Physicist does the math on Star Trek’s “Picard maneuver”
摘要
物理学家分析了《星际迷航：下一代》中的“皮卡德机动”。巴西物理学家Níckolas de Aguiar Alves在研究中发现，该机动涉及相对论中一个较少为人知的细节，剧中并未呈现。这一发现并非剧情漏洞，反而使该机动更显精妙，同时也为讲解相对论提供了素材。
It turns out Jean-Luc Picard was an even better starship helmsman than the writers knew. A physicist has gone through the details of a warp-speed trick from the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation and found a subtlety the show missed. But instead of a plot hole, the detail he found actually makes the maneuver more impressive… as well as a great opportunity to teach about a lesser-known feature of the theory of relativity.
Níckolas de Aguiar Alves, a physicist at the Federal University of ABC in Brazil, first watched Next Generation as a master’s student. When he got to the episode "The Battle" in the show’s first season, the plot reminded him of his relativity coursework.
In "The Battle," a Ferengi leader reminds Picard of a battle he fought years ago as captain of a ship called the Stargazer. Under fire from a mysterious attacker, Picard’s ship’s shields were down. He had to get closer without taking a hit, so he made a gamble. Picard ordered the Stargazer to charge the enemy ship at warp speed (meaning faster than light), then stop abruptly and fire. By going faster than light, Picard anticipated that the other ship would see two images of the Stargazer: where it reached warp speed and where it stopped. If they fired on the wrong image, they would miss the Stargazer, and Picard could win the battle.
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