I have always wondered whether Star Trek has addressed the question of aging differently due to space travel. For example, the classic twin paradox says that if one twin left Earth, traveled at high velocities for a while, then returned to Earth, he would be younger than his twin who stayed on Earth the whole time.
Hopefully someone will correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't relativity conflict with the fact that ship crews seem to age independently of the speed they are traveling at or whether they are traveling at all?
Any Star Trek answer (or fan answer) would be appreciated. - Jdvelasc 06:30, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
- The entire point of warp drive is that relativity does not apply. If it did, then one could not travel faster than light. Warp drive works by bending space itself, rather than physically moving through it. Given those, relativistic aging is not a problem. --OuroborosCobra talk 09:02, 29 November 2006 (UTC)
Wait, I thought Voyager was given a divice to fold space, so therefor, would this divice be useless compaired to the warp drive, if they serve the same funtion? 70.48.198.93 03:58, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
- There is a huge difference between bending space and folding it. --OuroborosCobra talk 04:27, 22 April 2007 (UTC)
Not canon I guess, but I know the TNG tech manual mentions that relativistic effects are an issue at impulse speeds, and therefore suggests limiting travel time spent at sub-light. But yeah, at warp it ain't an issue.
- old school trek fan.
- I know for a fact that full impulse is 1/4 the speed of light (0.25c), so I'm sure that relativistic issues aren't all that bad...not as bad as, say, traveling at 0.90c or something that high. Perhaps the limit is self-imposed, for reasons stemming from relativity. -TerranRich 17:01, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
- Full impulse may in fact not be 0.25c, since in The Motion Picture they traveled at 80% c on impulse drive. In fact, I don't know of any canon reference to 1/4 c. --OuroborosCobra talk 17:11, 31 July 2007 (UTC)
There's actually an in-universe deduction that makes sense of this: Did you ever wonder why the ONLY episode ever which did not involve time travel was ALSO the only episode ever in which no character was on a ship traveling under impulse drive? It is really no coincidence. Impulse drives contain within them a time travel component which time travels the passengers to the correct timeframe when impulse travel stops. The science of impulse is described at Impulse, the science of time travel is described at Time travel, and the episode in question is Family. Tenderly, I remain - Canon Lover.
- Only episode not using time travel...WHAT? That made no sense. --OuroborosCobra talk 03:22, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
- What part of that makes no sense? Time travel is as common in startrek as aliens. That is to say, the ONLY episode to not feature aliens was the same episode that featured no time travel. Oh... wait... I am wrong. Worf was in Family. SORRY looks like aliens are a little more common after all - by one episode (100% of episodes vs. 99.86% of episodes)
- Either you are making a poor attempt at humor, or you are just being annoying. We have a list of time travel episodes, and is isn't 700 some odd long, and it isn't only missing "Family". --OuroborosCobra talk 05:59, 3 August 2007 (UTC)
- Gee whiz, bird, you are right! In order to make up for having inadvertently annoyed you, I will make sure that that incomplete list gets updated. For example, in Emergence, Enterprise-D traveled at max. impulse (high sub-c) speed for a week, yet time-dilation was reversed, keeping the crew in the appropriate timeframe relative to Starfleet command, their off-ship families, etc. (since no age discorrelations were ever reported). Thank you for pointing out to the community how slipshod the listkeeping got in this case. Basically every on-screen occurrence of impulse travel must be noted there for reasons that must by now be clear. I will get started. I hope your irritation has been soothed overnight. – The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.123.141.48.
- I thought Kirk ordered Sulu to take the Enterprise to Warp 0.5 when they left space dock in the motion picture? How does that calculate to 80% C? -Davisn456 02:26, 17 September 2007 (UTC)