The Gate

[Jprime]

In early SG episodes, shutting down the gate while a person is going through chops off the part of them thats sticking out (Kawalskys head, end of staff weapon). Later, Jack keeps the gate open by holding his arm inside.

Also? In Children of the Gods, the dialing computer tracks a travellor until he reaches the other gate (5, 4, 3, 2, 1... they're through sir). Howcome then later on when somebody jumps into a gate before its destroyed (Daniel) they instantaneously pop out the other side?

Why is it that you can put you hand in and pull it out if gating is one-way?

What I think is that the gate waits for you to step entirley in before sending u through (although this is in conflict with other eps.)

What do you guys think?

[KokiriChild]

According to one of Carter's many theory's, the gate can tell when a complete "chunk" of matter has fully entered the gate, so a human arm can go "2-way" because the chunk of matter is not complete - a human body can't go 2-way. Because it can sense matter, leaving your arm in the gate would hold it open as the gate won't power down if there's still travellers going through the gate - the thing with Kawalski's head was done by manually powering-down the Earth Stargate, so if you took the power supply crystal out of a DHD it would have the same effect. The thing about instantaneous reappearance - they don't instantly appear, but matter gets stored in the gate's buffer (as I believe Teal'c got stuck in one episode) until a whole chunk of matter is through, once it is it gets sent to another gate through the wormhole, loaded into the other gate's buffer and re-materialised.

[Ugly Pig]

Why is it that you can put you hand in and pull it out if gating is one-way?

The gate doesn't send you through until you've completely passed through the event horizon. I don't see how this contradicts earlier episodes where parts that had entered the gate were chopped off when the gate was forcibly shut down.

[ShadowMaat]

I always assumed that Jack left his arm sticking through the gate when he came back in Shades of Gray. It never occurred to me that he would walk completely through and then stick his arm back in, probably because of the whole unidirectional matter transference thing.

In Enemy Within, Kawalsky's head got chopped off because the gate was forcibly shut down, trapping that small part of him within the matrix of the gate (time to clean out the buffers).

Matter doesn't travel instantaneously, but TPTB can't be expected to waste ten seconds or so in every ep "waiting" for the team to transmit. It's the same thing as watching two people get into a car and in the next scene they're pulling up to park at their destination. It doesn't mean they defied the laws of physics to arrive there immediately, but the in between stuff was edited out for time. Plus, stargate-wise, that doesn't always happen. Sometimes we get the stock footage of the passage through the wormhole, which substitutes for that little pause of time between points A and B.

However, I think there was also an ep where the Jaffa were running back through the gate and the tip of one guy's staff weapon got cut off (ouch). Or maybe that was another forcible shut-down scenario. My memory of it is a little vague...

[Ugly Pig]

I always assumed that Jack left his arm sticking through the gate when he came back in Shades of Gray. It never occurred to me that he would walk completely through and then stick his arm back in, probably because of the whole unidirectional matter transference thing.

I think you're right about this. Hmmm... What would happen if he did completely exit the gate, put his arm back in and the gate shut down? Would he lose his arm?

However, I think there was also an ep where the Jaffa were running back through the gate and the tip of one guy's staff weapon got cut off (ouch). Or maybe that was another forcible shut-down scenario. My memory of it is a little vague...

I believe that was Point of View but I'm not 100% certain. I don't think they showed anyone forcibly shutting down the gate, but I don't think they showed anyone standing around not shutting it down, either.

[KokiriChild]

I think you're right about this. Hmmm... What would happen if he did completely exit the gate, put his arm back in and the gate shut down? Would he lose his arm?

Once he's through, he's through, if he were to stick his arm back in it would disintergrate, never to return because the gate is only 1 way

[Ugly Pig]

Once he's through, he's through, if he were to stick his arm back in it would disintergrate, never to return because the gate is only 1 way

But... Would his arm disintegrate the moment he stuck it in, or just when the gate shut down? I would think the former - otherwise, you'd have to be really careful each time you exit a gate, making sure every muscle in your body is only moving forward....

[ShadowMaat]

But... Would his arm disintegrate the moment he stuck it in, or just when the gate shut down?

Well, in the fight with Kawalsky, wasn't there a moment or two when someone's body part was through the event horizon and then yanked back out again?

[Ugly Pig]

Well, in the fight with Kawalsky, wasn't there a moment or two when someone's body part was through the event horizon and then yanked back out again?

Yes, but that was an outgoing wormhole.

[KokiriChild]

Generally going through a gate would require enough motion for you to clear it, and according to Stargate Physics (mmmhmmm, you heard right ) It'd disintegrate immediatley, however, I am open to the idea that it'd get stored in the buffer, then if the gate was shut down your arm would be lost in the buffer (and cleared - with no powere going to the gate).

[ShadowMaat]

Yes, but that was an outgoing wormhole.

You and your stupid logic, Pig Boy.

[Ugly Pig]

Generally going through a gate would require enough motion for you to clear it, and according to Stargate Physics (mmmhmmm, you heard right ) It'd disintegrate immediatley, however, I am open to the idea that it'd get stored in the buffer, then if the gate was shut down your arm would be lost in the buffer (and cleared - with no powere going to the gate).

Could be. I don't think there's really any evidence in the show either way, is there?

[KokiriChild]

I don't think so... See, afterall, you gotta remember that the writers are just writers and NOT astro/space-physisicsts, so sometimes they will get things wrong/unexplainable

[Ugly Pig]

You and your stupid logic, Pig Boy.

Is it the bane of your existance yet? If so, I might just consider my work here done.

[ShadowMaat]

Is it the bane of your existance yet? If so, I might just consider my work here done.

If I say "yes" will you go away?

On the off chance that someone else thinks to ask, the reason that SG teams don't get covered in frost and forcibly expelled from the gate is because Carter updated the dialing computer to account for thousands of years of stellar drift- something that the DHDs do automatically (those correlative updates that caused so much trouble in Avenger 2.0). The dialing program was originally slightly off, which made things a little jumpy in terms of connection. That's all better now, though.