Gate physics

The_Goose

A few episodes i ve them carrying stuff throught the gate like bodies but when the fist to enter the gate shouldnt they be pulled foward to the other end dragging the others through quicker???

mr_angry

They talked many times about the gate having a 'buffer' which collected connected matter before sending it out the other side. There was an episode where Tealc got trapped in it after the gate he came through was destroyed. I presume (they've never really explained it) that this is the reason why such things don't happen.

Either that, or a wizard did it!

Draupnir

I always presumed that it worked by transporting a person bit by bit so as each bit of person hits the event horizon it is transported, then put back together in th buffer and then popped out the opposite end

ixoy

Originally posted by Centurion
A few episodes i ve them carrying stuff throught the gate like bodies but when the fist to enter the gate shouldnt they be pulled foward to the other end dragging the others through quicker???

Not neccesarily. Remember when Jack went undercover to track down the NID operatives from Season 2's "Shades of Grey"? To prevent the gate from closing, he shoved his fist into the event horizon and stood there. It would seem the gate doesn't drag you through as a result. I assume if he stood with his hand there for longer than the alloted maximum time, he'd either get pulled through or have his hand severed.....

Moriarty

From what I've gathered, the entire object has to pass through the even horizon on the departure gate. Once it's fully passed the event horizon, the entire object is deconstructed and sent through the wormhole to the recieving gate. The object emerges from the recieving gate's event horizon just like it passed the event horizon on the departure gate, with the same momentum.

If the gate is deactivated while an object has partially passed the event horizon, everything past the event horizon is destroyed as the wormhole disengages. That's how they kill one of the very early characters - a major, one of jacks friends who was taken by a g'ould.. forget his name.. jack held part of his head inside the event horizon in the gate room, then got them to deactivate the gate. They show the back side of his head missing as a result.

</stargategeek>

ixoy

Yeah - isn't it Kawalski you're talking about from "The Enemy Within"? They were trying to show off their fancy SFX shot by not showing the back of Jack's head. However, they've been pretty consistent with their gate physics. A hand can normally "jam" a gate open for a period of time, as we've seen. I've always thought it'd be interesting to do a proper write up on it, so we have the established rules (like the bubble in the ground we saw in "100 Days", etc).

Gleanndún

Originally posted by Moriarty
From what I've gathered, the entire object has to pass through the even horizon on the departure gate. Once it's fully passed the event horizon, the entire object is deconstructed and sent through the wormhole to the recieving gate. The object emerges from the recieving gate's event horizon just like it passed the event horizon on the departure gate, with the same momentum.

I dont think it has the same momentum, because ive cn several shots of people exiting the gate with somewhat of the same motions as when u jump off a swing or exit a fast escalator. I cant think of any physical reason why the momentum shouldnt b the same but exit has on several occasions bn shown with much greater momentum.

vibe666

but then you had the ones where they entered a horizonal gate and then got chucked out the other side (quite funny and pretty well done in the scenes) and the scene's where they shot missles and UAV's through, which always come out at full velocity. and the odd time with incoming arrows, spears, staff weapon blasts etc. where they shot through back to the SGC.

it's all good though, i don't care (it's so good you can forgive them the odd thing). it's the best sci-fi on the box at the mo, so i can cut them some slack every now and again, although 99% of the time everything is spot on. two thumbs up fvrom me regardless. now if only they could come up with a trek series as good.

i still say a 29th century timeship series would go down a treat.

Moriarty

Originally posted by ixoy
Yeah - isn't it Kawalski you're talking about from "The Enemy Within"? They were trying to show off their fancy SFX shot by not showing the back of Jack's head. However, they've been pretty consistent with their gate physics.

Indeed it was, and they have.

Originally posted by ixoy
A hand can normally "jam" a gate open for a period of time, as we've seen.

Yup. A gate can keep a wormhole connection open for a tad over 30 minutes.. while the stargate has anything partially through the event horizon, it will attempt to keep the wormhole active (so the hand through the event horizon works in keeping it open..) but only until the ~30min limit is up, or the gate is powered off on purpose like they can do at sgc with their homebrew dialler.

Originally posted by ixoy
I've always thought it'd be interesting to do a proper write up on it, so we have the established rules (like the bubble in the ground we saw in "100 Days", etc).

It's pretty much all explained. The bubble in the ground from 100 days was created when the wormhole was established with the jet of 'water' coming out from the event horizon and clearing the immediate area - it destroys anything in its way (remember the ep where they were trapped on a prison planet and each time the gate was establishing a connection a number of prisoners would stand in front of it and get vapourised, thinking they would travel back through it..).

Originally posted by Gleanndún
I dont think it has the same momentum, because ive cn several shots of people exiting the gate with somewhat of the same motions as when u jump off a swing or exit a fast escalator. I cant think of any physical reason why the momentum shouldnt b the same but exit has on several occasions bn shown with much greater momentum.

The momentum is preserved. Any time you've seen people thrown through the gate on the other side is because they ran/jumped through the gate on the transmission side. The best example of this is at the end of '2001'. Carter falls off a rope dangling over a horizontal stargate and on emerging in the SGC she flys nearly to the base of the ramp hurting her shoulder as vibe mentions ^.

Either way, there's a pretty logical and coherent explanation of the stargate.. which is all thats really needed at the end of the day.

ixoy

Originally posted by vibe666
i still say a 29th century timeship series would go down a treat.

Hey that was my idea too! It's about the only thing that Trek could do that would interest me as SG-1 urinates over its flaccid body.

Gleanndún

Originally posted by Moriarty
The momentum is preserved. Any time you've seen people thrown through the gate on the other side is because they ran/jumped through the gate on the transmission side. The best example of this is at the end of '2001'. Carter falls off a rope dangling over a horizontal stargate and on emerging in the SGC she flys nearly to the base of the ramp hurting her shoulder as vibe mentions ^.

right, i remember now. thas coo cuz theres no reason i can think of why momentum wouldnt b preserved. imean, i dont kno y the wormhole scenes show them hurtling through space, because thats not at all wut a "real" wormhole is, but then perhaps they use the word loosely to refer to sum sort of ....wutever it would b then? but neway momentum should b conserved cuz there rnt ne outside forces, right?

D-Generate

The SGC can't shut down an incoming wormhole by turning off the power right? Then how does the wormhole know to shut down once the last person is through. There is no way the gate could tell the difference between the last person going through and the gap between the first and second person going through.
About the not being able to shut down the gate, in the episode where Sokar kept keeping the gate open to use his particle accelerator gun I think they said they needed the gap at the end of the 30 minute cycle to try and dial out because they could not shut down the gate any other way.

Moriarty

Afaik they can shut down out-going wormholes from the SGC whenever they want, or keep them open for as long as they want by sending radio signals through. The other way around they have no control on how long it will stay open.

I've wondered about how it shuts down a few seconds after the last of the group go through a few times aswell, I can't think of an easy explanation for that.

Snaga

I think it was a piece of kit they stole from an alien planet called a, what was it again, ah yes, a 'plot device', that was it.

(And they cant close down incoming wormholes because the wormhole is always powered by the sending side, not the receiving)

Moriarty

Arf

D-Generate

Oh well I guess we will never know why it shuts down after the last person comes through in to the SGC side, maybe the gate on the other side has eyes to see who will be the last

ixoy

Originally posted by D-Generate
Oh well I guess we will never know why it shuts down after the last person comes through in to the SGC side, maybe the gate on the other side has eyes to see who will be the last

As good as expanation as any. I never could figure out how the gate would know to stay open when the SG-1 have to, sometimes, say their fond farewells yet other times it shuts immediately after they leap through under Goa'uld fire...

mr_angry

Perhaps if the person who dials the DHD is the last person to leave through the gate, it can recognise their departure from a DNA sequence? Just a theory...

sceptre

It knows when to stay open in the same way that the Star Trek turbolift knows when its arrival is expected to be late so they can squeeze in an extra plot-expanding conversation before its arrival. It's written in the script. Next!

Gleanndún

i think we have a winning theory! if we can find a few more instances in other shows, we may have stumbled on2 a new physical law:p