Something that's always bothered me about 1969

[Apophis]

Something about this otherwise excellent episode has always bothered me:

At the end of the episode the team escapes back to the future by powering the Stargate with a handful of truck batteries. Or, I suppose, they could have been running it from the alternators. And I know the gate is a capacitor and can store energy, but it didn't seem like they were doing it for all that long.

So, how was this anywhere near enough power to establish a wormhole?

 

[Smiley]

Were there any cuts during the charging time? Maybe it took 20 minutes, but they only showed the bookends of that time so as not to bore the audience senseless.

 

[Apophis]

Were there any cuts during the charging time? Maybe it took 20 minutes, but they only showed the bookends of that time so as not to bore the audience senseless.

Well, yeah, I took it there were cuts. But couldn't have been too long in between, they were in a restricted government facility. Even if they had an hour or two I still don't think it would be anywhere near enough time to charge an interstellar gateway device.

 

[The Borg Queen]

But they didn't need to charge it up to be able to link to another Stargate on a different planet...

 

[Silversmok3]

Were there any cuts during the charging time? Maybe it took 20 minutes, but they only showed the bookends of that time so as not to bore the audience senseless.

Well, yeah, I took it there were cuts. But couldn't have been too long in between, they were in a restricted government facility. Even if they had an hour or two I still don't think it would be anywhere near enough time to charge an interstellar gateway device.

Yet another case of physics losing to plot devices.

Unless the episode actually started in 1968 and ended in '69 cause it took that long to charge the Stargate

 

[ATimson]

At the end of the episode the team escapes back to the future by powering the Stargate with a handful of truck batteries. Or, I suppose, they could have been running it from the alternators. And I know the gate is a capacitor and can store energy, but it didn't seem like they were doing it for all that long.

So, how was this anywhere near enough power to establish a wormhole?

It's been established, though perhaps not until "Nemesis", that Earth's gate stores enough energy to dial out once even after power is cut. (Not others, because the DHD only supplies power as needed.) The power was probably latent in it since Ernest Littlefield went through; the batteries were to top off what was lost in storage.

 

[Apophis]

At the end of the episode the team escapes back to the future by powering the Stargate with a handful of truck batteries. Or, I suppose, they could have been running it from the alternators. And I know the gate is a capacitor and can store energy, but it didn't seem like they were doing it for all that long.

So, how was this anywhere near enough power to establish a wormhole?

It's been established, though perhaps not until "Nemesis", that Earth's gate stores enough energy to dial out once even after power is cut. (Not others, because the DHD only supplies power as needed.) The power was probably latent in it since Ernest Littlefield went through; the batteries were to top off what was lost in storage.

I guess that's possible. It just seemed odd that they've got this huge (and sometimes very dangerous) breaker room feeding the gate all of the time, and there they were with a couple of army trucks and jumper cables.

 

[ATimson]

I guess that's possible. It just seemed odd that they've got this huge (and sometimes very dangerous) breaker room feeding the gate all of the time, and there they were with a couple of army trucks and jumper cables.

To be fair, the breaker room is for not just the gate, but the entire complex (or at least, the entire sub-NORAD portion of the complex).

I don't remember enough physics to run the numbers--can anybody say how does the power provided from the truck batteries ("1969") compare to that of a lightning bolt ("Torment of Tantalus") or an industrial (240 V) power socket (representing the standard power feed)? If the lightning bolt is best expressed in total energy instead of rate, then assume power over... five minutes? for the other two.

 

[Technobuilder]

From what I remember...

The "Truck Batteries Arranged in Series" were only supplying enough power to the gate to free up the manual dialing feature of the Milky Way Stargates. The Power to open another vortex came from a the latent charge still in the gate.

 

[Hermiod]

Once the Stargate dials out under normal circumstances (i.e. a Stargate connecting to another Stargate where both have ordinary DHDs), if the outgoing Stargate or DHD loses power the incoming DHD will take over to compensate.

How this works when the wormhole is being redirected back on itself through time to a Stargate not connected to a DHD is not clear.

 

[Kirby]

What if they got the trucks up to 88 miles per hour while they were connected to the gate? I bet you'd see some serious shit.

 

[Brent]

the car batteries only powered it up enough to dial, once the wormhole establishes it can draw power from the connecting gate

 

[bigdaddy]

the car batteries only powered it up enough to dial, once the wormhole establishes it can draw power from the connecting gate

Oh yeah, that's true.

Either way I don't care, I only complain about little things when the episode is dreadful.

 

[Gertch]

If I remember correctly, in season 2's Prisoners, Linea used the power from a plant to supply some power to the gate.

 

[Brent]

^ well, it was a special alien plant, hehe

 

[Gertch]

But can we start our cars with them? lol

 

[ATimson]

But can we start our cars with them? lol

Find me a plant that engages in cold fusion like the "Prisoners" one, and I'll start your car with it.