tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Thu May 29 09:44:56 2008
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Re: Klingon WOTD: cha'puj (noun)
>This is the Klingon Word Of The Day for Sunday, May 25, 2008.
>
>Category: Trek
>
>Klingon word: cha'puj
>Part of Speech: noun
>Definition: dilithium
Used in canon:
cha'puj tlhIlHal vISuch vIneH
I want to visit the dilithium mines. CK
cha'puj vIngevmeH chaw' HInobneS
Give me a permit to sell dilithium, your honor. PK
cha'pujqutmey vIje' vIneH
I want to buy dilithium crystals. PK
cha'pujqutmey vIje' vIneHbej
I definitely want to buy dilithium crystals. PK
choH lISbogh Hap'e': cha'pujqut
Reaction Moderating Element - Crystalline Dilithium. KBoP
Trek notes:
"Elemental crystal used in the reaction of matter and antimatter to
generate power." (KLS)
"either {cha'pujqutmey} or dilithium crystals will work in a warp drive
system" (KGT 204)
The Galactic Mining Station on Delta-Vega is an automated lithium cracking
station, "rich in crystal and minerals." (TOS "Where No Man Has Gone
Before"; episode 1)
Rigel XII had a 3-man privately operated lithium mining station which
produced high-grade crystals worth "300 times their weight in diamonds, a
thousand times their weight in gold". All the Enterprise's power is
channeled through six fist-sized crystals and when they burned out, the
ship had to rely on battery power and could not sustain orbit for more than
a day. (TOS "Mudd's Women" [N.B. still called *lithium* crystals in episode
4])
"The leader of Troyius gave Elaan, the Dohlman of Elas, a necklace of
radans as a wedding present in 2268. Chemically, radans were raw dilithium
crystals, and made Troyius a planet of great strategic significance.
Elaan's necklace served as a source of emergency crystals for the Starship
Enterprise when that ship was under attack by a Klingon vessel that
ironically sought to guarantee a supply of radans from Troyius." (ST
Encyclopedia 269; TOS "Elaan of Troyius")
After the Enterprise's dilithium crystals had been nearly drained, Kirk
ordered them re-amplified. The machine that performed this re-amplification
was called the energizer and was located in Engineering in a special room.
They were caramel-colored and translucent in appearance and cut to a 6 x 9
inch rectangular shape with one tapered end and 1 inch thick. Lazarus's
ship took ten minutes to re-energize two of the Enterprise's drained 6 x 9
inch dilithium crystal. (TOS "The Alternative Factor")
"The prisoners on Rura Penthe ... mine dilithium, required for warp
propulsion systems." (TKW 190; ST6)
Treknological speculation:
"Dilithium crystals act as a filter--a bottleneck, if you like--for the
antimatter entering the warp reaction chamber, making sure that only a
certain amount of antimatter is let into the warp chamber at a time. IIRC
the idea is that dilithium crystals in a certain strength of
electromagnetic field become porous to antimatter. (Thoroughly outrageous
from a scientific point of view, but then, that's why it's called science
*fiction*.)" (QeS 3/1/06)
"There have been a couple of fictitious chemical formulas for dilithium
postulated. The simpler is Li2Te, or dilithium telluride. The more complex
is Li2Fe7Al2Si8O27. Both are hypothetically possible, but it's unlikely
that either actually has the fantastic properties that are ascribed to
dilithium in Star Trek ... I seriously doubt, for instance, that dilithium
telluride is likely to be able to regulate a matter-antimatter reaction.
(For more information on this, read _The Physics of Star Trek_ by Lawrence
Krauss.) [...] Dilithium could also refer to a transuranic element that
resembles lithium in some way, such as outer shell configuration.
'Dilithium' would have to be a nickname, though, I think, because we have
numeric syllables to create arbitrary chemical element names, such as
unipentihexium, i.e. element 156." (lay'tel SIvten, 2/28/06)
Related nouns:
{Dom} "radan (crude dilithium crystal)"
{cha'pujqut} "dilithium crystal"
{cha'puj tlhIlHal} "dilithium mine"
{cha'puj pa'} "dilithium chamber (KBoP)
--
Voragh
Ca'Non Master of the Klingons