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In the 2364 Starfleet Academy entrance exam, one of the questions dealt with intermix ratios:
"The matter and antimatter tanks on a Galaxy-class starship are nine-tenths depleted. Calculate the intermix ratio necessary to reach a starbase 100 light years away at warp factor 8."
This was a trick question as there was only one ratio with matter/antimatter: 1:1. (TNG: "Coming of Age")
In the same year, after the Shuttlecraft 13 crashed on Vagra II, the USS Enterprise-D was rushed to have warp drive operational. In the start-up sequence, prior to powering up the engine core and injecting reactants, the matter-antimatter injectors were primed to a ratio of 25:1. Minimal warp speeds were recommended, however Captain Jean-Luc Picard ordered warp 8. (TNG: "Skin of Evil")
Jadzia Dax ordered the intermix be manually set to 0.01, prior to the warp chamber initialization, on the USS Defiant after it had been damaged by a cascade virus. (DS9: "For the Uniform")
Several aspects of the intermix ratio are further explained in the Star Trek: The Next Generation Technical Manual (pages 61-62). According to the text, the 1:1 ratio applies when traveling at warp 8 or faster. When traveling at lower speeds the intermix ratio is different - a ratio of 25:1 is only used when the core is online in an idle state, prior to full startup. At warp 1 it is tuned to 10:1, gradually changing until it reaches 1:1 at warp 8.
Esta descrição corresponde perfeitamente aos efeitos do mundo real de adicionar matéria extra a uma reação de antimatéria / matéria, já que a matéria extra se tornaria mais quente e se expandiria à medida que a energia fosse introduzida.
Se a câmara de reação precisa estar em uma pressão específica antes que altos níveis de energia possam ser criados, então adicionar matéria extra (por exemplo, " prime " a câmara) seria uma excelente maneira de conseguir isso.