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A calculation or computation was the mathematical process of inputting data to determine results.

When the crew of the USS Enterprise became affected with spiroid epsilon waves, which began shrinking them in size, James T. Kirk and Leonard McCoy hypothesized that their shrinkage was limited by the compaction of their DNA and the point at which it would quit winding. Spock established that these limits could be calculated, which he was able to accomplish by feeding the known data into the ship's computer banks. In addition to these calculations, Spock also noted that the computer would also be able to project the point when they could no longer operate and maintain control of the ship, due to their shrunken size, based on their rate of shrinkage. The results of the latter calculation first determined that the crew would "lose effective control" of the ship when they shrink to "approximately one centimeter tall," which based on their present rate, would be in thirty two minutes. Eventually the second calculation was completed by Spock's computer, which produced results on their DNA reduction limits, indicating a "factor of 32.9," which translated to their size being "one sixteenth of an inch high." (TAS: "The Terratin Incident")

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