How the Wormhole Drive works.

[Archetype]

I've been trying to imagine how the Wormhole Drive from the Atlantis episode "Enemy at the Gate" is supposed to work. I came up with an idea that I don't think has been stated yet, although I haven't read every post on the subject.

My idea: What if the wormhole drive simply uses the stargate already on board Atlantis?

Step One: Dial in the target destination.

Step Two: Establish a stable connection.

Step Three: (Here's the tricky part) The drive actually ROTATES the city along a four-dimensional axis. The bulk of the city becomes folded into hyperspace until the remaining portion is small enough that city can actually fit inside it's own stargate.

Step Four: The city enters it's own stargate and travels to the target destination. The active stargate remains in the city and subsequently, travels within it's own wormhole.

Step Five: A wormhole appears at the target destination. The Atlantis gate exits and encompasses the wormhole. Finally the city exits the gate and encompasses it, rotating back into three-dimensional space.

It's kind of hard to follow, but esentially the Atlantis gate connects to itself at both ends of the wormhole, then kind of flips itself inside out.

I think this fits Zalenka's description of the drive pretty well. I doubt extra-dimensional rotation is beyond the capabilities of the Ancients.

[Jack_Bauer]

I've been trying to imagine how the Wormhole Drive from the Atlantis episode "Enemy at the Gate" is supposed to work. I came up with an idea that I don't think has been stated yet, although I haven't read every post on the subject.

My idea: What if the wormhole drive simply uses the stargate already on board Atlantis?

Step One: Dial in the target destination.

Step Two: Establish a stable connection.

Step Three: (Here's the tricky part) The drive actually ROTATES the city along a four-dimensional axis. The bulk of the city becomes folded into hyperspace until the remaining portion is small enough that city can actually fit inside it's own stargate.

Step Four: The city enters it's own stargate and travels to the target destination. The active stargate remains in the city and subsequently, travels within it's own wormhole.

Step Five: A wormhole appears at the target destination. The Atlantis gate exits and encompasses the wormhole. Finally the city exits the gate and encompasses it, rotating back into three-dimensional space.

It's kind of hard to follow, but esentially the Atlantis gate connects to itself at both ends of the wormhole, then kind of flips itself inside out.

I think this fits Zalenka's description of the drive pretty well. I doubt extra-dimensional rotation is beyond the capabilities of the Ancients.

wow, i really like that!

I'm still irked they didnt even show it!

[Archetype]

wow, i really like that!

I'm still irked they didnt even show it!

Yeah, it probably would have looked pretty rad. This version might be hard to depict, though.

Maybe with a caption:
inconceivable dimensions not shown

[Steven_the_Atlantean]

Lol
Ok.. I got a theory…..proberly a bad one but with Sci-fi… you never no

I assume the wormhole drive is where Atlantis selections a specific section of space, and instead of opening a wormhole like a Stargate, it tears a hole in space (like a gate portal)…but the more energy you pump into this, the larger it gets,…maybe that’s why it requires tremendous amount of power,…they had to pump a significant amount of energy to open it to fit the city!
I was thinking like a Supergate but without the splash, although it starts of as a tiny hole…. More energy pumped into this wormhole…the larger it gets.

Haha sounds crap
=( I tried

[escyos]

i always thought of it openign like a hyperspace window but as a wormhole.

[Stormtrooper]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kqH_xN3uzM

[Archetype]

Lol
Ok.. I got a theory…..proberly a bad one but with Sci-fi… you never no

I assume the wormhole drive is where Atlantis selections a specific section of space, and instead of opening a wormhole like a Stargate, it tears a hole in space (like a gate portal)…but the more energy you pump into this, the larger it gets,…maybe that’s why it requires tremendous amount of power,…they had to pump a significant amount of energy to open it to fit the city!
I was thinking like a Supergate but without the splash, although it starts of as a tiny hole…. More energy pumped into this wormhole…the larger it gets.

Haha sounds crap
=( I tried

i always thought of it openign like a hyperspace window but as a wormhole.

Yes, I think most people imagine it as a giant stargate "puddle" with no gate around it, which I think is what you're describing. You're idea, Steven, that it widens as you pour energy into it seems likely.

If the wormhole drive is ever depicted on screen it will probably look the way you've described.

[thekillman]

i would imagine it like the vortex in SG the movie, only without the colors. so no bright, shiny lights etc. no blue. the space itself forms a transparent vortex. a tiny black spot can be seen inside, once you travel closer to it the black spot becomes bigger and bigger and when it suddenyl becomes massive and all-surrounding, you're at the other end

[thekillman]

http://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/~barnes/as...e_Milkyway.jpg

like this, the Wormhole is formed, Atlantis goes through, and exits. reason it can be instable is, real life ones would be instable aswel

[Archetype]

Cool, I like the picture Killman. It might be a little too visually subtle for the show, though. Space is already black and I think I remember a Stargate producer once saying that "alien things always have to light up." They even put extra lights on the Stargate. But I bet if you were to ever see a wormhole in real life, your picture is what it would actually look like.

[Crazedwraith]

You realise you've just spewed a bunch of meaningless technobabble, right? You could be a writer!

Do When you're skwooshing a miles wide city through a 5 metre wormhole, how come it doesn't get ripped apart by vast tidal forces? And how come you don't need a stargate on the other side?

And how is this any better than the drive just creating a supergate without the gate?

[Archetype]

Those are great questions. I think I'll answer them each seperately, staring with the last one.

And how is this any better than the drive just creating a supergate without the gate?

I wouldn't say it was "better" but I think it's more interesting because we've already seen Atlantis enter hyperspace through a big "hyperspace window." The idea of opening a big wormhole in space for the city to enter is very similar visually and conceptually to what we've already seen it do. My goal was to come up with a more original concept while still using as much existing Stargate technology as possible.

[Archetype]

You realise you've just spewed a bunch of meaningless technobabble, right? You could be a writer!

Uh... thanks?

When you're skwooshing a miles wide city through a 5 metre wormhole, how come it doesn't get ripped apart by vast tidal forces?

First of all, I have to admit that I don't really know what "tidal forces" are, although I've heard them use this phrase a few times on the show. But to answer your question, the city doesn't necessarily get "skwooshed." The city remains the same size, but the portion of it that exists in normal space becomes smaller.

If you think of normal space as being the surface of the ocean, and four-dimensional space as being the depths of the ocean, then rotating the city into 4D space is like sinking a submarine. The submarine remains the same size, but the part you can see on the surface becomes smaller. Normally the sub would be too big to pass between, say, a pair of surfers holding hands, but once the sub is submerged, the periscope or whatever can easy pass between them.

[Archetype]

And how come you don't need a stargate on the other side?

This is even harder to explain and is probably the most speculative part of my theory.

If you accept that it would be possible for the city to travel through a stargate while partly submerged in 4D space, then the simplest way to travel would be to go in one stargate and out another like normal.

To me this seems awkward and inelegant. The city's stargate wouldn't be used. Atlantis would have to travel planet to planet, because most stargates are not in space. To travel to Earth, the city would have to come out in the SGC. I wanted to avoid these complications.

Instead I would have the city enter it's OWN stargate using some crazy Lantean geometry and carrying the active stargate with it inside the wormhole. At the end of the journey, the same stargate would act as the exit point of the wormhole.

It would be like climbing up on the roof of your house with a ladder, then pulling the ladder up behind you. Then you could carry the ladder to the other side of your house and use it to climb back down.

[Jedted]

i always thought of it openign like a hyperspace window but as a wormhole.

Same here. The Wormhole drive is like the city's hyperdrive but it uses the stargate to lock on to a specific set of coordinance and travel there instantly.