Can someone please explain the Stargate's dialing system?

[Gandalf]

A friend and I have been watching SG1 quite a lot over the past few weeks, as he got a few seasons for his recent birthday. As much as I'm enjoying it, I just can't get my head around how the dialling system works.

As I recall from the film, you dial seven symbols, the first six being a set of coordinates to plot a point in space, the seventh being a symbol indicating the planet of origin.

The "seventh symbol", is that unique to each gate, would the Russian gate have its own little picture?

Also, if the point of the seventh symbol is to establish a point of origin, would a gate cease to function if it moves?

[Spanky The Dolphin]

The "seventh symbol", is that unique to each gate, would the Russian gate have its own little picture?

Yeah, every single gate has their own unique point-of-origin symbol. The Goa'uld gate from Giza's unique symbol is a pyramid, while the Ancient gate found in Antarctica had an octagonal circle.

Also, if the point of the seventh symbol is to establish a point of origin, would a gate cease to function if it moves?

Yes it would. This is exactly what happens in the Season One finale "Within the Serpent's Grasp," where Apophis has a gate on one of his ships while in orbit of a planet: The gate no longer functions after the ship moves out of proximity of the planet and jumps to hyperspace.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Also, if the point of the seventh symbol is to establish a point of origin, would a gate cease to function if it moves?

Yes it would. This is exactly what happens in the Season One finale "Within the Serpent's Grasp," where Apophis has a gate on one of his ships while in orbit of a planet: The gate no longer functions after the ship moves out of proximity of the planet and jumps to hyperspace.

Not entirely true. The gate/DHD is pretty foolproof and will update itself to its new position. Remember that in that same two-parter, Daniel used the gate on board the ship to gate out before the ships blew up, because the gate's point-of-origin was now Earth.

[Ma Deuce]

The "seventh symbol", is that unique to each gate, would the Russian gate have its own little picture?

The Russian gate was actually the originally Giza stargate used by the SGC since the beginning of the program, which the Russians recovered from the wreckage of Thor's ship under the Pacific ocean (which had earlier beamed it right out of the SGC). The SGC then began using another gate that was found in Antarctica. Therein lies one of the show's bloopers: In the first episode with the Antarctica gate, it was shown with a different Point of Origin symbol, but after the Antarctica gate was moved to the SGC to replace the Giza gate, it was seen with that gate's familiar sun/pyramid symbol This is of course because it's actually the same prop, but I'm sure someone could have noticed that little detail and changed it accordingly.

This is exactly what happens in the Season One finale "Within the Serpent's Grasp," where Apophis has a gate on one of his ships while in orbit of a planet: The gate no longer functions after the ship moves out of proximity of the planet and jumps to hyperspace.

Yes, but once Aphohis' ship arrived in Earth orbit, the gate worked normally once again, since at the end of Part 2, Daniel used it to escape from the ship to another planet, then from there gated back to the SGC. There are other instance of gates working fine when moved to other planets, so it would seem that in the presence of a DHD, each gate can work normally when in proximity of any given planet (or star system) in the galaxy, and does not need to be near a specific planet

Given that the gates can work just fine when moved to other planets, I would speculate the final "Point of Origin" chevron (7th or 8th symbol, if the receiving gate is in another galaxy) is basically just a final confirmation to activate the Stargate after inputting the destination. The difference in symbols on the Point of Origin chevron on different gates seem to be mainly decorative, or perhaps to easily identify where that particular Stargate was originally emplaced, should it ever be moved.

[Johonebesus]

Note that the explanation in the movie isn't really very sensible to begin with, and doesn't seem to hold true in the series. The stars in a constellation are not necessarily close together, so using them to define a cube in space won't work. Furthermore, the constellations only look as they do on Earth. On another planet our constellations wouldn't exist, so it makes no sense for all stargates to have Orion, Leo, Cancer, etc. In the movie the Abydos gate had its own set of symbols, but in the series all gates have the same symbols, even in Pegasus. Therefore the theory that the symbols represent constellations and define a point in space relative to the planet of origin simply can't work, although no other explanation has been given as to why the symbols look like constellations as defined by Western cultures on Earth, especially considering that tens of millions of years ago many constellations wouldn't even be recognizable from Earth. Then there is the eighth symbol used to indicate that the target is in another galaxy, which wouldn't be necessary if the symbols defined a point between six other points in space. The ninth chevron has never been explained.

One theory is that the addresses are more like telephone numbers than coordinates. That would explain why Earth's address is the same from all planets. On the other hand, you have the dialogue in the first season stating that they had to account for stellar motions and correct the ten thousand year old addresses found on Abydos. Then you have the intergalactic gate bridge from last season, which would only work if addresses were either unique codes for each gate or were directional coordinates. Since a star's address is always the same regardless of which gate is used, the latter possibility is more likely.

Really, the address system makes no sense at all.

[Singular Intellect]

The one thing that always confused me is why when a recieving gate is being dialed, it lights up the indvidual symbols the same as the dialing gate...how the hell does the gate know it's the one being dialed until all symbols have been input?

[Zac Naloen]

Note that the explanation in the movie isn't really very sensible to begin with, and doesn't seem to hold true in the series. The stars in a constellation are not necessarily close together, so using them to define a cube in space won't work. Furthermore, the constellations only look as they do on Earth. On another planet our constellations wouldn't exist, so it makes no sense for all stargates to have Orion, Leo, Cancer, etc. In the movie the Abydos gate had its own set of symbols, but in the series all gates have the same symbols, even in Pegasus. Therefore the theory that the symbols represent constellations and define a point in space relative to the planet of origin simply can't work, although no other explanation has been given as to why the symbols look like constellations as defined by Western cultures on Earth, especially considering that tens of millions of years ago many constellations wouldn't even be recognizable from Earth. Then there is the eighth symbol used to indicate that the target is in another galaxy, which wouldn't be necessary if the symbols defined a point between six other points in space. The ninth chevron has never been explained.

One theory is that the addresses are more like telephone numbers than coordinates. That would explain why Earth's address is the same from all planets. On the other hand, you have the dialogue in the first season stating that they had to account for stellar motions and correct the ten thousand year old addresses found on Abydos. Then you have the intergalactic gate bridge from last season, which would only work if addresses were either unique codes for each gate or were directional coordinates. Since a star's address is always the same regardless of which gate is used, the latter possibility is more likely.

Really, the address system makes no sense at all.

The dialling system working like that was retconned in Lost City iirc.

It was actually a misinterpretation by Daniel originally.

The Symbols are pictograms, which represent a sound. That sound when spoken is the name of the planet in ancient and the address (IIRC).

The Gate software must work out the rest.[/i]

[Johonebesus]

The one thing that always confused me is why when a recieving gate is being dialed, it lights up the indvidual symbols the same as the dialing gate...how the hell does the gate know it's the one being dialed until all symbols have been input?

That's another detail that makes no sense at all. Just maybe the wormhole isn't established instantly, but rather the exit is created some time after the entrance, and what you described is the exit gate being activated. If so, then it isn't lighting up simultaneously, but after the entrance gate has finished dialing. Yet we have seen communication take place almost the instant after the dialing gate activates.

The only reason is dramatic effect. There is no reasonable in-universe explanation.

[SCRawl]

The one thing that always confused me is why when a recieving gate is being dialed, it lights up the indvidual symbols the same as the dialing gate...how the hell does the gate know it's the one being dialed until all symbols have been input?

Like many sci-fi plot devices, it falls apart upon close examination. Are you really surprised? I suppose that a hand-waving explanation could be concocted, but really, it's just bad logic.

[Zac Naloen]

The one thing that always confused me is why when a recieving gate is being dialed, it lights up the indvidual symbols the same as the dialing gate...how the hell does the gate know it's the one being dialed until all symbols have been input?

That's another detail that makes no sense at all. Just maybe the wormhole isn't established instantly, but rather the exit is created some time after the entrance, and what you described is the exit gate being activated. If so, then it isn't lighting up simultaneously, but after the entrance gate has finished dialing. Yet we have seen communication take place almost the instant after the dialing gate activates.

The only reason is dramatic effect. There is no reasonable in-universe explanation.

The most likely explanation is actually because the gate keeps itself up to date by broadcast an "i'm still here" signal through subspace so that the other Stargates can remember how to dial to it, preventing Stellar drift from causing problems. This broadcast can quite easily be used to be explain why the local DHD reacts the way it does to an incoming wormhole.

The reason the Earth gate had this problem in season 1 was because it lacked a DHD. Stellar drift had to be adjusted for manually before Earth was able to dial anywhere but Abydos (implying Abydos is close to earth)

[Ma Deuce]

The one thing that always confused me is why when a recieving gate is being dialed, it lights up the indvidual symbols the same as the dialing gate...how the hell does the gate know it's the one being dialed until all symbols have been input?

It seems that the gates always maintain some kind of low-level connection with each other. As shown in Avenger 2.0, the entire system undergoes periodic correlative updates to account for stellar drift, which is how the Avenger virus was able to spread to the entire Stargate network. This connection could also explain how one gate "knows" it's being dialed by another before the wormhole actually forms.

[Shadowtraveler]

On the other hand, you have the dialogue in the first season stating that they had to account for stellar motions and correct the ten thousand year old addresses found on Abydos.

Most likely this is due to the Giza gate having no connected DHD and thus no ability to auto-correct itself as mentioned in...Avenger, I think?

[JGregory32]

That's another detail that makes no sense at all. Just maybe the wormhole isn't established instantly, but rather the exit is created some time after the entrance, and what you described is the exit gate being activated. If so, then it isn't lighting up simultaneously, but after the entrance gate has finished dialing. Yet we have seen communication take place almost the instant after the dialing gate activates.

It could be that symbols were lighting up on every gate within that possible address area. If this was so then gates would light up and then shut down as the address was entered. Granted thid makes no sense from a design standpoint, but it does allow us to explain why this happens, as for the communication? It is also possible that the gate network was splitting the signal among the possible gate addresses.
It makes no sense from a design or security point of view but it does account for onscreen visuals.
BTW can any one explain why the gate transmitts items like people, vehicles, or energy weapon discharges but does not transmit air or light? It would seem that the gate room should be exposed to thousands of alien bacteria and radiation sources on an almost daily basis.

[Ryushikaze]

That's another detail that makes no sense at all. Just maybe the wormhole isn't established instantly, but rather the exit is created some time after the entrance, and what you described is the exit gate being activated. If so, then it isn't lighting up simultaneously, but after the entrance gate has finished dialing. Yet we have seen communication take place almost the instant after the dialing gate activates.

It could be that symbols were lighting up on every gate within that possible address area. If this was so then gates would light up and then shut down as the address was entered. Granted thid makes no sense from a design standpoint, but it does allow us to explain why this happens, as for the communication? It is also possible that the gate network was splitting the signal among the possible gate addresses.
It makes no sense from a design or security point of view but it does account for onscreen visuals.
BTW can any one explain why the gate transmitts items like people, vehicles, or energy weapon discharges but does not transmit air or light? It would seem that the gate room should be exposed to thousands of alien bacteria and radiation sources on an almost daily basis.

There's a protective barrier that pushes back against its surroundings, and requires extra force to overcome. It's how they explained the Russia base not getting flooded the moment they dialed the sunken gate.

[tim31]

So what about the episode where O'Neil gets the smarts and ramps up the go-juice for the gate, then dials eight chevrons in order to reach an intergalactic gate? How did that work?

[Beowulf]

Using the point of origin symbol tells the gate that the dialing is done, and to establish the gate. When you stick a seventh symbol into the dial sequence ahead of the PoO symbol, you're telling the gate to use an extra distance calculation. In the case we've seen, it gives intergalactic range, but requires much greater amounts of power to setup the gate.

[Zac Naloen]

That's another detail that makes no sense at all. Just maybe the wormhole isn't established instantly, but rather the exit is created some time after the entrance, and what you described is the exit gate being activated. If so, then it isn't lighting up simultaneously, but after the entrance gate has finished dialing. Yet we have seen communication take place almost the instant after the dialing gate activates.

It could be that symbols were lighting up on every gate within that possible address area. If this was so then gates would light up and then shut down as the address was entered. Granted thid makes no sense from a design standpoint, but it does allow us to explain why this happens, as for the communication? It is also possible that the gate network was splitting the signal among the possible gate addresses.
It makes no sense from a design or security point of view but it does account for onscreen visuals.
BTW can any one explain why the gate transmitts items like people, vehicles, or energy weapon discharges but does not transmit air or light? It would seem that the gate room should be exposed to thousands of alien bacteria and radiation sources on an almost daily basis.

There's a protective barrier that pushes back against its surroundings, and requires extra force to overcome. It's how they explained the Russia base not getting flooded the moment they dialed the sunken gate.

Yep, the gate is capable of detecting whether something is merely resting against the gate's portal or actually trying to physically force it's way through.

Energy however just goes through no matter what, because all the gate does is transmit energy. All matter is converted to energy and back again. It's like a super long range transporter.

[NecronLord]

A friend and I have been watching SG1 quite a lot over the past few weeks, as he got a few seasons for his recent birthday. As much as I'm enjoying it, I just can't get my head around how the dialling system works.

As I recall from the film, you dial seven symbols, the first six being a set of coordinates to plot a point in space, the seventh being a symbol indicating the planet of origin.

The "seventh symbol", is that unique to each gate, would the Russian gate have its own little picture?

Yes. While the prop used on the show these days is still the pyramid with the sun on top, it should more properly be a line with disk beside it. When that gate was first found, that was pointed out as its seventh glyph. It's a continuity thing; keeping the styling of the show mattered more than having a technically accurate seventh chevron.

Also, if the point of the seventh symbol is to establish a point of origin, would a gate cease to function if it moves?

No. However, they do need to be in realspace, and possibly near a planet in the network (though this seems dubious. We've seen one work while being dumped into space at a random black hole) At the end of season one, beginning of season two two parter, and on a few occasions since, we've seen stargates moved by starship.

[NecronLord]

The dialling system working like that was retconned in Lost City iirc.

It was actually a misinterpretation by Daniel originally.

The Symbols are pictograms, which represent a sound. That sound when spoken is the name of the planet in ancient and the address (IIRC).

The Gate software must work out the rest.[/i]

No it wasn't. The Ancients just had pronunciations for their symbols, and named their outposts after their gate addresses. It still dials the way that's specified in the movie and Fifth Race. It just now has sounds associated with each symbol for ease of record keeping.

[Ma Deuce]

Using the point of origin symbol tells the gate that the dialing is done, and to establish the gate. When you stick a seventh symbol into the dial sequence ahead of the PoO symbol, you're telling the gate to use an extra distance calculation. In the case we've seen, it gives intergalactic range, but requires much greater amounts of power to setup the gate.

Then there's the ninth chevron, the purpose of which has been the source of much speculation. Supposedly that's going to be a key plot point in the upcoming series Stargate Universe.

[Crazedwraith]

Yes. While the prop used on the show these days is still the pyramid with the sun on top, it should more properly be a line with disk beside it. When that gate was first found, that was pointed out as its seventh glyph. It's a continuity thing; keeping the styling of the show mattered more than having a technically accurate seventh chevron.

Actually the /\ symbol is the correct one. In that is the abydos gate symbol. It was the Abydos gate that was beamed aboard Thor's ship in "Nemesis" and subsequently recovered by the Russians. Resulting in the Antartic '|O' symboled gate being used up until it's destruction in the Season 6 premeire 'Redemption.' After which they returned to using the Russian /\ gate. So technically seeing the /\ anytime between the beginning of 'Small Victories' and the end of 'Redemption part II' is the continuity error.

[Ryan Thunder]

There's a protective barrier that pushes back against its surroundings, and requires extra force to overcome. It's how they explained the Russia base not getting flooded the moment they dialed the sunken gate.

How deep was this sunken gate? I mean, water pressure at a certain depth should be easily more than can be exerted by a person attempting to enter the gate.

[Baal]

There's a protective barrier that pushes back against its surroundings, and requires extra force to overcome. It's how they explained the Russia base not getting flooded the moment they dialed the sunken gate.

How deep was this sunken gate? I mean, water pressure at a certain depth should be easily more than can be exerted by a person attempting to enter the gate.

It doesnt matter. The "water" on the planet was actually a life form and it could control the amount of pressure it exerted as was demonstrated when it held the mini-sub in place, shattered its glass bubble, but didnt flood the sub until Jackson touched the water. and even then instead of flooding it merely grabbed him and yanked him out of the sub.

[ThatGuyFromThatPlace]

The gate shield doesn't care about the actual pressure level, it's how the pressure is applied, the uniform pressure over the entire surface of the gate is what kept the gate from letting the water in.

[DogsOfWar]

The one thing that always confused me is why when a recieving gate is being dialed, it lights up the indvidual symbols the same as the dialing gate...how the hell does the gate know it's the one being dialed until all symbols have been input?

That's another detail that makes no sense at all. Just maybe the wormhole isn't established instantly, but rather the exit is created some time after the entrance, and what you described is the exit gate being activated. If so, then it isn't lighting up simultaneously, but after the entrance gate has finished dialing. Yet we have seen communication take place almost the instant after the dialing gate activates.

The only reason is dramatic effect. There is no reasonable in-universe explanation.

It's the same as how in the first few seasons they were able to send radio signals through the gate before it finished dialing ("we're receiving a GDO signal!"). Best to just pretend it didn't happen