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When transporting the two whales and seawater into the tank in the Star Trek movie The Voyage Home, what happened to the air in the tank? I've read the question and answers about regular transportation. One suggestion is that during the time it takes for rematerialization, the air is pushed aside. But the whales and water are transported into a sealed tank. Or should we presume that the top of the tank is open? Even then, that's a lot of air to displace. Whoosh!

And what about water splashing out when the whales swim around? Then there's the problem of making sure that the water is oxygenated enough. Separate questions, I know, but still . . .

Molag Bal
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rosesunhill
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  • It is possible the surrounding air was just pressurized when the whales and water entered the space. – Jack B Nimble Mar 08 '16 at 22:39
  • Possible, but that's a significant increase in pressure. It's got to be a tripling or more. Even if we agree that Scotty would have designed the tank to withstand that much psi increase, would the whales be able to adapt to that when they surfaced to breath? – rosesunhill Mar 08 '16 at 22:44
  • Here is an Okudagram from TNG that shows the tank in the cargo hold of the Bird of Prey and that there is a layer for air: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b3/24/a6/b324a6830e2d1b6859b85894e45db113.jpg – NKCampbell Mar 08 '16 at 22:48
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    @NKCampbell - That appears to be fan-art in the style of an Okudagram, rather than an actual Okudagram. – Valorum Mar 08 '16 at 22:50
  • Thanks, that helps. But the existing air is still going to suddenly be highly compressed. I'm not sure the whales could survive that. – rosesunhill Mar 08 '16 at 22:50
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    Ah, fan art. Well, at least someone was thinking about the air. – rosesunhill Mar 08 '16 at 22:51
  • I have an answer as to how the whales were able to breathe. Unfortunately the main question is a dupe – Valorum Mar 08 '16 at 22:57
  • I realize you don't agree, but I would argue that the general question about transportation doesn't exactly answer my question. Moving that much air or compressing it have potential consequences for the ship and the whales. But I'm very curious about what your solution to the whales breathing is. – rosesunhill Mar 08 '16 at 23:01
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    @rosesunhill - I accept that and have withdrawn my dupe vote. I've also found a good answer to both parts of the question. – Valorum Mar 08 '16 at 23:02
  • Why would the water need to be oxygenated? Whales come to the surface to breathe... – Richard Ev Mar 09 '16 at 09:16
  • The answer to all things Star Trek, they reversed the polarity of the deflector dish. Or something to do with the deflector dish anyway.... But in (fake) reality, couldn't they just handle differences in mass while transporting? We know that the transporters can filter matter. – coteyr Mar 09 '16 at 11:59

2 Answers2

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We know from the film itself that the tank had sufficient volume to contain 400 tonnes of water as well as two large whales. What's not immediately obvious is that the tank is only half full, at least according to the original film script.

218 EXT. OCEAN - UNDERWATER - ILM ELEMENTS George and Gracie, moving slowly through the deep, begin to BEAM OUT...

219 CARGO BAY - FAVORING THE TANK - ILM ELEMENTS As Scotty watches in awe, the whales, and half a tank of sea water, BEAM IN.

On Scotty, open-mouthed.

This neatly deals with two elements; the existing air in the tank would have merely doubled in pressure (something that a simple bleed-valve could deal with in seconds) and this also explains what the whales were breathing in their tank.

Valorum
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  • I like that. It reduces the problem with the pressure nicely. – rosesunhill Mar 08 '16 at 23:04
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    It HAS to be have empty or so - whales are air breathers, not gilled. – Blackbeagle Mar 09 '16 at 02:31
  • @blackbeagle - Unless they've somehow super-oxygenated the water. – Valorum Mar 09 '16 at 06:59
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    @Richard still, whales cannot extract oxygen from water any better than you can. They could get massive injections of triox, though. – Davidmh Mar 09 '16 at 08:57
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    Speculation: it would also be easy enough to have reduced the air pressure in the tank to whatever degree is required in anticipation. – whybird Mar 09 '16 at 09:20
  • I was under the impression that George and Gracie were holding their breath for the entire journey to the future, After the Bounty crashes Gillian says "The whales are trapped, they'll drown" which a good bit of urgency. This, of course, leads Kirk to go diving to open the bay doors and we do indeed see air escaping once he does. All that said, a quick google search indicates humpback whales can hold their breath for 45 minutes. It's not said for certain how long the voyage forward in time took, but it certainly seems less than that. – Bilskirnir Mar 25 '20 at 17:21
  • @Bilskirnir - If they get trapped at the bottom of the ocean in a sealed container (or worse, a leaky sealed container) then they're going to drown. But there's no good indication that they're holding their breaths and good indication that they're not – Valorum Mar 25 '20 at 17:36
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I'd say that the problem isn't just the preassure in the tank, but really more generally what happens when something suddenly disappears.

This would normally cause an implosion, where the air around rushes in to fill the hole, causing a rather loud bang. Since this doesn't happen in normal transporter use, I'd presume that the transportation is 2-way, that is, when something is "beamed up", the corresponding amount of air is "beamed down", nicely equalizing pressures in both locations.

In this case, 200 cubic meters of air was beamed out from the ship, and 200 cubic meters of water+whales was beamed in. Quite a spectacular bubble...

Camilla W
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