All you ever wanted to know about the 9th chevron

[Bam359]

But the Atlantis Dialing Computer is the most advanced Ancient Dialing Device out there. It can dial Earth. We have seen no indication of any 9th chevron abilities within that computer. If it doesn't have them, then logically no stargate would.

Of course, maybe Rodney will put his coffee on it, push two buttons at once by accident, and bring up a 9th chevron dialing screen by mistake

Yea, if it doesn't have 9th chevron abilities, then they don't exist. They probably don't exist - and it just a decision the art department made, to include the 9th chevron. Kinda fun to think about different uses for it thou.

In terms of not having seen the abilities in the Atlantis computer yet... The have been kinda busy, the Expidition teem, no? From day one trying to find a Pegasis Alpha site, dodging the Raith, and the Geni, and others. They probably haven't even searched the whole city yet, not found the ZPM storage room, or the ship building facilities, or gate building facilities for that matter.

[Jarnin]

These technologies are not Ancient technologies, and are thus beside the point. The Ancients are well Ancient, and pre-date their own meetings with other advanced races. The Asgard themselvs call the Anchents's "Achents". Parts of the stargate system were likely inplace long before any other advanced species was discovered.
Infact the only short range Ancient transportation technology we have seen is the 'elavators' on SGA. These seem to work only intra city, not for the whole planet.

The ring devices are indeed ancient designed; they are found in the Outpost on Taonas and in Antarctica.

The elevators in Atlantis are only used to travel around the city because apparently they never installed them anywhere else on the planet; this isn't proven, it just hasn't been seen in the series yet.

Is it? Why? Because you say so?
I would think that useing wormholes to travel instantly from point 'A' to point 'B' is essentialy the same thing no matter how far away point 'B' is - just a matter of power.

You just spoke the million dollar word - POWER. They have to use a ZPM to travel intergalactically. Normal interstellar travel doesn't require a ZPM, does it?

Probably because untill a show is aired useing a 9th chevron, there is no cannon to explaine its existance.

You're correct. Until the writers tell us what the 9th chevron does, it's an unknown. However, it's not hard to follow a chain of logic that supports that it's for traveling even farther distances. Using it the way you're describing isn't logical, it's fanciful.

By the way, welcome to Gateworld Bam359. You'll have to get used to peer review, since the scientific method demands it.

[Mio]

The ring devices are indeed ancient designed; they are found in the Outpost on Taonas and in Antarctica.

There were no rings in Proclarush Taonas. At least, we didn't see any. They were likely destroyed thousands of years ago.

Antarctica yes, Taonas, no. Which goes back to my question of 'Why The Eleveator?' that I posted in the 'rising part 1' thread....

[Col. Newman]

Again the naysayer: 'Why then does the Earth gate activate automaticaly when the PoO is encoded?'
Well I think that because the SGC doesn't thave a DHD. When there is not DHD attached, the gate automaticaly tryes to open a wormhole after every chevron is encoded.

Wouldn’t you just assume that the signal that the BRB sends to the gate telling it to activate is automatically sent by our dialing computer after the 7th symbol is locked

The series has shown plenty of examples of other ways to travel between short distances. I mean, you have the ring devices, the Asgard teleportation beam, the Furling transporter door, the Aschen teleporters, the Gadmeer teleportation beam, and, well, I think you get my point.

It is much easier to create a travel device for short hops than it is to make one for interstellar travel. The gate's basic function is to provide a way to travel interstellar and intergalactic distances.

Another thing to remember is that both the Asgard's home galaxy and the Pegasus galaxy are relatively nearby to the Milky Way. They used different symbols for the 7th chevron lock, so the difference in distance those symbols represent is pretty small in astronomical terms. There are only 38 symbols you can use for the 7th chevron, and if the differences in distance are constant, a 7 symbol address should only allow intergalactic travel to nearby galaxies.

To travel to Pegasus, you use the Sculptor symbol, which is the 20th symbol on the gate if the PoO is counted clockwise as the 1st symbol. To travel to the Asgard galaxy Ida, you use the Scorpio symbol, which is the 9th symbol on the gate.
Now the Ida galaxy is fictional, but we know it's about 4 million light years away (from the season four episode Exodus). Pegasus is a non-fictional galaxy, and exists roughly 5 million light years away. That means that the difference in distance that the 9th symbol and the 20th symbol represents is only 1 million lightyears. The Universe is >13.7 BILLION lightyears in radius, and it's probably much much larger than that. We can only see 13.7 billion light years because light travels relatively slowly when you talk about distances this big.

Lets apply some basic logic:

6 symbol address is for interstellar travel.
7 symbol address is for intergalactic travel.

Logically, an 8 symbol address should allow you to travel much farther than an 7 symbol address would.


I don't know why this debate still exists

that make the most sense and in my opinion is theoretically correct

But the Atlantis Dialing Computer is the most advanced Ancient Dialing Device out there. It can dial Earth. We have seen no indication of any 9th chevron abilities within that computer. If it doesn't have them, then logically no stargate would.

So you assume that Rodney is supposed to know what everything in the whole city does and how it works? The Ancients made sure that only Atlantis could dial earth, to protect it from the wraith, they did not build the Pegasus gates that way, they did it after they encountered the Wraith. How do you know the other gates can't dial the 8th and 9th chevron? And for that matter the same goes for the Atlantis gate, we don't know what all it can dial

[blueguy w/thehand]

I couldnt find one of these threads in here at the time I made this thread, so sorry if this is a duplicate.

It looks like the gate in atlantis goes under the rooms surface. Thus does this mean that whatever the 9th chevron does can it be done on atlantis?

If the 9th chevron cant be activated in atlantis then are the directors trying to say that it isnt ever able to be used?

[_Owen_]

Thank you for bringing this up. Well, first of all, the gate through the floor has also been done in SG-1, it is a flaw in the set design, the gate cannot be though the floor because then the event horizon could not be formed, like with a burried gate, it has been stated in SG-1 that that this fact is true.

However, on a slightly more on topic note, the chevrons being under the flor would make no diffrence, they would be dialed anyways, we just wouldn't see it, in SG-1 there are gates that are not completley above some platform, however they still have eighth and ninth chevrons that can be dialed.

So no, the physiscal lack of apearance of the chevrons due to the fact, they are under the floor is not a factor in the proces of eight chevron dialing. Finally, this has already been disproved, because Atlantis has dialed eight chevrons, and the eighth is under the floor along with the ninth so, if the eight can be dialed so can the ninth.

Owen Macri

[_Owen_]

I am sorry, that I did not get to this thread earlier, I was on vacation since Tuesday.

I am sorry to dissapoint you Bam359, but your hypothesis is incorrect. Even if the seventh chevron could calculate a shorter distance you are still dialing the same six symbols as the the gate that you are dialing from and a shorter distance calculation would not change this, you would still be dialing the same area in which the dialing gate is located.

Also, you could not dial such a localised area, because by the time you dial the gate will have movedto a new location.

The Earth moves extremley fast. It spins at aproximatley 0.5 km per second, in one second the gate will have moved at least half a km. I am not 100 % sure but the Earth orbits around the sun at either 107300 km/s or 30km/s, I am getting conflicting reports, from there on things only get faster, the solar systems' speed around the galaxy, the galaxys' speed around the universe, it is incredible, but my point is that, even if the dialing procedure took only one second, the gate would have already moved out of range, were you to lessen the area in which the wormhole will search.

Owen Macri

[Relatively Minor Goa'uld]

Maybe the 9th Chevron allocates the point IN TIME you want to go to. We've seen how Stragates can be used for time travel this is just a simpler way. At least it would end Furling speculation!

[Col. Newman]

Maybe the 9th Chevron allocates the point IN TIME you want to go to. We've seen how Stragates can be used for time travel this is just a simpler way. At least it would end Furling speculation!

well if you watch Before I Sleep you will see that the Ancients really frown on time travel

[_Owen_]

Yes Col. Newman, I agree. As well, you would only be able to go to thirty eight pre-specified points in time, in other galaxies, we have covered this previously and disproved it.

Owen Macri

[SeaBee]

What would be the point of dialing coordinates then? And where is the controler?

I doubt that this is what the ninth chevron does for several reasons.

Owen Macri

Apologies for the time taken to answer this post, but I've been off forum for some time.

What I meant, (but failed to say, sorry), was that the first eight chevrons would be used to address a gate in this universe, while the 9th would then connect to the same gate in an alternative, parallell universe.

[_Owen_]

Oh, no problem, I know that you can't be everywhere at the same time. You would be correct, however, this would only be if the Stargates were identified specifically by each gate. However they actually identify themselves by using points in space, so you are not technically dialing to another Stargate, you dial to a point in space. If, in the alternate universe that gate does not reside at that location, then you would not be able to connect to it, and you would not know where it actually resides. As well, you would only be able to connect to an alternate you would only be able to connect to another galaxy in an alternate universe. Another point that disputes this is that, when dialing nine chevrons, the ninth would obviously be the point of origin, so the eighth would need to activate the function of a nine chevron lock, so if dialing nine chevrons you would only be able to select between 38 alternate universes, which is an incredibly small number considering the amount of alternate universes is infinite.

As you can see, using the Stargate as a device for travel between realities, is not logical, however the quantum mirrior is a far more reasonable choice.

Owen Macri

[Qasim]

The atlantis gate is in the floor as it was supposed to be a more permanent structure than a milky way gate i.e. in the milky way you can move the gate to a different country imagine the SGC in Egypt!

[_Owen_]

Lol, Egypt. You are probably right, I fully expect the ninth chevron to be used, whether it is in Atlantis, on Earth, or somewhere completley diffrent.

Owen Macri

[wukaj]

But what would the 9th chevron be used for (8th is for inter-galactic travel)?