Speed of light and warp speed

[RichieC1]

In another post, there was talk about Voyager 1 and the speed of light. Here is an excerpt from a book I have about the making of Star Trek-TOS. It explains the warp speeds in terms of speed of light. I thought this was more of a water cooler type of post. Maybe we can get AI to design a Warp engine.

IMG_0238.jpeg

[professor kv]

Cool stuff. I grew up watching the old Star Trek.

I was often late getting to my girlfriend's place because Star Trek was still on.

A transporter would have been handy.

[Michael M]

So if we use warp 6, the sustainable maximum speed of the Enterprise, it would take 700 years to travel from one end to the other of just our Milky Way galaxy. Scientist estimate there's about 2 trillion galaxies in the universe. It is estimated that there are 10,000 stars in the universe for every grain of sand on our planet.

Let's use another example so we can understand relationship between a million, billion, and trillion. If you were paid a dollar a second, 60 seconds a minute, 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, non-stop, you would be a millionaire in about 11 days. To reach a billion at the same rate it would take you a bit over 30 years. To get to a trillion at that same rate it would take 32,000 years.

[RichieC1]

Mike, let’s take it down a notch. How many solar systems are there in the Milky Way galaxy that are similar to ours? And each solar system has a chance for a planet like ours that can sustain life. So, for Star Trek, going from one solar system to another would not take that long. So the original “Five year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations” would be within reason.

This from Wikipedia…
The Sun is our closest star, averaging about 93 million miles (150 million km) away. Beyond our solar system, the closest star to Earth is Proxima Centauri. It sits roughly 4.24 light-years (about 25 trillion miles) away and is a red dwarf located in the Alpha Centauri star system.

So, at Warp 1, it would take a little over 4 days to reach Proxima Centauri. I’m guessing but at Warp 6, it would take hours to get there.

[RichieC1]

If you are interested in faster than light travel in space, as in many SIFI tv shows and movies, check out this YT video in the link.

[Michael M]

Sorry, I didn't know you thought Star Trek was real.

The exercise wasn't to challenge your beloved Star Trek, but only to examine the vastness of the universe.

So, at Warp 1, it would take a little over 4 days to reach Proxima Centauri. I’m guessing but at Warp 6, it would take hours to get there.

For clarity, at Warp one it would take a bit over 4 years, and at Warp 6 it would take about a week.

On the topic of art imitating life and life imitating art, William Shatner did an interesting documentary, not without a good sense of humor, on this subject with Star Trek.