It has come to our attention that many otherwise educated beings do not have a proper understanding of the technology used aboard starships. The following is intended to serve as a primer in some of the affected areas.
Shield Technology:
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Shields: Also known as deflector screens, deflector shields,
or deflectors. A multi-layered defense which protects a ship from excessive
energy resulting from collisions with tardyons (particles and objects with
mass which only travel at sub-light velocities) and luxons (particles without
mass which travel only at the speed of light). Tachyons (particles and
objects with mass which only travel at faster-than-light velocities) do
not interact with ordinary matter and no shielding is required against
them.
Since ordinary matter is composed of atoms with a positively-charged nucleus and a negatively-charged electron shell, atoms repel one another because of the outer negative charge. This is what makes matter "feel solid".
The outermost shield layer defends against tardyons. It consists of a negatively-charged static field that will retard or halt charged particle beams, and will retard, if not halt, large masses. It has no effect against neutrons or neutrinos, however it will halt antimatter. Since antimatter has a positively-charged positron shell, antimatter is trapped by this shield. When the shield status sensors detect a potentially hazardous accumulation of antimatter, the shield "flips" it's polarity for a few nanoseconds, repelling the antimatter. The outer hull is given a positive charge at this time to repel and prevent any stray particles from damaging the hull.
The second shield layer is a gravitic distortion layer. A sharply-sloped gravitic field repels or deflects all matter which managed to pass through the static charge layer. Luxons (electromagnetic energy or "EM") are refracted and red-shifted. If EM strikes the field at a large-enough angle from the perpendicular, it is deflected away from the ship altogether. This is the origin of the term "deflector shield" or "deflector".
The third shield layer is highly classified, but is the most essential part of the shield. The following text description has been cleared by Starfleet Intelligence for release to the public and is not classified.
The third layer is absorptive in nature. Like a band-pass filter, it may be tuned to pass only a narrow span of frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum. All EM entering this layer with greater than a certain "threshold level" of energy is absorbed and slowly re-radiated over the affected section of shield grid as infrared energy. The total amount of energy the shield can hold at any time is a function of the power applied to the shield. The more power applied, up to its design limits, the more energy a shield can hold. If multiple attacks (or a single large attack) load the shield with as much energy as it can hold, it will collapse. This releases all energy stored within that grid section as a broad-spectrum pulse which radiates in all directions from the grid. Less than half the energy released impinges on the ship's hull, but this will nevertheless cause serious damage.
The greater danger of shield failure is the absence of the shield itself. Any subsequent hits in the affected area will certainly cause damage which could disable and possibly destroy the ship.
Under standard operating protocols, all shields are maintained at a low level of activity whenever underway. This protects the ship from impact with particles missed by the main deflector. The command "raise shields" simply indicates that the speaker desires maximum shield protection levels to be engaged.
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