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- "wa'Hu' cha' yIH DIjon."
6 Comments
669
bISagh'a'? I had no idea there was a specific reproduction rate. I was just making one of my warped-sense-of-humor jokes!
Perhaps "my" (hypothetical) original two tribbles were fed just a few meager grains of quadrotriticale. Thus greatly slowing the reproduction rate. ;-)
BARIS: Gorged? On my grain? Kirk, I am going to hold you responsible. There must be thousands of them.
KIRK: Hundreds of thousands.
SPOCK: One million seven hundred seventy one thousand five hundred sixty one. That's assuming one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days.
KIRK: That's assuming they got here three days ago.
SPOCK: And allowing for the amount of grain consumed and the volume of the storage compartment.
669
vamvaD qatlho'! Just to play Devil's advocate, however, "Allowing for the amount of grain consumed and the volume of the storage compartment" is a key phrase here. This could be just one major variable in the equation. Average vs. actual litter size is another.
;-)
If you do the math, it turns out that factor has no impact. Start with 1 tribble at 0 hours. Then you have
1 + 10 = 11 tribbles at 12 hours
11 + 11 * 10 = 121 at 24 hours
121 + 121 * 10 = 1,331 at 36 hours
1331 + 1331 * 10 = 14,641 at 48 hours
14641 + 14641 * 10 = 161,051 at 60 hours
161051 + 161051 * 10 = 1,771,561 at 72 hours
All the other stuff Spock says is just unimportant verbiage.
Here's a site that summarizes: http://courses.missouristate.edu/AlexanderWait/notes/SPRING%202003/Tribbles.htm