Efficiency was an often measurable quality of performing well, without wasting materials, energy, money, or time. Engine efficiency was a type of efficiency.
In 2267, on the planet Taurus II, Lieutenant Commander Spock examined a stone spear and noticed that its head resembled the Folsom point, although the shaft was more crude and not very efficient. Gaetano remarked that in the interest of efficiency, he didn't think they should leave the dead body of Latimer. (TOS: "The Galileo Seven")
That same year aboard the USS Enterprise, Earth probe Nomad found the matter-antimatter propulsion system to be primitive and that there was inefficiency in the antimatter input valve. After attempting to repair the input valve, Nomad found the energy release controls to also be most inefficient and in need of repair. After Nomad further altered the ship, Lieutenant Commander Spock reported that two of the brig's guards had vanished. Nomad remarked that the crew's "biological units" were inefficient. (TOS: "The Changeling")
In 2268, the crew of the Enterprise faced off against an advanced computer, the M-5 multitronic unit. Afterwards, Doctor Leonard McCoy commented to Spock that compassion was the one thing computers did not have and that perhaps kept men ahead of them. He asked Commander Spock if he cared to debate this point, but Spock countered that he only maintained that computers were more efficient than Humans, not better. (TOS: "The Ultimate Computer")
In 2366, Richard Castillo reported that the USS Enterprise-C's phaser banks were at seventy percent efficiency, and he wanted to see if the crew could get them up to ninety percent efficient within an hour. (TNG: "Yesterday's Enterprise")
See also[]
- Effectiveness
- Efficiency drill
- Efficiency monitor
- Efficiency rating