Direction in Space..

[bevfanK 0]

I am not talking about where the Klingon home world is... B)

 

How do the ships now which way is up??

 

When they encounter other ships they're always "up" but how do they know???

 

 

Am I making any sense???? B)

[trekzone 0]

there are the three co-ordinates...and with master q's latest geometry trivia, i think he might be able to answer this better. But here i go:

 

say for example, a ship is bearing 306 mark 123 - the usual way to read the co-ordinates is X,Y,Z

 

so basicly, the flaw is that "Z" (up and down) is never read, yet the ship is always dead ahead.

 

the "X" co-ordinate is horiztonal angle (306 being almost behind)

 

the "Y" co-ordinate is **ok, now master q can take over*

 

 

hope i helped a tiny bit!

[TheDoctor 0]

You are making sense.

 

I think because the galaxy is a disc they, ummm well because its a disc they, well up is one side of the disc and down is the other side. get it? I'll make some pictures.

Edited December 7, 2003 by thedoctor

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

Also, It Looks Good On Screen To Have All The Ships Upright B)

[Captain Bolivar 0]

Yes the galaxy is a disc so to speak but because of its size you wouldn't really ever notice while on the inside of the galaxy. For instance, it takes a very long time to travel just a quarter of a quadrants distance (about 15+ years) The thickness of the disc would be about just that. So encountering the endges would be rather difficult even at high warp. For most intents and purposes starfleet should be zipping around thru the cosmos in 3d, but for the sake of simplicity and good understanding of locations of planets trek presents things on a more 2'd ish scale and places planets on a flat plane. The reason for this is that because we live on earth which appears flat for great distances we are used to relating the position of one locale to another in 2 dimensions. As for why ships are always both "upright"... its just more intuitive to the watcher.

[trekzone 0]

thats it - yaw, rotate, pitch - i dunno, something like that!

[bevfanK 0]

right....................................................................... B)

[Sam The Smuggler 1]

right....................................................................... B)

*WOOSH* Eh?? B)

[ddillard 2]

Sad thing is, I understand the whole direction in space X,Y,Z axis thing and now I am confuse. LOL

[Guest Guest]

I've always found it somewhat annoying in "space" shows and movies that ships approaching each other are always aligned the same. They really don't have to be, and in fact could really only get aligned by going out of their way to do it, except in a few special cases. The only thing I can think is that Federation ships do it out of protocol or courtesy, and hostile

ships do it to minimize their cross section with respect to the other ship.

[Kyalia 0]

I recall an exception somwhere... I think it was in TNG, but it might have been VOY... maybe even ENT... anyways, the ships were perpendicular to each other while rendezvousing. When they broke off, I think one went 'up' (+Y-axis) while the other went 'forward' (+X-axis). But for the most part, that doesn't happen and it is annoying.

 

When the ships are near a planet, would north, south, east and west be applicable?

[Captain Bolivar 0]

Sorry if I confused anyone...

[bevfanK 0]

right....................................................................... B)

*WOOSH* Eh?? B)

Yup.. The arrow went right over my head... :lol:

[cptwright 1]

ok now think, its a show its all for astetics. someone just watching and seeing a ship upsidown while the other is rightside up would probably look at it and go what the heck. so thats all. B)

[nik 0]

ok now think, its a show its all for astetics. someone just watching and seeing a ship upsidown while the other is rightside up would probably look at it and go what the heck. so thats all.

Agreed.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

I thought I had seen the Enterprise shuttle pod dock upside down because the hatch is on "top"

 

For an x,y,z axis to work don't you have to have a common point of origin. That's what I've always wondered - where is co-ordinate (0,0,0) and wouldn't each race (empire) have their own co-ordinate system

[Admiral Kirk 1]

I thought I read somewhere that all course were set based on the vessels position from the centre of the galaxy. That's all I know...

[Kyalia 0]

Sorry if I confused anyone...

It's OK. The natural state of a Trekkie is confusion.

[prometheus 0]

I loved the battle scene in First Contact. Gave you more of a sense that they were in 3D space. Also, remember Khan's mistake in Wrath ....