One thing that sets Star Trek aside from most other Sci-Fi shows is that almost all of its scientific “techno-babble,” the fancy words they throw around to make the warp core sound like something you want for Christmas, is based on real world physics or what we think is real world physics. While shows like Babylon 5 may have more realistic space movement for conventional thrusters, Star Trek delves into the world of quantum physics and relativity and does so accurately, most of the time. Therefore, to understand Star Trek Physics we must first comprehend what is already known about the universe. It is assumed that you are already familiar with Newtonian Physics, as going into that would take too much time.
All matter is made up of atoms. All atoms are made up of protons, neutrons, and electrons. All protons and neutrons are made up of a special combination of quarks (pronounced “quorks” to rhyme with cork, not with a certain bartender who shall remain nameless). At this point scientists begin to disagree. Some say quarks are the most fundamental building block of the universe. The latest neat theory, known as “M-Theory” is that all matter can be broken down into flat sheets that have dimensions of zero by zero by zero. The most commonly accepted theory, at least this week, is that all matter can be broken down into “superstrings,” particles that have dimensions zero by zero by zero and are shaped like a piece of spaghetti. If the logic of a piece of spaghetti with no dimensions doesn’t seem quite Vulcan in its soundness, don’t worry. It’s actually a mathematical representation of something people who don’t hold advanced degrees can’t possibly hope to understand without a decent helping of tomato sauce. But whichever theory is correct, they all state the same thing: these fundamental building blocks are made up of energy, and all interaction between particles, which are now simply an illusion created by energy, occurs through what are known as mediator particles.
Now that you are totally confused, let’s discuss those mediator particles. There are four fundamental forces in the Universe: Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Strong Nuclear Force, and the Weak Nuclear Force. While it is often convenient and easier to think of these forces simply happening, through a simple mathematical equation like F=m*a, that is not completely accurate. All interaction between particles is mediated by special particles that are even smaller. The most famous of these is the still-theoretical graviton. Gravitons, like all other mediator particles, do their thing by exchanging places with other gravitons. If a proton and neutron are close enough to each other, then one graviton from the proton will go flying off towards the neutron and vice versa. In doing so, a force is exerted, a force we know as gravity. The closer the two particles, the faster the gravitons are exchanged and the stronger the force. Of course, while it is a nice theory, modern scientists are still scratching their heads when it comes to finding one outside of a calculator (or supercomputer, as the case may be), but it seems to make sense on printer paper.
Electromagnetism, or EM, exists in the form of radiation. That radiation is a wave of photons, and like any wave has a velocity, a wavelength, and a frequency. The velocity is determined solely by the medium through which the wave is traveling. The wavelength and frequency then inversely related in the equation wavelength*frequency=velocity. The wavelength of the wave determines what the radiation is. Very low wavelength EM radiation is known as radio, and carries such interesting information as accidents on the highway, the latest music by the rock artist who’s popular this week, and the latest news on how the government is corrupt and every politician is blaming everyone else except himself. At the other end of the EM spectrum is the extremely short-wavelength of gamma radiation and X-rays. Somewhere in the middle resides visible light, in a very small range. Human eyes are only capable of picking out this small region because our eyes evolved that way, whereas other species can see different ranges of EM radiation, such as ultraviolet. Geordi LaForge’s VISOR allowed him to see the entire spectrum at once, which is why everyone else said it was amazing and he said it gave him a headache.
If you are still reading this, congratulations. You are officially a dedicated, devoted, honest-to-goodness fanatic. Fear not, the easy stuff is coming up next, so that only you devoted few will get it.
All particles in the universe have a charge. For some particles, that charge is zero. A good example of this is the neutrino, one of the three building blocks of a neutron. (I’ll bet you didn’t know that a neutron is really just an electron, a proton, and a neutrino stuck very closely together, did you?) And for every particle there is an anti-particle, identical in absolutely every possible way except for the charge. An electron has a mass of 9.1x10-28 grams and a charge of -1. An anti-electron has a mass of 9.1x10-28 grams and a charge of +1. It is more commonly known as a “positron.” (Not to be confused with Data’s “positronic net” neurology. That is something else entirely.) In theory, you can build entire atoms, molecules, and even entire galaxies out of anti-matter. There’s just one teeny tiny problem. If a particle comes into contact with its anti-particle, they destroy each other in a really cool light show that produces an amount of energy equivalent to their mass, as described by that really neat equation that you really should know before you go any further, E=MC2, where E is energy in joules, M is mass in kilograms (combined mass of both matter and anti-matter), and C is the speed of light in meters per second. In the metric system, the speed of light is approximately 3x108 meters per second. But if you could find a way to safely manufacture or harvest anti-matter and then collect the energy created by destroying it, that would be even better than the still-to-be-invented cold fusion. More on this in the next class.
Easy right?
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