Fanfic Helpdesk: Technical and Scientific Help for Writers

[StargateMillennium]

How long does a naquadah generator last? Take the ones in Atlantis for example. How long could they power the city before the expedition needs to get more naquadah?

[Falcon Horus]

How long does a naquadah generator last? Take the ones in Atlantis for example. How long could they power the city before the expedition needs to get more naquadah?

The Stargate wikipedia could answer that question -- however, it's debatable.

[StargateMillennium]

Another question and this one involves the seventh chevron (point of origin). We've seen plenty of remote dials on puddle jumpers, darts, and I remember seeing the Asgard use one too. From what I can tell, the point of origin is usually a symbol unique to that planet's stargate. So, do remote dials have a universal point of origin, something that uses the network to determine what would be the point of origin by determining its location in space and then compensates?

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

As I recall, for a remote dial (as you call it), they need to use the point of origin that they are closest to.

However, since it's highly unlikely that something as small as a dart would have the point of origin for every location it might visit, I doubt that would actually work. Unless the 'normal' point of origin was controlled by a program that readjusted it so that it always corresponded to the nearest stargate.

In truth, however, this point of origin thing was fudged all the time, and can't be relied upon.

Seaboe

[thekillman]

I would expect the gate to recognize it's own PoO and so, the 7th chevron is basically a "whatever your PoO is" command, similar to pressing the center globe.

The purpose of the 7th chevron is an "i am here" button. However, we know that the target needs 6 coordinates. So how does the 7th know where "i am here"is. That would be the purpose of the Correlative updates. The gates communicate and basically exchange data. So each gate has it's own position stored, neatly simplified into a 7th chevron. Given simplicity, i myself would simply put the globe as "whatever the 7th is" as it means every DHD can be identical rather than having to figure out the system again every time.

As this sort of stuff is controlled by the DHD, it's a good guess that this only mattered to the dialling computer of the SGC as it didn't have a "i am here" protocol.

[Feast of the Muse]

Given simplicity, i myself would simply put the globe as "whatever the 7th is" as it means every DHD can be identical rather than having to figure out the system again every time.

As this sort of stuff is controlled by the DHD, it's a good guess that this only mattered to the dialling computer of the SGC as it didn't have a "i am here" protocol.

Responding to this because I just saw a very similar discussion in a new thread. (And I wanted to pop this thread back up. It's useful!)

This does make me curious, since it would be a way to tell the DHD "I'm finished dialing." But what does that mean when you use the eighth and ninth chevrons? (I didn't watch SGU, sorry.) Dialing a point other than your location for the seventh chevron dials "long distance". Now I don't remember, was the eighth the PoO at that point?

[iiradned]

Using 8 chevrons is for extra galactic travel. Dial the first 6 as normal, the a 7th for outside the galaxy and the point of origin as the 8th.

There is only one valid 9 chevron address, and that is for the gate on the Destiny.

SGU is about a research team led by a depressed chief scientist after they found a 9 chevron address in the Atlantis database. It was theorized that this for a gate hundreds of millions or even billions of light years away thinking that the extra chevron was even more distance.

To power the gate for that distance means extra power so they sited the research base on a planet with extreme levels of naquadria in the ground. The extra power generated by the naquadria should provide the power boost to dial the 9th chevron.

The research team couldn't get the 9th chevron to lock as they were using the planet they were on as point of origin. It took a "slacker math geek" to work out that they had to use the Earth point of origin no matter what planet they were on for it to work.

The only problem with using a high naquadria planet to dial the 9th chevorn is that it literally causes the planet to explode soon after establishing a connection.

[Feast of the Muse]

Thank you! That is a very simple explanation for all the stuff I missed (and will never watch, most likely). Interesting that the Point of Origin became figurative for the ninth chevron.

But wait, how did it translate? If you're going extra-galactic, then using 6 chevrons from your own galaxy is all you have, yes, but I thought the 6 chevrons were a coordinate system - literally. Hang on, back to edit this on a real keyboard shortly...

The six chevrons basically made a cube around a location, yes? And the seventh was "coming from over here". Maybe I need a refresher on how the basic, local dialing worked.

SF, where are you? You explained this to me a long time ago...

[Feast of the Muse]

New question. The SG teams eventually had trackers implanted so that the Prometheus or whatever ship could beam them up. I remember Daniel putting some on crates, too. What were they called? Was there anything more specific to the technology, or did we just see it happen? And when in the series did this start?

Thanks for any help.

[fems]

New question. The SG teams eventually had trackers implanted so that the Prometheus or whatever ship could beam them up. I remember Daniel putting some on crates, too. What were they called? Was there anything more specific to the technology, or did we just see it happen? And when in the series did this start?

Thanks for any help.

Locator beacons. You can read more about them in the lexicon.

[SF_and_Coffee]

Thank you! That is a very simple explanation for all the stuff I missed (and will never watch, most likely). Interesting that the Point of Origin became figurative for the ninth chevron.

But wait, how did it translate? If you're going extra-galactic, then using 6 chevrons from your own galaxy is all you have, yes, but I thought the 6 chevrons were a coordinate system - literally. Hang on, back to edit this on a real keyboard shortly...

The six chevrons basically made a cube around a location, yes? And the seventh was "coming from over here". Maybe I need a refresher on how the basic, local dialing worked.

SF, where are you? You explained this to me a long time ago...

How did I not see this before? Sorry about that! Here's the explanation and feel free to PM me here or elseweb for more if you still need it:

Sam explains it all (in the second section of the chapter)

There were six known coordinates involved in a gate address, functioning in an arrangement that could be described by imagining a cube, encompassing a point contained within, and straight lines radiating out from that point to run through each of the six faces of the cube. Each line from that point to a cube face described a partial axis. These actually functioned in pairs, with each one coupling at the common point to its partner that ran through the face directly opposite. Each of the six coordinates, therefore, represented a point at which an axis passed through the imaginary surface of the cube, and each pair of coordinates described an axis running in a particular orientation and angle relative to the cube faces through which it passed.

It was an elegant system, but the problem was that six coordinates limited the amount of possible information available to only three dimensions. Since wormholes operated in — or at least through — a realm with more than three dimensions, it followed that there had to be information unavailable to the six-coordinate system. Unless some of that additional information were carried in the angular information pertaining to some of those axes themselves… and if so, she had no idea by what method, nor how to tease it out. There was, of course, the one time a gate address had been dialed using eight chevrons; the final chevron of an address — which had always been the seventh in her prior experience — indicated the point of origin for the outgoing wormhole. When O’Neill had recently dialed an eight-chevron address while under the influence of that Ancient database that had filled his head and nearly killed him, Carter surmised that the seventh chevron possibly functioned as something akin to an area code, indicating to the gate that it should dial into a specific neighboring gate network at a particular distance and direction relative to the originating gate, but which otherwise used the same coordinate system as their ”home” network.

[PuddleJ]

Wow, a long time since this thread was last used!

I'm hoping somebody might be around to help with a medical question, or at least point me towards further reading.

I'm looking at a scenario where a surgeon would have to prioritise saving the patient's life at the cost of a limb. I'm thinking of internal soft tissue injuries from an explosion being the main life-threatening injury, but I'm not totally sure about the leg injury. There's the classic 'if we pull the shrapnel out, he'll bleed out', or something like ischaemia causing the tissues to die to the point where the limb is useless anyway, but I've no idea how long that might take.

Any pointers would great, thank you.

[Seaboe Muffinchucker]

So, you want multiple injuries. The most life-threatening injury needs to be something that can only be repaired if the limb is lost (essentially). I'd say an injury to the head, spine or chest would qualify. How about a limb that is partially or completely severed (only so much time to reattach without loss of function)?

Clearly, reattaching the limb would take second priority to saving the life.

Seaboe

[PuddleJ]

Yes, that's certainly a possibility. Maybe something like a tourniquet being on too long could exacerbate the problem - tissue death versus massive blood loss if it's removed.

[incognito]

I'm hoping somebody might be around to help with a medical question, or at least point me towards further reading.

I'm looking at a scenario where a surgeon would have to prioritise saving the patient's life at the cost of a limb. I'm thinking of internal soft tissue injuries from an explosion being the main life-threatening injury, but I'm not totally sure about the leg injury. There's the classic 'if we pull the shrapnel out, he'll bleed out', or something like ischaemia causing the tissues to die to the point where the limb is useless anyway, but I've no idea how long that might take.

Any pointers would great, thank you.

If the limb is damaged by frostbite/exposure badly enough the only option would be amputation to prevent life-threatening gangrene. Necrotizing fasciitis caused by aggressive bacteria may also require amputation to prevent the infection from spreading. Some easy-to-grasp reading on the subject:

http://www.cdc.gov/features/necrotizingfasciitis/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necrot...itis#Treatment