Given the time, the money, the people fingerpainting equations all over their living rooms, the materials, and a power supply, I say unto you that I could, indeed, build a Stargate.
It also occurs to me that the writers have practically no clue how the darn thing works, and seem to be getting things pretty consistent out of sheer LUCK. What follows applies to the good old fashioned Analog Gates, and not the newfangled Solid State Pegasus dealies.
Alright, so it's already been mentioned in the series that the Gate creates a Wormhole between two superconducting rings. This is a miracle in itself, as an appropriate 'high temperature superconductor' has yet to be discovered or developed. Such a technology would be perfect for a Gate, let alone, y'know...Minority-report style cars (I've seen the principle demonstrated in action...it really DOES float across things vertically).
The outer ring features control circuitry, the buffer, the subspace communications components, etc etc. The inner ring is essentially just for collecting energy. Part of the function of the outer ring is to create "gates" (gates as in transistors) that 'close' and 'trap' the energy in the inner ring, accelerating it and giving it nowhere to go.
Anyway, I'm going to make a pretty little ASCII diagram now. It's a crude representation of the 'gates' when there's no energy passing through them. Basically in 'off' mode.
|
| |
|
Now in 'on', causing things to swirl a bit:
_
/ \
\ _ /
This will, eventually, create an non-specific energy well, as opposed to a specific gravity well, which would result in a wormhole (I know they say Wormhole in SG, but I prefer 'Vortex'. Similar, but different). At this stage, the energy is just building, and if you don't have your Gate set up all too well you start getting that nasty seismic thing going on.
So by now the Chevrons have started to get going. Each Chevron that activates represents an outgoing signal (this is when dialing out), and the Gate basically starts 'sniffing' for other Gates to connect to. Should the 6 symbols for local calls be correct, a connection will be established...I would say that the chevrons create a sort of guiding 'rail' that punches into Subspace and guides the path of the Vortex, preventing the messy issues you would experience with an ordinary wormhole. If the address is valid and the final chevron locks, the Gate will create an energy pulse of sorts and BAM, Kawoosh. The momentum for the vortex's creation comes from the higher pressure exerted by our level of space on Subspace, turning that swirl building up in the Gate into the tunnel needed for travel. This is also the reason why the wormhole is one-way, and also the reason your broken down matter has the momentum required to travel through the vortex.
The event horizon guards the Gate Buffer, which is what does the actual breaking down. It would work without the buffer, but I suppose you could deduce the myriads of safety problems that would pose. The buffer is a thin slice o' subspace (again, for the Analog Gates) that, well, buffers your dematerialized particles so nothing bad happens. Your matter is broken down 1:1, no compression...your molecules simply lose their density and then condense back on the other side. The reason why radio waves can travel two ways is because they're WAVES, not particles. Wave goes in one direction, buffer detects it, buffer converts wave to whatever the Gate format is, other buffer detects wave, starts radiating appropriate particles (in the case of electrons) or energy (in the case of an exploding planet).
That about covers the basics, and I could probably answer smartassed questions thrown at me pretty easily...
Now, onto the 8th Chevron. It's not an Area Code, or a Galaxy Code...it's a network code. I will touch on the fancy Pegasus Gates...those special control crystals that allow Analog Network contact? ADCs/DACs or Analog to Digital/Digital to Analog Convertors.
9th Chevron? I'm amazed it hasn't dawned on anyone yet...Planar Code, as in Plane of reality.
Reality, see, is layered like an onion. It's not 4 dimensional, but 6 at least, the other two being Energy Level and Density in no particular order (both being quantifiable measurements that can't be easily observed with the others). Planes of Celestus, anybody? That would also be why their Ring Transporters have that additional ring, so it can cross the planar boundry much as the Gates require an additional chevron.
Of course, the writers continually kill all of this with their horrifying misuse of Hyperspace (You're in Subspace right now!). Considering the many ships in the universe, Gate travel would be rendered impossible by all of the matter getting in the way of the signals - Gate travel only really works if there isn't that much other than signals floating around in subspace. Subspace would be a layer 'below' our habitable planes, with Hyperspace of course being "Hyper", as in to our space what our space is to 2D space...the level 'above'.
Oh, a final note? I <3 the Intergalactic Gate Bridge. It's so plausible and so ingenious...Yay. Call Forwarding.
You may now pick me apart.
It also occurs to me that the writers have practically no clue how the darn thing works, and seem to be getting things pretty consistent out of sheer LUCK. What follows applies to the good old fashioned Analog Gates, and not the newfangled Solid State Pegasus dealies.
Alright, so it's already been mentioned in the series that the Gate creates a Wormhole between two superconducting rings. This is a miracle in itself, as an appropriate 'high temperature superconductor' has yet to be discovered or developed. Such a technology would be perfect for a Gate, let alone, y'know...Minority-report style cars (I've seen the principle demonstrated in action...it really DOES float across things vertically).
The outer ring features control circuitry, the buffer, the subspace communications components, etc etc. The inner ring is essentially just for collecting energy. Part of the function of the outer ring is to create "gates" (gates as in transistors) that 'close' and 'trap' the energy in the inner ring, accelerating it and giving it nowhere to go.
Anyway, I'm going to make a pretty little ASCII diagram now. It's a crude representation of the 'gates' when there's no energy passing through them. Basically in 'off' mode.
|
| |
|
Now in 'on', causing things to swirl a bit:
_
/ \
\ _ /
This will, eventually, create an non-specific energy well, as opposed to a specific gravity well, which would result in a wormhole (I know they say Wormhole in SG, but I prefer 'Vortex'. Similar, but different). At this stage, the energy is just building, and if you don't have your Gate set up all too well you start getting that nasty seismic thing going on.
So by now the Chevrons have started to get going. Each Chevron that activates represents an outgoing signal (this is when dialing out), and the Gate basically starts 'sniffing' for other Gates to connect to. Should the 6 symbols for local calls be correct, a connection will be established...I would say that the chevrons create a sort of guiding 'rail' that punches into Subspace and guides the path of the Vortex, preventing the messy issues you would experience with an ordinary wormhole. If the address is valid and the final chevron locks, the Gate will create an energy pulse of sorts and BAM, Kawoosh. The momentum for the vortex's creation comes from the higher pressure exerted by our level of space on Subspace, turning that swirl building up in the Gate into the tunnel needed for travel. This is also the reason why the wormhole is one-way, and also the reason your broken down matter has the momentum required to travel through the vortex.
The event horizon guards the Gate Buffer, which is what does the actual breaking down. It would work without the buffer, but I suppose you could deduce the myriads of safety problems that would pose. The buffer is a thin slice o' subspace (again, for the Analog Gates) that, well, buffers your dematerialized particles so nothing bad happens. Your matter is broken down 1:1, no compression...your molecules simply lose their density and then condense back on the other side. The reason why radio waves can travel two ways is because they're WAVES, not particles. Wave goes in one direction, buffer detects it, buffer converts wave to whatever the Gate format is, other buffer detects wave, starts radiating appropriate particles (in the case of electrons) or energy (in the case of an exploding planet).
That about covers the basics, and I could probably answer smartassed questions thrown at me pretty easily...
Now, onto the 8th Chevron. It's not an Area Code, or a Galaxy Code...it's a network code. I will touch on the fancy Pegasus Gates...those special control crystals that allow Analog Network contact? ADCs/DACs or Analog to Digital/Digital to Analog Convertors.
9th Chevron? I'm amazed it hasn't dawned on anyone yet...Planar Code, as in Plane of reality.
Reality, see, is layered like an onion. It's not 4 dimensional, but 6 at least, the other two being Energy Level and Density in no particular order (both being quantifiable measurements that can't be easily observed with the others). Planes of Celestus, anybody? That would also be why their Ring Transporters have that additional ring, so it can cross the planar boundry much as the Gates require an additional chevron.
Of course, the writers continually kill all of this with their horrifying misuse of Hyperspace (You're in Subspace right now!). Considering the many ships in the universe, Gate travel would be rendered impossible by all of the matter getting in the way of the signals - Gate travel only really works if there isn't that much other than signals floating around in subspace. Subspace would be a layer 'below' our habitable planes, with Hyperspace of course being "Hyper", as in to our space what our space is to 2D space...the level 'above'.
Oh, a final note? I <3 the Intergalactic Gate Bridge. It's so plausible and so ingenious...Yay. Call Forwarding.
You may now pick me apart.
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