tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Wed Oct 25 10:42:10 2000
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More thoughts on the speed of light
lay'tel:
>> Start with c (call it <<wovmoHwI' Do>> (velocity of light).)
pagh 'utlh:
> Even better: <'otlh Do>. We don't get to use words like <'otlh> very
> often, but it's exciting when we do!
Voragh:
: Ooh... "photon velocity". Very nice! It's different enough to be
: interesting but not enough so as to be incomprehensible [...]
Although we know Klingons use the warp and impulse power scales to measure
speeds, implying that Klingon physicists are aware of c, there's no reason to
assume that they would actually call it the "speed of light" as we do in
English. For example, thanks to the BoP poster, we know know of the {loghqam},
a unit of distance about 1.25 light years:
jabbI'ID pup: Qapchu'meH 'aqroS chuq: cha' vI' chorgh loghqammey
High Resolution - Maximum Effective Range - 3.5 Light Years
jabbI'ID pupHa': Qapchu'meH chuq: chorgh vI' chorgh loghqammey
Medium to Low Resolution - Effective Range - 11 Light Years
{loghqam} seems to be literally a "space-cam", with the {qam} being some basic
unit of distance appearing also in the {qelI'qam} kellicam, roughly equal to 2
km. If *cam* is indeed {qam} "foot", it may be used in the sense of a "step"
or "stride" and not the length of a Klingon foot. Unfortunately, since we have
no idea what *{qelI'} means, we can't play with the math and break this down
any further.
If {loghqam} is a typical construction, Maltz may one day reveal that the
Klingon equivalent to lightspeed is *{loghDo}! ... or something else
entirely. Okrand often goes out of his way to surprise us. <g>
But until he does, I *really* like *{'otlh Do} for this.
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons