All you ever wanted to know about The Iris and the Wormhole

[DigiFluid]

No. Nothing can reform when the shield is up. Not even the vortex. When the Atlantis Iris is active, the Kawoosh can't form. All you see when something impacts it is a bright flash of light, which is the shield flaring up, as all shields do when you poke them.

Yeah, but that's an energy shield, vs. the SGC's solid-matter iris.

I just don't see any reason why the iris isn't vaporized every time the whoosh happens while it's closed.

[Erik Pasternak]

Yeah, but that's an energy shield, vs. the SGC's solid-matter iris.

I just don't see any reason why the iris isn't vaporized every time the whoosh happens while it's closed.

The kawoosh can't form.

[DigiFluid]

You're missing my point.

They've specifically said that the unstable wormhole 'whoosh' disintegrates any matter that's unfortunate enough to be in the way at the time. The iris is matter. The Atlantis barrier is energy (ie, non-matter).

[cobraR478]

Again, the iris is so close the kaswoosh can't form.

[DigiFluid]

And therein lies the problem. Why not? There's a few microns of space between the iris and the event horizon, so there's ample space for the process to happen.

[Major Fischer]

And therein lies the problem. Why not? There's a few microns of space between the iris and the event horizon, so there's ample space for the process to happen.

How do you know there is ample space for that to happen?

[DigiFluid]

Presumably, reactions at the subatomic and/or extradimensional levels require little to no space to occur

[Major Fischer]

Presumably, reactions at the subatomic and/or extradimensional levels require little to no space to occur

Presumably, but Carter says otherwise in The Enemy Within when the Iris is first discussed. I think you are assuming too much about physics that does not exist in the real world, and chosing to ignore the rules that they give in the series.

[Mio]

And therein lies the problem. Why not? There's a few microns of space between the iris and the event horizon, so there's ample space for the process to happen.

Transcripts rock. This is from 'A hundred days'

HAMMOND: Wormhole physics, a field, Major, that you pioneered, states that under these conditions, ordinary matter won’t even reintegrate on the other side. There’s no way to overcome that.

CARTER: I think there is, Sir. And I’m not the one who thought of it. SOKAR did.

HAMMOND: SOKAR?

CARTER: Yes, Sir. When he tried to breach the iris by bombarding it with a particle beam. Sub-atomic particles barely small enough to reintegrate produced energy as they decayed.

HAMMOND: Which caused the iris to heat up.

CARTER: Exactly. Now, if we could do the same thing we could melt the hardened naquada barrier just above the event horizon and create a pocket of superheated gas.

HAMMOND: And then what?

CARTER: Well, then all we have to do is open the Gate again, Sir. The unstable vortex it normally generates would then be allowed to expand into that pocket and create an even larger cavern. One person might be able to go through, Sir, and dig it out.

Note the last line. You need a big enough gap for an unstable vortex to form.

[Zeratul]

Awh, there goes thoughts about icky special effects.

actually, even if some atoms could reform between the event horizon and the sheild, keep in mind that more then 1 bilion atoms are needed to make 1 single cell, let alone a group of cells large enough to bee seen by a naked eye

[Mr Prophet]

Apropos of squat, does anyone else think that the title of this thread sounds like a chick lit novel?

[Major Fischer]

Apropos of squat, does anyone else think that the title of this thread sounds like a chick lit novel?

Maybe that women behind bars movie Carter was feeling like she was in in Hathor?

[Mr Prophet]

Maybe that women behind bars movie Carter was feeling like she was in in Hathor?

I was thinking more like something Helen Fielding would write, rather than Russ Meyer produce.

[Beatrice Otter]

the atlantis stargate energy barrier behaves the same way as the terra titantium/trinium iris. from the movie we know the unstable vortex spurts out forward and backward. maybe all versions of the gate are designed to detect an intentional barrier which prevents the forward burst

We've never seen any gate ever do that besides the movie, so my guess is that they did something wrong which they then fixed on subsequent attempts. Remember, that was the first time they'd ever actually used the thing. (Ernest's trip doesn't count--they lost the records for it, remember?) Maybe they fed too much power into it. Maybe their computer dialling sequence was too crude.

[Mio]

We've never seen any gate ever do that besides the movie, so my guess is that they did something wrong which they then fixed on subsequent attempts. Remember, that was the first time they'd ever actually used the thing. (Ernest's trip doesn't count--they lost the records for it, remember?) Maybe they fed too much power into it. Maybe their computer dialling sequence was too crude.

No. it was because they forgot to replace the light bulbs in the chevrons.

[HimuraKenshin]

after watching 48 hours i have somethign on the back of my mind..... the "kawoosh" effect clears the crystals of the gate, deleting whatever imprint was there. but with the iris there there is no kawoosh and hence the imprint is stil there, so techinically should each time a copy of whatever was trasfered last time be kinda shot out of the event horizon (yes i see a bunch of wrongs in my theory but it would be fun eh?)

[corey2002]

there is no "kwoosh" efect but there is still the sound

[ThawkTH]

I would assume that there is a kawoosh of sorts, but perhaps because the Iris is so close it does not have the time or space to disintegrate anything - perhaps the woosh is the crystals clearing themselves of energy/data - if we say that the energy/data/matter has no space to form, couldn't it just smack into the Irish harmlessly...

I suppose what I'm asking is this - if there's not enough space for an entire kawoosh to form, perhaps there are not enough particles/is not enough energy to disintegrate anything while still emptying crystals. Dunno. Poke holes as you like!

EDIT:

"CARTER: Yes, Sir. When he tried to breach the iris by bombarding it with a particle beam. Sub-atomic particles barely small enough to reintegrate produced energy as they decayed.

HAMMOND: Which caused the iris to heat up."

Remember though how signifigantly the iris tended to absorb energy being sent through the gate? I don't remember the episode, but it's the one where the stargate was gonna explode, I believe
Possible season 6/7 spoiler

Spoiler:

It was Anubis using an Ancient weapon
I remember Carter talking about how the Iris was saving us because it was absorbing so much of the energy form the gate, saving them a lot of time...

So, if the iris absorbs that incredible an amount of energy, perhaps it absorbs some of the energy of the kawoosh...Between the small space for only some particles to form and the nature of the Iris, is this logical?

Have fun with it!

[The Mighty Musnud]

What bugs me is that the even when the iris is closed, we still hear the "whoosh" sound effect that accompanies the unstable burst. At any rate, I agree with the Digi-guy, despite what is implied in 100 days.
According to quantum physics, any effect caused by the creation of a wormhole (including an unstable mass) would occur at the subatomic level, and thus (like Sokar's particle beam) begin the process of disintegration within those first few micrometers. There should be a big hole in the iris everytime a wormhole activates.
But even if we buy into this "it can't form" bunk, there still shouldn't be a "whoosh" sound.

[Beatrice Otter]

What bugs me is that the even when the iris is closed, we still hear the "whoosh" sound effect that accompanies the unstable burst. At any rate, I agree with the Digi-guy, despite what is implied in 100 days.
According to quantum physics, any effect caused by the creation of a wormhole (including an unstable mass) would occur at the subatomic level, and thus (like Sokar's particle beam) begin the process of disintegration within those first few micrometers. There should be a big hole in the iris everytime a wormhole activates.
But even if we buy into this "it can't form" bunk, there still shouldn't be a "whoosh" sound.

Maybe not. But then again, starships shouldn't make sounds as they fly through space, either.
Oh, well.