Think about it, They had no idea where a normal stargate was positioned in the pedistals when they first got their gate. Not counting earnest littlefield, the first time we got a look at the other side of a gate wormhole was Abydos. How did they know how to position the ramp and walkway so perfectly so that you could just step thru? XD
Because the chevrons are only on one side of the gate? And after what happened to Ernest I do think they knew where to put the ramp.
Are we talking which 360 degree angle so the point of origin lines up at the top? (a good point if that's what you meant) Or are we talking which side, the front or the back (a stupid question if that's what you meant)
I thought he was talking about the area at the base of the wormhole that is usually underground or within a base structure of an off world gate. How did the Earth guys know to position that ramp in such a way that no one stubbed their toes? I personally would have guessed that the entire diameter of the inner ring would provide both transport as well as obliterate anything in it's path when formed, but from what we've see, the Kawoosh is smaller than the inner ring by at least a foot. Realistically the reason is that explaining it in dialogue would have been pointless to the plot and boring for the audience overall.
This. Lol. just something I questioned when I thought about it. It would have been a shame if their first malp impacted on the gate's pedistal the first time they sent one thru. Thats a whole other question. Other than dialing it up, how would they have even known which chevron would have been the top one? Only the top one locks, but youd have to power the gate and dial a coordinate to tell which chevron actually moved.
Maybe the stargate is self-regulating -- whichever chevron is recognized by the hardware as "on top" becomes the "dominant" chevron. (Wankery, I know...) The thing that I've always wondered about is why the walkway doesn't vaporize at the point of the event horizon... and why all those stargates buried up to that same point don't scoop out a chunk of dirt. It's a damned cool prop, but in realistic terms, the physics of it -- I mean the actual physics of where the whoosh goes and the creation of the wormhole -- should cause real issues with setting it up on any flat platform.
Actually, the SGC ramp and walkway has a partition in it right where the gate is, to be lowered and raised into position. So the wormhole wouldnt "cut" the ramp bits. No idea about the offworld pedistals tho. Only reason they dont get vaped is the kawoosh doesnt actually seem to hit that low. And Yeah, I thought about the possibility that whichver chevron is at the top takes top priority. That actually sounds plausable, knowing the ancients.
It's supposed to be that way, however in reality the ramp goes clean though the gate as does the floor on Atlantis.
Yeah, it wouldn't take anything sophisticated to detect the orientation of the gate. Considering how easily we can do it (gyros), it would've been no trouble for the Ancients.
That got me thinking about water, the stargate is in the middle of a crater of sand a hundred yards across, the gate is about 50 - 60 feet below the general level of the desert. Why wasn't the gate buried? Was the gate keeping itself clear? T
Does this mean you also couldn't pull a practical joke on someone by turning the receiving Gate upside down? And what about when the departure Gate is horizontal & the arrival Gate is vertical? Even if the arrival gate somehow corrects for the orientation of the departing person, what would happen if 2 people jumped through the horizontal Gate simultaneously from opposite ends of the ring?
Ouch time. We saw Carter jump into a vertical gate. She came out the SGC gate at a screaming speed, rather high up in the wormhole.
^^I think it was the second Aschen episode, the one with the harvesters....the Earth ambassador sacrifices himself and remains aboard the harvester as Sam cuts the rope and falls into the stargate which was horizontal.
I'll tell you what's really weird: in that episode where Carter takes the female cadet through the wormhole, they switch positions left-to-right between walking into the SGC's gate and exiting on the alien world (i.e., Carter starts on on the girl's right and ends up on her left side). Explain that one.
Consider the gate was buried in Egypt. Scientist making an archeological dig and supposedly documenting their work had to notice the a earthen ramp leading to the ring and those documents along with the Stargate traveled to America. When the first attempt to use the gate was made a ramp conforming to those dimensions was tried. By the time Captian Carter showed up the fine tuning was done.
Except the gate was buried sideways, with a big stone on top of it, and in Moebius we found out it had been towed some distance from the ramp during the revolution to keep Ra from flying away with it. Maybe there was a pictogram of it in-use somewhere nearby. That might also explain why they expected it to do anything at all other than look pretty.