From: dcgonyie@eos.ncsu.edu (DWAINE CHARLES GONYIER)
Subject: Re: Could transporters power the ship?
Originator: dcgonyie@c00071-100lez.eos.ncsu.edu
Reply-To: dcgonyie@eos.ncsu.edu (DWAINE CHARLES GONYIER)
Organization: North Carolina State University, Project Eos
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 22:01:36 GMT


In article <1992Oct2.155222.1@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>, ij59@vaxb.acs.unt.edu writes:
|>Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech
|>Path: taco!gatech!rpi!uwm.edu!caen!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!eff!news.oc.com!mercury.unt.edu!vaxb.acs.unt.edu!ij59
|>From: ij59@vaxb.acs.unt.edu
|>Subject: Could transporters power the ship?
|>Message-ID: <1992Oct2.155222.1@vaxb.acs.unt.edu>
|>Lines: 19
|>Sender: usenet@mercury.unt.edu (UNT USENet Adminstrator)
|>Organization: University of North Texas
|>Date: Fri, 2 Oct 92 17:52:22 GMT+5:00
|>
|>Can the transporters be used to transform matter into usable energy?
|>
|>This would eliminate the need for the antimatter to power anything except
|>the warp drive or things that need lots of power very qquickly.
|>
|>Or can they only manipulate matter, i.e. send it sowhere, rearrange it
|>(the replicators) but not actually store the energy in any usable form?
|>


First of all, transporters take apart physical objects, reducing them to either
basic atomic or subatomic particles. These are trasmitted in a confined stream 
to the intended destination and reassembled.  I think it would be safe to assume
that any high energy activity within or around the atoms of the object is 
transferred back to its proper location upon molecular reassembly, or the 
transporter "jump-starts" these activities back to their previous levels. 
Transportation consumes so much energy during the transport that 
converting the object into energy would barely, if at all, return the amount 
of energy lost thru transport.  It may be concievable to transport high energy
fuels or batteries, but again energy lost would downplay energy gained.

As for transporting pure energy, it takes about 5 seconds to complete the 
transport process, but electromagnetic radiations travel at the speed of light.
So the transporter would have great difficulty `catching' a stream of energy.


|> ________    _______              _         ________     ____
|>|______  |  |_____  |            | |       |________|   |____|
|>      / /         | |  _  _   _  |  \       ________    ______   _______
|>     /  \         | | |_||_| / / |   \     |________|  |____  | |_______|
|>    / /\ \   _____| |   ____/ /  | |\ \     ________       / /
|>   /_/  \_\ |_______|  |_____/   |_| \/    |________|     /_/
|> 
|>        |  Nippon no anime wa ichi-ban desu!  Otaku rule!    |
|>        |      Hey, man, I _like_ Robotech.  So sue me.      |
|>        | Sukotto Miraa/Scott Miller (ij59@vaxb.acs.unt.edu) |
|>
|>

I like Star Wars, Star Trek, Netrek, Role-playing-games, and women.
:-) --Unfortunately, I lack this writers' artistic talent-- (-:
DISCLAIMER: I hope I haven't stepped on any toes or offended the Trekkian Gods
of Knowledge by taking it upon myself to answer this question.  Also, this
information is IMHO, and can be overruled by the official ST Tech manuals, if
applicable

Lord Stingray -- pursuer of knowledge, justice, fun, & women.
(dcgonyie@eos.ncsu.edu)

(Neophyte to those on rwd4)


Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.tech