that the final episode of s2 made no sense because the NX-01 traveled for 7 weeks at warp 5 ... which would have taken them to around Vulcan and not the Expanse. And don't get me started on the utter infeasibility of them making it to the Klingon homeworld - that should have been a season-long plot at the very least.

So ... speed of plot.

Rigil Kent wrote:And don't get me started on the utter infeasibility of them making it to the Klingon homeworld - that should have been a season-long plot at the very least.

So ... speed of plot.

On that, we totally agree. The journey to Qo'noS would have made a hell of a lot better frame for season one than that god awful TCW. But I guess they wouldn't have had any idea what to do with Klaang all the time.

Wondering. dosn't warp drive Warp both space and time? I belive in one episode it was stated the ship was one light year away but they had only travlled for a day.

If that is so it bothers Hell out of me because to get back to where they had started they would need to go back in time. Times Arrow as I understand it only goes in one direction.

Nope warp speed doesn't warp time itself. Well it doesnt if it's working right. If it screwes up you're in trouble.

Actually I thought time was involved somehow, because of the Theory of Relativity and all? They'd have to compensate for the fact that while seconds/days/whatever passed on the ship, years and years and years are going by back home.

That's a little too "hard science" for Trek, I think. Maybe the warp bubble insulates them from that effect?

I understand about the "hard science" vs Trek part, but I could swear I heard Okuda explaining it at a con or it was in one of his books or something...it was so long ago and anything I could reference is packed away.

Yeah, I know, it was different pre-TNG, but my understanding is that it's the measurements that changed, in order to accommodate the higher speeds, and not so much the mechanics of how warp travel works?

This is the best I can do for you, Kotik.

I've used these as a resource before:

http://www.ussdragonstar.com/utilitycore/warpspeeds.asp
http://memory-alpha.org/wiki/Warp_factor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warp_drive_%28Star_Trek%29
http://science.howstuffworks.com/warp-speed.htm
http://www.star-fleet.com/ed/warp-chart.html
http://www.trekmania.net/science/warp_scale.htm
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/treknology/warp6.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/nj2/startrek/orbital.html
http://games.pbem-portal.com/startrek/ussterranova/warpchart.html

But Rigil explained it best: speed of plot.

Still I keep hearig about the Space/time Contimuim (sp) in Einstien)

AQuarius is right that time would pass differently inside the ship than outside.

So if the Warp drive warps Space and time when the ship stops does time snap back in to place and the occupants of the ship have only agedf a day while those left behind have been dead for a thousand years?

rigel is right, Story drives everything and everything is possible in SciFi

Here is another good source of information. Especially scroll down to "Four days there, four days back" that deals with the warp highway theory - there called the "Cochrane factor".