Impulse engine principals??

[J_Unit]

Hello, Does anyone know the physics behind impulse engines?

[JimH]

Not sure... but I'll have a go.

The impulse engine has enough thrust to propel a ship forward at a significant speed of light, accelerating to such speeds very rapidly (this may be helped by the warp engines to some extent). The ship can use these engines to turn or to slow down as well.
Theoretically, the crew should get squashed against the back wall, but in fact the inertial dampers compensate for this, probably by sending gravitons in the opposite direction to the motion to equalise the force.

Another problem is that of relativistic travel (near light-speed). This means that as the ship travelled faster, time would, in effect, "slow down" aboard ship whilst remaining the same everywhere else. We can probably safely assume that Starfleet would have developed some kind of field to prevent this from ocurring.

Hope this helps!

JimH

[Lindley]

Impulse does not get close enough to lightspeed for relativistic effects to be a problem, I think the maximum is 1/2 lightspeed.

Here's one version of how it works, its from a book so its not official.

A laser initiates a fusion reaction within a chamber. The energy released from the reaction is channeled into some kind of capacitor which involves subspace effects.

The energy is built up steadily, and released in internally metered pulses in the direction opposite that of travel, pushing the ship consistently along. Its sort of like today's rockets, except with the subspace interaction and the fusion source, the net effect is far more speed.

[J_Unit]

Thanks, I knew Lindley would have an answer

[Lindley]

If you want my source, look for the TOS book where Scotty has to spin a planet. Not sure of the title, but the "breif description" on the front cover says something like:

"Scotty faces the ultimate engineering challenge....to spin a planet!"

[Lindley]

BTW, did you really know I would have an answer or are you just saying that?

I've never been much of a Tech speaker on this board (and I've only been here a few weeks). Do I know you from another board?

[Link, the Hero of Time]

really quick i would like to clear something up, an impulse engine doesn't have the power to go half lightspeed, maybe 1/4 or 1/8 but not 1/2. if it was 1/2 i believe that the saucer section would have been saved above Veridian 3

[J_Unit]

Lindley,You have been very active in the two weeks you have been here, you seem to be very knowledgable, thats all I meant. Are you from Illinois by any chance? Its just a hunch.

[Lindley]

You're probably right, Link.

No, I'm not from Illinois. I'm from Massachusetts, recently moved to VT, and currently in college in Pittsburgh, PA.

[J_Unit]

Oh, that's cool. Good luck to you. Whats your major?

[Transwarp13]

[Link, the Hero of Time]

thank you, thank you.. i'm here all week...

[Lindley]

My major is dual Math/Computer Science. I would have majored in Star Trek, but it wasn't available.

[standardorbit]

More speed would not have saved the saucer. The shockwave generated by the matter/antimatter explosion would have been too great, and the saucer was too close to the secondary hull and the planet.

Impulse engines were too weak to right the saucer again.

[Lindley]

With more speed they could have gotten partially around the planet, and used its magnetic field as a sheild. However, that wouldn't have made for as interesting an action sequence.

[Link, the Hero of Time]

it would have made it longer and made the movie look dumb. i mean how many people would want to see the saucer section get away, and not crash on a planet. i choose the planet

[Dax Orien]

They made it seem like when the saucer hit the ground, before picard fixed the problem, that everyone died, but clearly they survived, they should have changed that a little bit.

[eyirs]

Well one thing is for sure we dont have that technology yet but we sure will achive it

[ensighnkim]

That would be kinda of funny, having parts of your ships going different directions.