Timeline for For how long must a molecule remain stable to be considered "stable"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
12 events
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:39 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://physics.stackexchange.com/ with https://physics.stackexchange.com/
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| Apr 15, 2013 at 7:25 | history | edited | user | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
Add link to Memory Alpha Star Trek episode summary
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| Apr 15, 2013 at 7:21 | vote | accept | user | ||
| Apr 14, 2013 at 8:47 | history | edited | Qmechanic♦ |
edited tags
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| Apr 14, 2013 at 8:06 | answer | added | John Rennie | timeline score: 5 | |
| Apr 14, 2013 at 0:30 | comment | added | user4552 | In nuclear physics, "stable" is used in an absolute sense. If the half-life has any finite value, it's not considered stable. I don't know if this is also true in molecular physics. | |
| Apr 13, 2013 at 23:10 | comment | added | user | @dmckee I'm not saying that's "good physics" according to our current understanding of the laws of physics, but the in-universe quote is explainable (if you don't mind my using that word in this context) with in-universe physics and technology. Star Trek is entertainment, not hard sci-fi. | |
| Apr 13, 2013 at 23:06 | comment | added | dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten | "I'm sure the Borg used some sort of FTL sensors" I rest my case, don't I? | |
| Apr 13, 2013 at 23:04 | comment | added | user | @dmckee I'm sure the Borg used some sort of FTL sensors to observe what was going on, and there's a couple of really odd inconsistencies within that episode (and that's not the only episode that has such). That said, that part of the question was more background to my wondering than anything else; maybe it could have been left out. | |
| Apr 13, 2013 at 22:58 | comment | added | dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten | Useful vocabulary: "metastable". That said the speed of light delay across a molecule is on the attosecond ($10^{-18}\text{ s}$) scale, so it would be absurd to call anything that happens faster than that "stable" in a molecular context. Frankly, you should have expected that out of the Star Trek franchise (which has never bothered itself with good physics). | |
| Apr 13, 2013 at 22:54 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackPhysics/status/323207695811375104 | ||
| Apr 13, 2013 at 22:28 | history | asked | user | CC BY-SA 3.0 |