“the ship analogy doesn’t really hold up … if you consider the ships to be a completely unrelated kind of ships … except here’s how it would still hold up anyway”
Warp speeds were clearly modeled to mimick knots. And I’m sure that the lore reason for them not traveling at Enterprise’s top speed all the time is again fuel efficiency and not because it would “blow up” (although 9.9 might be above its rated top speed, I don’t remember). So it doesn’t hold up with people, where you can just eat more and perform at your best all the time, we have additional emotional constraints that don’t apply to equipment.
Sure, but we aren’t talking about bursts speeds. We are talking about sustained cruising speeds. I’ve responded to a similar comment of yours in more detail in another branch.
“the ship analogy doesn’t really hold up … if you consider the ships to be a completely unrelated kind of ships … except here’s how it would still hold up anyway”
Warp speeds were clearly modeled to mimick knots. And I’m sure that the lore reason for them not traveling at Enterprise’s top speed all the time is again fuel efficiency and not because it would “blow up” (although 9.9 might be above its rated top speed, I don’t remember). So it doesn’t hold up with people, where you can just eat more and perform at your best all the time, we have additional emotional constraints that don’t apply to equipment.
Other than all that… perfect analogy.
There is a lot of equipment that is rated for short bursts of power that would be destructive when sustained.
Military aircraft for example can often reach high speeds for a short duration. This is not improvised but designed and rated for.
Most modern CPUs have non sustainable boost speeds that they can reach but not sustain due to thermal limits.
Electric turbochargers often can only operate in short bursts.
There are countless more examples.
Sure, but we aren’t talking about bursts speeds. We are talking about sustained cruising speeds. I’ve responded to a similar comment of yours in more detail in another branch.
But that’s literally what the post is about. You cannot perform in burst mode sustainably. If you could that wouldn’t be the top/burst speed anymore.