physics/alternate reality travel question

[Wayston]

silly question perhaps but in this episode the characters seem to be quite adamanent that the general position of everything for each universe will be the same, e.g. the sun would have been the same distance in that one universe only it aged faster and only that's why they're getting in so close to the sun

now I can understand how you would keep momentum in moving from one universe to the next...

but I don't understand is how they're not affraid of litterally everything beign out of place in every other universe

for example I don't see why it wouldn't be possible that in a particular universe they land inside a sun that simply formed there (a couple of million kilometers to the left or right so to speak) naturally instead of where the sun formed in their own universe

now my explanation would be that the alternate reality drive is a fairly weak version of what an alternate reality drive is capable of so that they only travel to alternate realities that are fairly similar to eachother (sort of like a regular hyperdrive only allowing you to jump a particular distance), which would imply that similar realities have a similar adress or whatever...

[Morrolan]

silly question perhaps but in this episode the characters seem to be quite adamanent that the general position of everything for each universe will be the same, e.g. the sun would have been the same distance in that one universe only it aged faster and only that's why they're getting in so close to the sun

now I can understand how you would keep momentum in moving from one universe to the next...

but I don't understand is how they're not affraid of litterally everything beign out of place in every other universe

for example I don't see why it wouldn't be possible that in a particular universe they land inside a sun that simply formed there (a couple of million kilometers to the left or right so to speak) naturally instead of where the sun formed in their own universe

now my explanation would be that the alternate reality drive is a fairly weak version of what an alternate reality drive is capable of so that they only travel to alternate realities that are fairly similar to eachother (sort of like a regular hyperdrive only allowing you to jump a particular distance), which would imply that similar realities have a similar adress or whatever...

I think it's more that it wasn't brought up because McKay didn't think of it and none of the others thought to question him. You bring up a good point, however. There was no way to know if their position in space was occupied by a celestial body in the next reality.

[A Wraith Named Bob]

Yeah. You bring up a good point. But after all, this is science fiction, so some things we just need to play along with. In the end the episode was still great.

[Heaven]

yep, the quantum mirror actually made much more sense because that way you only end up on realities similar enough to your own
but then again most of the science in stargate is pretty ridiculous so it's better not to dwell.

[PG15]

No...the quantum mirror can send you to any reality where the mirror exists. It had that remote control thing that allowed you to pick from A LOT of realities.

[Heaven]

No...the quantum mirror can send you to any reality where the mirror exists.

hence one similar enough to your own

[PG15]

If the only similarity is the mirror's existence, then that's not very similar, is it?

[kymeric]

silly question perhaps but in this episode the characters seem to be quite adamanent that the general position of everything for each universe will be the same, e.g. the sun would have been the same distance in that one universe only it aged faster and only that's why they're getting in so close to the sun

now I can understand how you would keep momentum in moving from one universe to the next...

but I don't understand is how they're not affraid of litterally everything beign out of place in every other universe

for example I don't see why it wouldn't be possible that in a particular universe they land inside a sun that simply formed there (a couple of million kilometers to the left or right so to speak) naturally instead of where the sun formed in their own universe

now my explanation would be that the alternate reality drive is a fairly weak version of what an alternate reality drive is capable of so that they only travel to alternate realities that are fairly similar to eachother (sort of like a regular hyperdrive only allowing you to jump a particular distance), which would imply that similar realities have a similar adress or whatever...

Or similar realities are arranged next to eachother in the larger cosmic structure. You only see yellow next to orange and green in a prism, never next to purple.

If the had jumped to a reality where time was slower or faster, or light moved 2 inches a year they would have died instantly from being forced into incompatible physical laws.

[perkin127]

i think it makes logical sense that it would be easier to jump to a reality slightly simular to you own, that is if the universes are in something like alphabetical order, so the nearest reality is also the closest in the whole space thing. however then they would probably be constantly moving and dif choices people make would make world closer or further apart. it makes the brain hurt though if u take it simply its a fairly good reason we keep finding realativly simular au (wow my brain aches)

[kymeric]

Without an idea of why there are alternate realities or how they are arranged theres no way to guess how many there are like our own. If we use the spectrum analagy i used before our reality exists in one single bandwith where the physical laws could allow us to exist. The highest band would represent one extreme of the laws governing the universe and the lowest band would represent the oppsite extreme. There may be 10^58728493758493765894375894375897598475897489578923673286473469327589375894758 9758 power realities like our own in our own band and at the rate the Daedalous was jumping it would take soo long the ship would run out of power or disintegrate from old age (how many billions of yrs is the half life of trinium and naduada?)

One things for sure i wouldnt want to travel to the realities where matter energy and time are too different. I cant imagine that would end well for me.

[FallenAngelII]

Yes, it bothered me too. In fact, why would space be the same in all universes? I mean, why would they have to end up in the exact same spot in the universe every time? What's to say there isn't an alternate reality where the Big Bang was different and the universe is completely different, landing them in an entirely new galaxy or even the void of space?

[PG15]

Luck, I'd say.

[Zamboni]

Well, first off, it's "space". It's called "space" because it is mostly "space". There are a lot of matter in space, but mostly, it's just "space". The chance that you'll hit something the size of a planet even if you fly through the galaxy is remote, and they aren't really flying anywhere.

Second off, the universes look the same because they're not *that* far from their own reality. Suffice it to say that if they keep jumping for long enough time, they might end up in a universe so different from our own, that Woolsey might still have hair on his head.

[BubblingOverWithIdeas]

If the only similarity is the mirror's existence, then that's not very similar, is it?

The same or a similar chain of events will have led to the construction of an identical mirror device, requiring a similar timeline at least up to the point of its construction.

[gopher65]

There may be 10^58728493758493765894375894375897598475897489578923673286473469327589375894758 9758 power realities like our own in our own band and at the rate the Daedalous was jumping it would take soo long the ship would run out of power or disintegrate from old age (how many billions of yrs is the half life of trinium and naduada?

I seem to remember that if you assume a universe has the same natural laws as our universe there is a maximum of something like 10^500 (it's something like that) possible alternate realities (which is a gigantic, huge, unbelievably big number. It just looks small because of the notation. But try writing that out.). I think that is the maximum number of different positions that every bit of energy in our universe could possibly have over 13.2 billion years, and thus, the total number possible universes that could exist up to this point in time. Or something like that.

Since we want our heroes to survive, I it is safe to assume that any universe they are going to travel to has the same rules as our universe. Otherwise they'd, like, die.