astronomy

List of Star Trek materials

List of Star Trek materials is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of Star Trek materials rather than just read about it. In short: This is a list of notable fictional materials from the science fiction universe of Star Trek. Like other aspects of stories in the franchise, some were recurring plot elements from one episode or series to another.

Key takeaways

List of Star Trek materials belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of Star Trek materials to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of Star Trek materials from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This is a list of notable fictional materials from the science fiction universe of Star Trek. Like other aspects of stories in the franchise, some were recurring plot elements from one episode or series to another.

Metals for starship construction The fictional metals duranium and tritanium were referred to in many episodes of Star Trek as extremely hard alloys used in starship hulls and hand-held tools. The planet-killer in "The Doomsday Machine" had a hull made of solid neutronium, which is capable of withstanding a starship's phasers. Neutronium is considered to be virtually indestructible; the only known way of stopping the planet-killer is to destroy it from the inside via the explosion of a starship's impulse engines. Federation ships in the 32nd century also used this material in their construction. Enterprise NX-01 partly consists of horonium, an element that is rare to find but can be synthesised. It is also used to power a time portal on Krulmuth-B.

Transparent aluminum Star Trek technical manuals indicate that transparent aluminium is used in various fittings in starships, including exterior ship portals and windows. It was notably mentioned in the 1986 film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Ultra-strong transparent panels were needed to construct water tanks within their ship's cargo bay for containing two humpback whales and hundreds of tons of water. However, the Enterprise crew, without money appropriate to the period, found it necessary to barter for the required materials. Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott exchanges the chemical formula for transparent aluminum for the needed material. When Dr. Leonard McCoy informs Scott that giving Dr. Nichols (Alex Henteloff) the formula is altering the future, the engineer responds, "Why? How do we know he didn't invent the thing?" (In the novelization of the film, Scott is aware that Dr. Marcus "Mark" Nichols, the Plexicorp scientist with whom he and McCoy deal, was its "inventor", and concludes that his giving of the formula is a predestination paradox/bootstrap paradox.) The substance is described as being as transparent as glass while possessing the strength and density of high-grade aluminium. It was also mentioned in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "In Theory". The series' science consultant, André Bormanis, has concluded that the material would not be a good electrical conductor.

Transparent real-life aluminium compounds or aluminium metal As water differs from its component hydrogen, so do compounds of aluminum differ from aluminum itself.

Corundum (Al2O3) is transparent and is widely used in commercial and industrial settings. It has a hardness of 9 Mohs, making it the third hardest mineral after diamond and moissanite. Aluminium oxynitride ((AlN)x·(Al2O3)1−x) is another transparent ceramic, with a hardness of 7.7 Mohs, and has military applications as bullet-resistant armour, but is too expensive for widespread use. It was patented in 1986. An aluminium windowpane "of glass-like transparency" was reported from Germany in 1933. Pure transparent aluminium was created as a new state of matter by a team of scientists in 2009. A laser pulse removed an electron from every atom without disrupting the crystalline structure. However, the transparent state lasted for only 40 femtoseconds, until electrons returned to the material. A group of scientists led by Ralf Röhlsberger at Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY), Hamburg, Germany, succeeded in turning iron transparent during research in 2012 to create quantum computers.

Trellium-D

Trellium-D, shown in Star Trek: Enterprise, was an alloy used in the Delphic Expanse as a protection against spatial anomalies there. It had unusual effects on Vulcan physiology, causing a loss of emotional control, and became a recurring plot element in the third season of Star Trek: Enterprise, exploring the theme of drug addiction. Other materials were occasionally mentioned in the scripts, such as nitrium, a radiation-resistant material.

Energy sources Dilithium Dilithium crystals, in all Star Trek series, were shown to be an essential component for a starship's faster than light drive, or warp drive, since they were necessary to regulate the matter-antimatter reactions needed to generate the required energy. Dilithium was frequently featured in the original series as a scarce resource. By the time the later series were set, dilithium could be synthesized.

Trilithium Trilithium is a material used in a star-destroying weapon in Star Trek Generations, and an explosive in "The Chute" (VOY). This is due to the fact that trilithium is termed a "nuclear inhibitor," which is believed to be any substance that interferes with nuclear reactions. In the film, trilithium is known to be capable, when used to its full potential, of stopping all fusion within a star, thereby collapsing the star and destroying everything within its solar system via a shock wave. Trilithium resin is a toxic byproduct of warp engines, and can be used as a powerful, and quite unstable, explosive (see "Starship Mine", the 18th episode of the sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation). It is not known whether this is related to the nuclear inhibitor.

Precious materials

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of Star Trek materials

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of Star Trek materials claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of Star Trek materials before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of Star Trek materials ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of Star Trek materials

In research: List of Star Trek materials appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of Star Trek materials in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of Star Trek materials is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Fictional materials, Star Trek lists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of Star Trek materials outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of Star Trek materials in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of Star Trek materials means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of Star Trek materials out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of Star Trek materials in simple terms?

Why does List of Star Trek materials matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of Star Trek materials?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of Star Trek materials.