Registered: Oct 2002
Location: My house
Posts: 248

How does the eighth chevron work? (minor spoiler for The Fifth Race)

In "The Fifth Race", Carter speculated that the eighth chevron acted as a distance extension calculator, expanding the gate's range 39-fold and providing even more millions of possible addresses.

My question is: how does the symbol encoded on the eighth chevron actually make the Stargate go further?

My theory is that the eighth chevron's symbol acts as a distance calculator due to its location relative to the destination. What I mean is this: the eighth chevron symbol could possibly extend the distance by becoming the midpoint of an imaginary line stretching from source to destination.

For example, when Jack dialed out to the Asgard colony, the eighth symbol he used would have laid along the wormhole's line of travel, and by acting as the midpoint, effectively doubling the wormhole's range for that session.

This is all hot air, whipped topping and souffle, I know . But does anyone believe otherwise?

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: On station at a distant underground nuclear missile silo...
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It taps into The Ancients' version of a DSL line instead of the 14.4K connection we have on our lil' "dialup" with 7 glyphs.

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Registered: Oct 2001
Location: London.
Posts: 6137

perhaps back up systems should one or more chevrons fail for whatever reason, perhaps each chevron is more than what we just see as something to lock a picture, perhaps it calculates coordinates and is a complex computer system etc.

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: My house
Posts: 248

That's possible. The eighth chevron could have a number of other uses; it could be like a set of radio buttons which are enabled after selecting a check box

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Australia
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Ok, I know arguments abound in this matter, however I want to ask something, and then propose how the gate really works and then sit back and wait for the nay-sayers.

In the movie Daniel identify the glyphs as constellations - this is fact (that he identified them, not that it is true).

In the whole series can anyone remember this 'fact' being proven? I'm serious, has Tok'ra, Asgard, or anyone ever confirmed this finding? I don't believe so.

Ok, the answer you've all been waiting for.... drum roll....

The fact the glyphs look like constellations are purely coincidental (they have to look like 'something' afterall), and are merely "digits" (numbers) in Ancients base-39 maths!

Let that sink in for a minute.

To dial an address is the same as we dial a phone number. In Australia phone numbers have 8 digits, and there is 10 possibles for each digit (normal base-10 maths).

If this is the case with the gate, then the DHD knows the destinations of the other gates (or how to get there; the route), and as long as you dial the correct number (sequence) you get where you're going. Simple.

There is no correlation between the glyphs and reality (where the gates are physically situated). It's just been hard-coded into the DHD computer.

The 8th symbol? Easy now that you think about it.

Thank you, I rest my case. Yeah, I've done it!

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: My house
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Jonas......... YOU'RE RIGHT!!!!

Base-39 math makes perfect sense! Each symbol, INCLUDING the P-O-O, which stands for 1, is a number! Each aaddress is nothing more than a pictographic representation of a number.

For example, Earth's address, translated into base-39 math, would be 28 26 5 36 11 29 1.
Abydos would be 27 7 15 32 12 30 1. And Chulak would be 9 2 23 15 37 20 1. See http://systemlords.hypermart.net/addresses.html for everything.

Jonas, I suggest you write a letter to TPTB RIGHT NOW!!!

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Australia
Posts: 230

So the standard 7 chevron dial would result in 137 000 million addresses (39^7 = 137 231 006 679 addresses). Which would be enough for our immediate surrounds.

The Asgard live a little further out and their address doesn't fall into these, so we need the "area code" (or whatever) and then 39^8 = 5.5-million-million (5 352 009 260 481 addresses). And I doubt Sam's little McGyver super computer could spit out the doubler shifts for that many.

Game over.

(PS. I'm not maths strong at all, so these numbers may be off, but I think they're right according to Microsoft Calculator)

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Australia
Posts: 230

The more I think about this, the more it makes sense. I'm running my mind through everything I know about the gate trying to find something to contradict this theory - so far nothing.

Curse international time zones - I need Mr Hael, Gao'uld, Brent and the likes to pick this to bits. It's too simple; it must be flawed.

My numbers above might be out +/- 39 depending how you think of the POO and the concept of zero, but hey it's close enough.

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Registered: Oct 2002
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BTW, the address for Othala is 26 27 11 16 33 19 9 1.

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Registered: Oct 2001
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It's just they found a way to do it with less chevrons, like when they went from ISA to PCI...

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Registered: Sep 2002
Location: Apologising to all the members who i called idiots.
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Woah nelly, don't get ahead of yourself.

How could they have been constellations? He pointed out that they were points and because of the relationship between stars and the StarGates he was probably saying they were stars, and how could the glyphs be the same on every gate if they are constellations? even from the closest gate planet: abydos the constallations would not be visible!!! These glyphs are stars, not constellatoins, that is the logical idea of it i think?

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Australia
Posts: 230

Constellations/stars/chocolate bars who cares? You've missed the point entirely. Suggest you read this thread again.

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Registered: Sep 2002
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As an answer to the original question the glyphs serve one purpose: to give a location towhich the wormhole must go. The actual distance 'travelled' in a wormhole is a fantasy, when in the fifth dimmension one could travel to whever one wanted in an instant because it is like stepping out of the cube and stepping in whever u wanted. :P

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Registered: Aug 2002
Location: Necropolis
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Now the writers could have saved themsleves alot of tears by simply saying that but they didn't. They say that the wormhole passes through a fictional area called "sub-space".

What I don't get is why the gate would need any more power to travel greater distance. The whole point of a wormhole is that the energy needed to cross space is not relative to the amount of space to be traversed. You could go next door, you could go to another galaxy at the same expense of energy and time.

Thay made a mistake on that site Goa'uld homeworld:
Glyph 10 is called Cra not Corona Australis. Might be an abbreviation.

Last edited by Lord ?okar on 10-29-2002 at 05:09 AM

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Registered: Sep 2002
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Perhaps to open the wormhole in the first place? Or Maybe to access some secret stuff for advanced civilizations only? Who knows?
Answer: The Ancients and since there aren't any around, we can only guess.

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