Physicist does the math on Star Trek’s “Picard maneuver”
The trick from Next Generation would be even more effective in real life.
Physicist Níckolas de Aguiar Alves has analyzed the "Picard maneuver" from Star Trek: The Next Generation's first season episode "The Battle," discovering a subtle detail that makes the maneuver more impressive. As a master's student, Alves watched the show and recognized the plot's similarity to his relativity coursework. In the episode, Picard's ship, the Stargazer, faced a Ferengi leader who reminded him of a past battle where he had to get closer to the enemy without taking a hit.
With shields down, Picard decided to charge the enemy ship at warp speed (faster than light) and stop abruptly to fire. He believed that by going faster than light, the enemy would see two images of the Stargazer - one at the moment it reached warp speed and another where it stopped. If the enemy fired on the wrong image, they would miss the Stargazer, giving Picard the opportunity to win the battle.
Written by urgent.news from Ars Technica Science's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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