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Message: <blockquote data-quote="tomBitonti" data-source="post: 6608763" data-attributes="member: 13107">Hi,Maybe you will want to distinguish discontinuous (point-to-point) technologies, from continuous translation technologies, from technologies which utilize alternate dimensions (which possibly involve a different type of discontinuity)?  Then, "speed" works better for continuous drives, while "range" is more suited to point-to-point transportation.The types have different limitations, according to common fictional uses: StarGate gates are mostly fixed, and one direction at a time, and have an energy cost which seems to grow in steps (intra-galactic vs extra-galactic vs long distance extra-galactic).  Alternity seemed to have a fixed transit time, with the distance according to cost.Then, lay out a table of different travel capabilities, and hand wave away most of the physics.  What would be important would be the limitations of the technology, and relative scales.  And perhaps a statement of what size social entity (e.g., person, corporation, government, or entire world) would have access to the technology.An actual consideration of the underlying physics is a sure path to madness: The energies involved are civilization wrecking.  Can you picture a universe like Star Trek that has hostile interstellar empires and common enough antimatter and near C capable ships that does not end with mutual annihilation?  That's not even getting to Romulan artificial singularities, or transporters.  In Star Wars, the Death Star as a planet killer is absurd.  A couple of high speed freighters would be sufficient to lay waste to a planets surface.  That is considering that engines have enough thrust to boost large vessels such as star destroyers into orbit.The physics problems don't end with energy.  There are problems of acceleration, both starting and stopping and turning, and a problem of precision (at 1000c a one second error puts you about 2 AU off target, or about 186 million miles).Niven seems to have realized this as he moved further into the Ringworld and Puppeteer novels, where he says that the Ringworld is terribly fragile when ships are throwing around anti-matter bombs.  He did dodge a part of the problem by requiring that his interstellar drive not work within a gravity well.  One wonders how Cherryh's universe lasts what with the ability to boost large masses to high speeds.  (This is threatened on one of the Chanur novels.)Thx!TomB</blockquote>

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