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(Created on 8th January 2010)

Vote #128

The following question was presented:

When I left the UK to come to the States back in 2001, TV in the UK kept advertising the “Trek Gate debate” trying to determine whether or not viewers preferred Star Trek to Star Gate. I feel it is time that EBR weighed in on this serious issue, but from a different perspective. On our recent trip to Costa Rica, we happened to be on a couple of bumpy flights that made me think that the inertial dampers/dampeners had gone offline. For the uneducated, inertial dampers/dampeners are used to defy the laws of physics and allow people to travel on-board star-ships and experience rapid acceleration/deceleration without being ripped apart, but they also stop the spacecraft from bouncing around. My problem is the name of the device - Star Trek refers to them as inertial dampers and Stargate calls them inertial dampeners, but which is correct?

Results:

Inertial Dampers (Star Trek) was the clear winner with 80% of the votes selected from the following:

Inertial Dampers (Star Trek) (80%)
Inertial Dampeners (Stargate) (20%)

Graphic of Results:

Pre-Result Discussion

Mr O
04:54:19
11th January 2010

I think it's a case of those damn Americans bastardising the English language. A Dampener is something that makes something wet, to dampen, to make damp.

Analysis:

Unfortunately I think this question is somewhat academic. I watched “the new” Star Trek last night and Spock definitely referred to this device as an inertial dampener (after Pike asks Sulu if he's left the parking brake on, Spock asks if he's disengaged the external inertial dampener). So, the term is not necessarily different between the shows.

That said, this would imply the that current term in use is inertial dampener rather than inertial damper (which I'm sure is used in at least the original Star Trek ... and by original I mean the Shatner one). This would go against the EBR voting public who seem to prefer the term inertial damper.

I'm sure I've read or heard somewhere that the inertial damper/dampener is the most implausible device that is featured on scifi shows. Even more so than a transporter. It has something to do with the fact that it breaches the laws of physics, but I'm not the expert in these matters.

Thanks to Mr. O for his comment and his pursuit of rising damp. I do agree that his interpretation is correct, but I'm not sure it's the only valid interpretation. It certainly appears to be a widely accepted term now in other contexts.