tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Sat Nov 05 09:23:57 1994

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the qelI'qam, was Re: Nonexistent words ...?



On Fri, 4 Nov 1994, Mark E. Shoulson wrote:
> 
> Yeah, but how long's a qelI'qam?
> 
> ~mark

The Star Trek Encyclopedia states that a 'kellicam' is 'roughly equal to 
two kilometers.

A rampant speculation.....

The Terran kilometer is originally based on a certain fraction of the 
Earth's circumference.  It might follow that the Klingon qelI'qam is also 
based on someething similar.  

The FASA rules say that the diameter of the Klingon homeworld (they call 
it 'Klinzhai') is 18,200 kilometers.  This is rougly 9,000 qelI'qam.  The 
Klingons who decided on making the qelI'qam would have been influanced by 
regional measurements of didtance (based on how far an army might march 
in a day, how far a spear might be thrown, a warrior's stride, etc) might 
choose 9,000 with an almost mystical significance, three-threes to equal 
nine.

With this, the calculation would be that the qelI'qam is 2.02 kilometers, 
give or take about 10 meters.

OK, so it's made up but so what.

With similar logic (an imagination) I worked out, perhaps why the number 
three is so important that Klingons decided to impose a base-3 numbering 
system over the more logical base-10.  (Logical base-10 because klingons 
have 10 fingers.  After all, that's why humans use base-10)

FASA and John ford says that the Klingon year is 10% longer than the 
Terran year.  The Klingon day is 28 terran hours long.  The math yields a 
DIS that is about 344 1/3 jaj.  The base three would be a way to 
reinforce a calendar with a leap year every three years.

And just for reference, John Ford wrote in 'The Final Reflection' that 
the Klingon day had 20 divisions, comporable to hours.  (1 Klingon hour 
equal to 1.4 Terran hours.)

(signed)
Kordite, Intelligence Officer, IKV Dark Justice, Klingon Assault Group

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