ZPM question

[scottyv121090]

thisisa continuity issue regarding the zpm

i forget the sg1 episode but its the one where the goauld (forget name) tells them where to find a zpm which he sabotaged (its the episode where the plant grows all over the base). carter at the end of the episode says that the destrutive power would have been enough to destroy the entire solar system. now in the SG atlantis episode 'progeny' mckay rigs 3 zpm's aboard the asuran city ship to overload when it was in orbit of atlantis which only resulted in the ship being destroyed. surely the entire solar system and perhaps beyond should of been destroyed as a result of the 3 zpms?

any thoughts?

[thekillman]

possible reasons:

-the asurans had failsafes in play which reduced the explosive ability of the ZPM
-overloading is not as effective as making the ZPM itself blow up (as in, while draining power the zpm casing goes and it uncontrollably releases all its energy)

[Jeffala]

My thought was that Camulus' ZPM was tainted with a foreign substance and that is what caused the insane reaction that would lead to the explosion. A microscopic amount of the contaminant caused a (relatively) large explosion in the lab. Adding the power of a half-charged ZPM would be enough to take out half of the solar system.

It's the ZPM in concert with the foreign substance creates the larger explosion.

[Buba uognarf]

My thought was that Camulus' ZPM was tainted with a foreign substance and that is what caused the insane reaction that would lead to the explosion. A microscopic amount of the contaminant caused a (relatively) large explosion in the lab. Adding the power of a half-charged ZPM would be enough to take out half of the solar system.

It's the ZPM in concert with the foreign substance creates the larger explosion.

The substance would have to supply almost all of the explosion for that to be the case. Basically its simply not possible for such a substance to exist if Camulus had access to such an explosive compound no one Replicators, Goa'uld, Wraith or Ori would have been able to stand up to him.

The energy for the explosion had to come from the ZPM as whatever traces of that substance couldn't have magnified the explosion by trillions of times. Thats physically impossible.

[Quadhelix]

The energy for the explosion had to come from the ZPM as whatever traces of that substance couldn't have magnified the explosion by trillions of times. Thats physically impossible.

Very true. If the tainted ZPM could "destroy" the solar system, then it could certainly blow up the Earth, Death Star style, which would require about 10^34 J of energy.

However, that energy has mass to the tune of m=E/(c^2). Thus, the energy released by the tainted ZPM would have a mass of at least 10^24 kg, which would be a billion trillion tons (i.e., a billion times one trillion tons). Given the fact that the tainted ZPM didn't fall through the floor, I'd say that most of the energy had to be coming from inside the ZPM's "pocket universe."

[Buba uognarf]

Very true. If the tainted ZPM could "destroy" the solar system, then it could certainly blow up the Earth, Death Star style, which would require about 10^34 J of energy.

However, that energy has mass to the tune of m=E/(c^2). Thus, the energy released by the tainted ZPM would have a mass of at least 10^24 kg, which would be a billion trillion tons (i.e., a billion times one trillion tons). Given the fact that the tainted ZPM didn't fall through the floor, I'd say that most of the energy had to be coming from inside the ZPM's "pocket universe."

Indeed. Even an asteroid hundreds of kilometers across with a core of naquadah when detonated only creates a 'small' supernova.

[lordofseas]

Perhaps the initial explosion severely compresses the "pocket universe", like implosion, and then explodes due to mass compression, giving a "big bang".

[ggf31416]

We don't know if the ZPM would destroy the solar system or the planet. That is a prediction made by 2 earth scientifics, Carter and Lee, who even as smart as they are, they cannot be expected to predict accurately the effects of an unknown sabotage of a rare alien power source that violates all our understanding of physics, specially when in real life the yield of nuclear tests was often miscalculated.

[Quadhelix]

We don't know if the ZPM would destroy the solar system or the planet. That is a prediction made by 2 earth scientifics, Carter and Lee, who even as smart as they are, they cannot be expected to predict accurately the effects of an unknown sabotage of a rare alien power source that violates all our understanding of physics, specially when in real life the yield of nuclear tests was often miscalculated.

Nevertheless, even if the tainted ZPM's yield was only 1% of 1% of the energy needed to blow up the Earth, that is still a yield of 10^30 J, which implies a mass of over 10^20 kg (i.e., over a hundred quadrillion tons).

[the-alguroan]

wait that explosion was created from a current of electricty. also since it wasn't connected to the pocket universe then the explosion could have been bigger. also i'm believe that the substance was naquada. i guess when one plugs in a zpm a huge amount of energy is sent through a system or something.

[gummyworms]

remember in Sg1 season 1 or 2 Cassandra had a thing in her heart planted by Neriti where a micro sample resulted in a massive explosion. Wasnt that the same thing here

[Mister Oragahn]

There's been quite a good number of threads on this, so I will provide some links.

Neutrino Ion Generators - better than ZPMs?
ZPM discrepancies... power levels, overloads and else.

[Mister Oragahn]

Very true. If the tainted ZPM could "destroy" the solar system, then it could certainly blow up the Earth, Death Star style, which would require about 10^34 J of energy.

However, that energy has mass to the tune of m=E/(c^2). Thus, the energy released by the tainted ZPM would have a mass of at least 10^24 kg, which would be a billion trillion tons (i.e., a billion times one trillion tons). Given the fact that the tainted ZPM didn't fall through the floor, I'd say that most of the energy had to be coming from inside the ZPM's "pocket universe."

That would be a good argument but I think it's disputable, if the energy is carried by photons. But then the question would probably be one of volume, so the answer would technically be the same: the energy couldn't come from the physical object itself, no matter how tainted, but from that magic piece of universe that it contains.

[Quadhelix]

That would be a good argument but I think it's disputable, if the energy is carried by photons.

E=m*(c^2)

Energy has mass, whether the energy takes the form of an electron, a quark, or a "massless" particle like a photon.

For example, physicists have been able to determine that the quarks in a proton provide only a small fraction of its mass. The rest of the proton's mass comes from the "massless" gluons that mediate the force between the quarks.

[Thermi]

thisisa continuity issue regarding the zpm

i forget the sg1 episode but its the one where the goauld (forget name) tells them where to find a zpm which he sabotaged (its the episode where the plant grows all over the base). carter at the end of the episode says that the destrutive power would have been enough to destroy the entire solar system. now in the SG atlantis episode 'progeny' mckay rigs 3 zpm's aboard the asuran city ship to overload when it was in orbit of atlantis which only resulted in the ship being destroyed. surely the entire solar system and perhaps beyond should of been destroyed as a result of the 3 zpms?

any thoughts?

I would have thought by overload it would mean that he releases a large amount of the energy stored inside in a small space of time, thus overloading systems and causing an explosive cascade in systems aboard the ship. This may not cause the ZPM's to explode but might just break them so that all the energy is dissipated.

But mainly i am thinking Plot hole, as i am too tired to think of anything else lol