astronomy

The Terratin Incident

The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident rather than just read about it. In short: "The Terratin Incident" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series Star Trek. It first aired in the NBC Saturday morning lineup on November 17, 1973, and was written by American screenwriter Paul Schneider who had previously written the Original Series episodes "Balance of Terror" and "The Squire of Gothos".

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

"The Terratin Incident" is the eleventh episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series Star Trek. It first aired in the NBC Saturday morning lineup on November 17, 1973, and was written by American screenwriter Paul Schneider who had previously written the Original Series episodes "Balance of Terror" and "The Squire of Gothos". It came from a one-paragraph story idea by Gene Roddenberry based on Gulliver's Travels. In this episode, after an apparent attack, the crew of the Enterprise find themselves beginning to shrink in size toward the point that they will no longer be able to control the ship.

Plot While observing a burnt-out supernova, the Federation starship Enterprise picks up a strange message transmitted in a two-hundred-year-old Earth code. The signal is traced to a nearby planet. When the Enterprise enters orbit, it is hit by an energy beam of "spiroid radiation" that damages its dilithium crystals and causes the crew to shrink (along with all other organic material aboard the ship, including the crew's uniforms). Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy determines that the crew will continue to shrink beyond their ability to control the ship unless a cure is found. Captain Kirk beams down to the surface and finds that the transporter can revert crew members to their original size. He also observes what appears to be a miniature city. Kirk returns to the ship, but the crew are now too small for him to see easily, and too small to operate the ship's controls. Meanwhile, the Terratins have beamed the bridge crew down to their city, where the crew learns the Terratins' fate. Terratin is a lost Earth colony, originally called "Terra Ten"; its inhabitants have mutated because of the supernova's radiation, and are now all approximately one-sixteenth of an inch in height. The beam which caused the crew to shrink was not intended as an attack, but was the only way the Terratins had to draw attention to themselves. The crew are beamed back to the ship and return to normal size. However, the Terratins have been small for generations and cannot be restored to normal size. Their planet is in peril from massive volcanic activity, so the whole Terratin city is beamed aboard the Enterprise, and moved to another planet.

Reception This episode was noted as a case where the fictional Star Trek transporter technology changes the size of the entity being transported, along with "The Counter Clock Incident" from the same TV series. The episode is noted for harnessing the flexibility of the animated format, by having the bridge crew of the Enterprise shrink.

Notes

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Terratin Incident

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident

In research: The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident 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: The Terratin Incident is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1973 American television episodes, Fiction about size change, Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Terratin Incident in simple terms?

Why does The Terratin Incident 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 The Terratin Incident?

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 The Terratin Incident.