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Okay, so I was wondering if we have any canon numbers for the energy output of the Warp Core (in Joules/time or Watts or anything) According to Memory Alpha, it was stated that the output is 4000 Teradynes (4 Petadynes). Which means that if i did the math correctly translates in to a whopping .0005g M/AM in the rxn chamber.

This seems a little small, especially for the power output we see in the show.

"The Dauphin" - A TeraWatt reactor is more than the entire ship can generate

"Emissary" - the exhaust of a cloaked ship cannot be too hot, otherwise it will be picked up. This puts an upper limit on the amount of heat the ship can generate (without cooking the crew)

"Allegiance" - Engine efficiency was stated at 93%, and the fake Picard wanted to increase that to 95%. This 7% is released as heat. From there, we can estimate the surface area of the Ent-D, and start plugging in numbers for the reactor. I.e. if the reactor is a 1 TW reactor, that means it is putting out 70 GW of heat. Estimate the surface of the Enterprise (hopefully higher than1,100 square meters) and compare that to 63 MW per square meter (surface of the sun from here).

"Best of Both Worlds" - the fusion reactors in the saucer are important enough that they would affect the Enterprise's combat capabilities.


The other fun part is that the reactor power produced at the reaction site will not be the full amount available to the forward sensors. You lose power due to pions in antimatter reactions, you lose power due to radiation escaping through the walls of the reactor chamber ("The adversary"), heating plasma is not that efficient as well, along with transporting the plasma through the ship, and then it has to be converted into useful power. So you might haave a lot of power in the M/AM chamber, but by the time you geto to the forward sensors, you have lost several orders of magnitude.

Good luck getting anything at all to work here. The numbers they throw around in the show are all over the place in terms of consistency.

Aye, there's no real consistancy.

In True Q, Amanda expresses the thought that it's hard to imagine how much energy is in a warp core. Data responds with "Imagination is not necessary; the scale is readily quantifiable. We are presently generating twelve point seven five billion gigawatts per..." at which point he's cut off by an alarm. Make of that what you will.

In Revulsion, Seven is about to stick her hand into a power conduit and Harry exclaims "there are five million gigawatts running through there!" The ship isn't even at warp at the time; the conduit they are fooling with is sensor related.

In Good Shepherd, B'Elanna reports that "We need to route at least another five terawatts to the sensor array."