The Eventerise

[muzungu]

muzungu

If a gate is completely buried (i.e. the gap inside the ring is full) then the wormhole is unable to form.

In 100 Days this does not take place because the gate was active when hit by the meteorite and so was still engaged when it was buried.

 

[the_Brainz]

What density are we talking about here?

Okay, I'll buy that the gate needs to have an open space in its centre in order to activate -- but how dense does the material have to be before it will not open? Air is still matter; water is denser than air and obviously rock is denser than both of them. Presumably, it won't open if something as dense as rock is in the way, but water is okay. Not a nit, but a point of interest. Another thing that must be asked is, if the stargate is equipped with an intuitive feature (remember how it always knows when to close?), then why the devil would it let a wormhole open if it was buried? You're telling me that it can count people and even tell the difference between the good guys and the bad guys, and know that they need the wormhole to close the second they're through so the bad guys can't catch them, but it can't notice that it's surrounded by rock? Or perhaps the Ancients were actually really evil, and decided that this was a most excellent booby trap for whoever discovered the gate technology after they were gone

One other thing from many posts back, re the event horizon. It was said that the event horizon is the "mouth of the wormhole". This is not strictly true. I feel it is necessary to clarify this point, if only to satisfy my own perfectionism. An event horizon is defined by any area beyond which we cannot observe; ie, we cannot see any events -- just like the horizon of the Earth, beyond which we can see nothing. Generally the term is applied to black holes and quantum singularities, being the area (normally around 20 km in diameter) around a black hole beyond which gravimetric distortion is so intense that no radiation can escape, meaning that we can detect nothing*. In the case of the stargate wormhole, the event horizon is simply the rippling, watery-looking plane that separates the wormhole from conventional reality; so in effect, yes it is the mouth, but no, it is not defined as the mouth.

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*Hawking radiation, of course, escapes from black holes, but in very small amounts and not corehently enough to really tell us anything. I believe it can only escape along the poles of the singularity, though I may be wrong.

 

[muzungu]

Hi the_Brainz

The stargate is unable to tell the difference between good guys and bad guys, as you put it. Rather it stays open as long as someone is in the matter stream, unless it is disconnected at one end (ie the power is switched off).

In Stargate the wormhole is unlikely to be formed by two black holes as in the Einstein-Rosen bridge model, as this requires certain things that violate the Laws of physics (eg going faster than the speed of light in our reality). It is more likely that the wormhole is created by a pair of ring-shaped naked singularities. Or an affect that produces enormous amount of pressure (to create the wormhole) combined with an antigravity generator (to keep the wormhole open). In either case the event horizon is simply the point beyond which nothing can be seen.

 

[the_Brainz]

Sorry, I didn't intend to make it look as though I thought the wormhole was formed by two black holes; that certanly wouldn't be consistent with what it looks like, let alone the fact that it would exert an enormous gravity well.

On the subject of it being able to tell the difference between good guys and bad guys, I feel I must still dissent, however. It is not just that the stargate stays open as long as someone is in the matter stream (there's a phrase borrowed off Star Trek!), for it often "knows" to stay open longer than normal while our heroes conduct an important conversation, or when the effect is needed. It also knows when there are more people about to come through the wormhole, even if there is no one in the matter stream, and stays open accordingly. We have seen this is several episodes (somebody think of an example?). Okay, perhaps it can't exactly tell the difference between bad guys and good guys, but it has occasionally given that implication. It can certainly do some pretty intelligent things. Of course, most of this is for the benefit of the story, and when it was pointed out that the stargate is terribly good at knowing when to open and close (one could almost say conveniently good they had to come up with an explanation...rather like those exceptionally smart turbolift doors on Star Trek...