Unlike Star Wars where the distances and speeds are just made up out of other words that maybe mean something, much of the way technology works in Star Trek is actually based on theory — yep, even the holodeck (someone build one already!).
As Gene Roddenberry himself wrote in 1966: “Science fiction? Absolutely not. Rather, real adventure in tomorrow’s space. Based upon the best scientific knowledge and estimates of what our astronauts of the future may face when they move out of our own solar system and into the vastness of our galaxy.”
Which means warp speed isn’t arbitrary, but actually has a known speed that corresponds to the real world.
To make it easier we’ll start at the beginning — any idea how fast warp 1 is?
Click START to answer.
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Correct Answer: The speed of light
The answer is: The speed of light. Warp speed is all about mashing matter and antimatter together and a bunch of other science things. It was always based on the speed of light as the foundation, meaning warp 1 is equal to the speed of light. In the original show and movies, scriptwriters just kind of arbitrarily threw out warp speeds and let it take however long it should take to get places based on storylines.But by Star Trek: The Next Generation, they actually recalibrated the warp speed scale and started paying attention to how long things ought to take when Picard would bark an order. Warp 1 really is pretty much like going through a school zone — there aren’t many places in the galaxy you can to very quickly at that snail’s pace.Source
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