Equinox Problem # 6987690008754468

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Now, the creatures the Equinox burned were meant to provide the ship with more power? But, could the actual warp coils handle this stress? We've heard of warp coils needing maintenance before. We might suppose Ranson just said, damn it all, let's fry the things and hope we're home by the time our warp coils are smoking cinders. However, for Equinox to get home in only a matter of months, while Voyager would take decades - that seems a kind of stress that goes far and away beyond what the coils were ever meant to take. She might not last those 2 months, IMO.

[Sionnach Glic]

Ransom didn't seem to have experienced any problems with them, nor did he indicate they'd run into problems in the future.

[Tsukiyumi]

I thought they were only going to get a few percentage points increase from the corpse-fuel...

[Captain Picard's Hair]

I thought they were only going to get a few percentage points increase from the corpse-fuel...

Well, there's something fishy there, given Ransom's estimates of getting home in "months," isn't there?

[Captain Picard's Hair]

Of course, the answer is: lazy writing

This was a good episode despite the technical nits, and we're not supposed to think about this

[Mark]

Come to think of it, how could the hull and the SIF stand the stress of going that fast? Excelsior was ready to fly apart under her own power in ST VI, and Defiant nearly tore herself apart in her shakedown, so these hulls can only take so much. Especially, when she was in brand new condition she wasn't designed to go that fast, much less in the beat up condition she was in when we saw her.

[Mikey]

The maximum power output of the core is a definite, unchanging value. Changing the type of fuel can only result in greater efficiency, not greater maximum power capability. Before we get started on what it would do to the ship, let's look a little more basically. An M/AM reaction's ouput is dependent on the mass of either type of reactant - NOT in any way on what TYPE of matter or antimatter is used.

The ability of the coils, or the ship itself, to handle the added stress is the least of the issues with this one.

[Tsukiyumi]

In other words, Voyager's writers vomited up another script in our faces, and we were supposed to enjoy it. Even I'm not into that sort of stuff...

[Captain Picard's Hair]

The maximum power output of the core is a definite, unchanging value. Changing the type of fuel can only result in greater efficiency, not greater maximum power capability. Before we get started on what it would do to the ship, let's look a little more basically. An M/AM reaction's ouput is dependent on the mass of either type of reactant - NOT in any way on what TYPE of matter or antimatter is used.

The ability of the coils, or the ship itself, to handle the added stress is the least of the issues with this one.

We've been forced to accept strange energy coming from [TECH] before, so I guess the idea is that this stuff releases some kind of special energy. It doesn't make physical sense, but Trek has it's own nonsensical version of physics

[Mark]

Wait wait !!! Let's see if I've learned anything from the forum.

Ok....here's my explination......

QUANTUM!!!

Am I right? Do I win yet?

[Aaron]

Wait wait !!! Let's see if I've learned anything from the forum.

Ok....here's my explination......

QUANTUM!!!

Am I right? Do I win yet?

You've earned a Quantum Cookie!

[KuvahMagh]

The maximum power output of the core is a definite, unchanging value. Changing the type of fuel can only result in greater efficiency, not greater maximum power capability. Before we get started on what it would do to the ship, let's look a little more basically. An M/AM reaction's ouput is dependent on the mass of either type of reactant - NOT in any way on what TYPE of matter or antimatter is used.

The ability of the coils, or the ship itself, to handle the added stress is the least of the issues with this one.

We also know that the Dilithium somehow controls the reaction, perhaps some chemical from the creatures made it so the reaction was more efficient... of course if this fails I agree with Mark...

[Captain Picard's Hair]

The maximum power output of the core is a definite, unchanging value. Changing the type of fuel can only result in greater efficiency, not greater maximum power capability. Before we get started on what it would do to the ship, let's look a little more basically. An M/AM reaction's ouput is dependent on the mass of either type of reactant - NOT in any way on what TYPE of matter or antimatter is used.

The ability of the coils, or the ship itself, to handle the added stress is the least of the issues with this one.

We also know that the Dilithium somehow controls the reaction, perhaps some chemical from the creatures made it so the reaction was more efficient... of course if this fails I agree with Mark...

How can you make it more efficient? You have to annihilate all antimatter, and you get an exact amount of energy from that. There is no efficiency to maximize.

The only possibility I see is to convert some of the energy of the M/AM reaction that is normally dissipated in the form of neutrinos into a more useful form (though how this would be done is a mystery given the fact that neutrinos interact extremely weakly with normal matter).

[Mikey]

How can you make it more efficient? You have to annihilate all antimatter, and you get an exact amount of energy from that. There is no efficiency to maximize.

ummm... exactly! Yet another flaw with the "alternate-corpse-fuel" theory!

The only possibility I see is to convert some of the energy of the M/AM reaction that is normally dissipated in the form of neutrinos into a more useful form (though how this would be done is a mystery given the fact that neutrinos interact extremely weakly with normal matter).

Which would be an issue AFTER the fact of annihilation, and similarly has nothing to do with what type of bodies you throw into the boiler.

[Mark]

Engineering is not my specialty so help me out here. Would it be at all feesable for the corpse fuel to somehow increase the energy produced when the m & am annialate each other? I understand it's the energy released from the explosion that is what produces the power, so could that "corpse fuel" somehow increase its output my making the power from the annialation more intense and powerful?