tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Mon Nov 07 07:09:43 1994
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Re: the qelI'qam, was Re: Nonexistent words ...?
>Date: Sat, 5 Nov 1994 12:37:58 -0500
>Originator: [email protected]
>From: "Kevin A. Geiselman, Knight Errant" <[email protected]>
>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.
Thanks.
>A rampant speculation.....
No offense to rampant speculations (wew could hardly get along without
them) and I realize you're justing out loud, but I hope you don't mind if I
pick some holes in it (or rather, try to).
>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.
Um... what has 9,000 to do with threes? Only to someone who assumes
there's significance to 10 (and therefore 1000) in the first place does the
3x3 become apparent. In base 3, 9000=110100100. In base 9, it's 13310.
Not really round numbers, any more than 8560 is a round number in base 10.
>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.
So what indeed; it's still fun.
>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.
Aha!! *That* would explain why all Terran cultures use base 4! I was
wondering about that. After all, with a year very close to 365-1/4 days,
base four is completely obvious. Actually, it's too bad we don't; a
calendar in which leap years are every four years except once every 128
years (*very* easy to remember in base 4) is an order of magnitude or so
more accurate than the Gregorian calendar the West uses now. Bummer.
Again, I'm not trying to whale on you, just excercizing the same
speculation muscles you did to come up with your ideas.
>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.)
Making a Klingon day 28 hours?
>(signed)
>Kordite, Intelligence Officer, IKV Dark Justice, Klingon Assault Group
~mark