When you create a portal on a wall, and another portal on the surface of a table.
And any object thrown through one portal will come out the other.
Now, what happens if you through the table with the portal on it, into the portal on the wall?
Think about it.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
quote:Now, what happens if you through the table with the portal on it, into the portal on the wall?
i assume through=throw.
but the answer to your question is 42.
Posted by dantesparadigm (Member # 8756) on :
The term 'physics' is used rather loosely here.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
DNFTT
Posted by Joldo (Member # 6991) on :
If the table is big enough to make an orange portal on, it's too large to fit through the blue portal on the wall . . .
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
not if you broke off its legs, and lets assume we can adjust the size of the portal on the wall, I'm certain that portal gun can do more then that computer lets on.
Posted by Elmer's Glue (Member # 9313) on :
What Joldo said. If you could adjust the size of the portal then as soon as the portal on the table met the portal on the wall it would just stop going in.
Posted by MightyCow (Member # 9253) on :
Same thing as when you try to shoot one portal into another portal - the portal just poofs out of existence.
They're rather fragile.
Posted by adfectio (Member # 11070) on :
I think that's guaranteed to crash your computer 50% of the time.
Edited to add:
In all seriousness, though, I think this is a branch of (what dantes correctly described as a loose definition of) physics that very few people could begin to make an educated statement about. Any number of things could happen.
[ March 02, 2008, 01:16 AM: Message edited by: adfectio ]
Posted by JonHecht (Member # 9712) on :
The same thing that happens if you put a portable hole in a bag of holding.
Posted by Sean Monahan (Member # 9334) on :
You appear on Mount Olympus in an attempt to stop a war between the Apollyons and the Dionysians.
Posted by Telperion the Silver (Member # 6074) on :
Second Impact...
Apollyons vs Dionysians? I grok you.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
quote:I grok you.
Hey! This is a family forum! Posted by King of Men (Member # 6684) on :
quote:Originally posted by adfectio: In all seriousness, though, I think this is a branch of (what dantes correctly described as a loose definition of) physics that very few people could begin to make an educated statement about.
Nonsense. I is highly edjumacated, with letters behind my name and all, in physics no less, and I am about to make a statement on the subject. To wit, "Do the experiment and see". Preferably giving warning first so I can get to a safe distance.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
quote:Same thing as when you try to shoot one portal into another portal - the portal just poofs out of existence.
They're rather fragile.
No, no, no. The universe turns inside out and ceases to exist.
KoM: Good luck getting to a safe distance away.
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
Where do you think they get all the nifty yet lethal balls of energy.
'For the good of all of us, except the ones who are dead.'
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
Now for the real physics mind buggary to think about. If Spengler shoots a stream through a portal on the wall and it comes out of the portal on the table and Venkmen crosses his stream with the one coming out of the table, will there still be a total protonic reversal?
If so, is it a chain reaction that will work it's way to one portal and fizzle, destroy another dimension, or continue it's path to the end of our dimension?
Physics majors discuss.
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
A new universe would form using the foamy beer bubbles multiple universe model. After this new big bang all dark matter in the freshly minted universe would be staypuffed marshmallow.
'And the science gets done and we have a neat gun, for the people who are still alive'
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
Hmm..interesting. I forgot all about the fbnmum theory.
I see where you are going, I just can't work out the math.
*For all you non physics majors who are trying to understand these abstract concepts, it stands for "foamy bear newly minted universe model."*
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
So the bears drank all the beer? What good is a Universe without any beer? Actually if we were to accept OrangeRoom portals as givens, they would present some rather interesting problems in physics.
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
Is orange side a different universe from blue?
One where Glados is good and Chell is bad. Where the combine are really benevolent. And most importantly, there really is a delicious and moist cake.
What about the drunk bears?
The answers to these questions will surely redefine life, the universe.. everything.
Posted by lem (Member # 6914) on :
The bears are foamy because they are made in the bubble universe drenched in beer. I am not sure if they are drunk by osmosis or appetite, but they are important to the equation.
Edit bear to beer.
Posted by Glenn Arnold (Member # 3192) on :
quote:freshly minted universe would be staypuffed marshmallow.
I'd prefer a cookies and cream universe. I don't like mint.
Posted by Starsnuffer (Member # 8116) on :
*Laughs and walks away
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
We actually did this experiment in high school (it was AP Physics, so it was advanced). Because of budget constraints (public school funding being what it is), we could only make small portals -- big enough to send a lab rat through, but not a student. We had one portal at the opening of a Pyrex measuring cup, and the other one the teacher made on his blackboard.
We sent things like 5 gram weights from blackboard to measuring cup and measuring cup to blackboard, weighing them before and after to see if the mass was affected (it wasn't). We put a lighted match in the blackboard portal, but it came through the Pyrex cup extinguished. The lab rat came through unscathed, though, either from cup to board or board to cup.
But, at the end of the class, when we put the Pyrex cup through the portal in the blackboard, the cup shattered -- well, really exploded like a grenade, sending razor-sharp pieces of glass ricocheting off the walls of the classroom. That was one time that we really appreciated this teacher's insistence that everyone wear those dorky safety goggles.
A couple of kids got sent to the nurse's office for lacerations, but they just needed band-aids, and were back in class.
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
*blink* Was your teacher named Dr. Apeture?
Posted by Tante Shvester (Member # 8202) on :
Oddly enough, he was Mr. Newton. No kidding. Not only that, he was uncommonly fig-shaped.
Posted by suminonA (Member # 8757) on :
I suppose the portals are one sided, that is, they can only be accessed from one side (why else would they be “on a wall” and “on a table” respectively?)
Therefore, when asking the question, it is important to indicate two things:
1) We need to know what the correspondence between the points of the two portals are, that is, for each entry point in one, what the emerging point is on the other. This would be a function between the two sets of points (supposing the points to be reciprocal), and any symmetry, rotation, or whatever transformation is crucial for the theoretical analysis of this “thought experiment”.
2) The orientation of the portal on the table, with respect to the one on the wall, at the moment of contact. The possible angle range would be from 0, that is, parallel to the wall, the active side of the table facing the active side of the wall, to 180 degrees, that is, parallel to the wall, but facing “away”.
BTW, this is more a problem of topology (i.e. geometry) than “physics”.
A.
Posted by Belle (Member # 2314) on :
quote:Not only that, he was uncommonly fig-shaped.
Posted by aspectre (Member # 2222) on :
That's what I mean about interesting problems. eg What happens to the portal if ya burn the table or tear down the wall? Do you get a one-sided object hanging in mid-air? What the heck does a one-sided object look like? How does the "backside" interact with physical objects if the portal doesn't have a backside?
Is the edge of an unbacked portal more than razor-sharp? Heck of a booby-trap. And just the razor-effect combined with portaling would be one HECK of a NASTY offensive weapon if an unbacked portal can be moved.
And move in relationship to what? eg A wall-backed portal is already moving due to the planet's rotation and orbit around its sun, its sun's revolution around the galaxy, etc...
If ya put the transmitting portal on the first floor and the receiving portal on the second floor, then push an object through the first floor portal, where is the higher potential energy of the object now on the second floor coming from?
If you put the ceiling portal directly above the floor portal, have you created a perpetual motion machine? If gravity works between the two portals, you've created a perpetual motion machine that also generates nearly as much power as you want: the limiting factors being the mass&density of the object transiting between the two portals plus the density of the air / purity of the vacuum surrounding the two portals plus the local gravity. eg Take a solid tungsten pole nearly as wide as the portal and slightly taller than the height between the floor and the ceiling. Shove one end through the floor portal, then cut the top of the pole so that it will meet the bottom of the pole protruding from the ceiling portal. Weld the two ends together and let go. Soon the pole is falling at hypersonic speed between portals. And heating from air resistance due to the pole's exterior interacting with the atmosphere. Shortly, the pole is producing white hot light burning everything even somewhat near the portals. Heating further, the spectrum shifts into the ultraviolet region, first melting then vaporizing the metal surface into an ionized plasma that'd destroy the room entirely. Admittedly, ultraviolet is kinda unlikely cuz the tungsten surface would furiously burn in the air before reaching that temperature. But let's say that just before the pole melts, you fire the portal gun at the floor portal eliminating that portal. !!!KABOOM!!! The pole hitting the floor has just caused an explosion which obliterates the OrangeRoom complex.
If gravity doesn't work between paired portals, the paired portals are an anti-gravity machine...which is even nastier.
[ March 03, 2008, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: aspectre ]
Posted by calaban (Member # 2516) on :
As most of you are probably aware, there is a game called Portal which inspired all of this. A few links in example. Spoilerish for those who still want to play Portal.
In the game portals dissapate if the surface moves. Additionally, a portal cannot be made through another portal. So by the rules in the halflife universe, making one portal and then trying to move it through another is not possible.
So if we were to consider two portals in theory what would our rules be?
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