No, I am not making this up

[ultranos]

Conversation at lunch today (paraphrased):

"So, if one Stargate was orbiting the planet in space, and the other was on a planet, and you opened a connection, how dead are we?"
"How so?"
"Using the Stargate to limit the flow, how fast will it take to reach equilibrium, between the atmosphere and vacuum? Ignoring bulkheads, doors, corridors, etc under a mountain."
"Well, it'll take time to move the atmosphere from around the planet, and the rate will slow down the thinner the atmosphere gets..."
"Don't forget that, barring being connected to a black hole or having a giant red laser aimed at the Stargate, it closes after 38 minutes."
"So, with boundary conditions of 'the plot', how much dead should we have been?"
"You know, this is actually an easy calculation. I'll get back to you on it."

Comments

[abyssinia4077.livejournal.com]

Well, a carbon atom is a carbon atom is a carbon atom. If it had a different number of protons, it wouldn't be carbon anymore, and if had a different number of electrons it would be an ion (charged atom) and act very differently and not be used for assembling. The one thing that could really be different is the number of neutrons which would affect the mass (and is how we get isotopes) but there are pretty clear non-Earth-specific chemical and physical laws that affect which isotopes are dominant and a small change in isotopic composition shouldn't hurt a person (a newer world might have more C-14 and C-13).

I do think Jack would freak out if he knew he was made of alien atoms though :)

Though, actually, I really wonder if this could somehow have meant the radiation poisoning should have not been passed through the 'gate after Kelowna. I mean, he's not being re-assembled with the affected atoms because they wouldn't be there at SGC so...maybe Daniel should have been fine after the 'gate travel, which is extra weird to think about.

But, yeah, it's 48 Hours that makes me think matter isn't stored, which then bothers me because they're more long-range transporter than wormhole. Giant worms. Tunneling through space.

[ultranos-fic.livejournal.com]

How does radiation poisoning work? Because if the atoms get irradiated, then maybe the 'gate tries to reassemble with the "wrong" isotopes? (If I'm remembering it correctly, when irradiated, the atom loses an alpha particle. Which I think changes the isotope, but it's been awhile since I had to pay attention to radiation.) If the 'gate is reading the irradiated atoms when it saves your state when you go through, it, theoretically, should reassemble you with the irradiated atoms. Uh, somehow.