Let's discuss portals and what they will do in specific scenarios.

For example, let's say that portals withstand motion (This in actually self-explanatory if you take molecular vibration into account), let's also say you can place portals on organic material (The definition of "organic" is that the molecular formula includes carbon, with the exception of carbonate and carbon gas) If you were to place portal A on a wall in front of you, and portal B on your chest. If you now were to run straight into portal A facing forwards, what would happen?

Picture of scenario:

You are also assuming that you can somehow create portals of different size, yet have them operate normally, which means that the linearity of space becomes screwed around the portal rims.

a portal inside a portal would create a space and time paradox and the whole of existance would go 'pop'

Yes, a portal inside a portal would make everything die instantly.

Let's tihnk of the universe as a giant piece of paper.

When you place a portal link, you're essentially folding this piece of paper to connect with the other point.

---

---

__\

So, if you were to place a portal inside a portal, you'd essentially be doing this:

.

The paper would fold around itself so much that it becomes an invisible blip of existance.

Say NO to ASCII drawings!

Say YES to MS paint (or any other program that is more powerful such as photoshop for the gimp for those who are poor)

Duffedwaffe wrote:
Yes, a portal inside a portal would make everything die instantly.

Let's tihnk of the universe as a giant piece of paper.

When you place a portal link, you're essentially folding this piece of paper to connect with the other point.

---

---

__\

So, if you were to place a portal inside a portal, you'd essentially be doing this:

.

The paper would fold around itself so much that it becomes an invisible blip of existance.

Yes, essentially the universe would disappear up it's own arse.

Does anyone else have any scenarios?

espen180 wrote:
Does anyone else have any scenarios?

Portals of different sizes would also be very tricky to get aound.

Think about this - A potals is a wormhole that is 0mm thick. A wormhole can have different sized entrances and exits because it is relatively long inside and stretches and squashes anything that enters, a portal on the other hand has entrances and exits that are actually touching meaning if one was smaller than the other the space on the other side would be enlarged or shrunk and anythign that wen't through would stay the wrong size(if you kept going from big portal to small portal you would end up microscopic...).

portals on curved surfaces? anyone got any thoughts whilst I'm out for the evening?

I have long been thinking of one...
If there are 2 blue portals (maybe due to some mailfunction in the device)
that lead to the same one red portal, what would happen if somebody\something enters the red one? Duplication?

Duffedwaffe wrote:
Yes, a portal inside a portal would make everything die instantly.

Let's tihnk of the universe as a giant piece of paper.

When you place a portal link, you're essentially folding this piece of paper to connect with the other point.

(ASCII art cut to save space)

The paper would fold around itself so much that it becomes an invisible blip of existance.

This is a really geeky hypothetical discussion of an imaginary technology, but I'm up for it.

I totally disagree with the assessment above.

First, the paper analogy is badly flawed. You're not "essentially folding this piece of paper" when you place a portal link. If that were true, we would be able to observe the entire world geometry deform when we placed portals. That clearly doesn't happen. So the argument that placing a portal inside a portal would infinitely deform space is invalid.

Second, portals themselves have no mass, no substance. In a certain way of thinking, they have no physical properties of their own; rather, they erase the physical properties of the surfaces on which they are placed, like its solidity and its position in spacetime. (This is why cameras fall off the walls when you place a portal behind them. The solidity/presence of the wall is negated by the portals.) So if portals have no material existence, and by definition portals must be placed on solid objects, you could never place a portal in a portal.

Third, portals disappear whenever the surface they're on moves or rotates. This means it's impossible to place a portal on a moveable surface in order to push one portal into/through another.

Basically what I'm saying is that the question doesn't make sense. "What would happen if you place a portal in a portal?" is impossible according to the definition of portals. Their observed behavior confirms and reinforces this impossibility.

(Sorry to be a killjoy. )

Crooked Paul wrote:

Basically what I'm saying is that the question doesn't make sense. "What would happen if you place a portal in a portal?" is impossible according to the definition of portals. Their observed behavior confirms and reinforces this impossibility.

(Sorry to be a killjoy. )

I think you failed to read the first post of this thread, which makes certain assumptions, namely:

Portals now can withstand motion.
Portals can be placed on organic materials.

Ah, so I did. Sorry.

Well, I still disagree that a portal-in-portal would eradicate the universe. My argument above about the paper analogy -- that portals observably do not deform space -- still stands.

Portal behavior seems to be strictly local: each point on one portal maps directly to a point on the other. No surrounding space/objects are affected. (With the one exception of the cameras falling... but note that the cameras aren't teleported or "pulled into" the portal. They behave exactly as they would if they were held in the same place after the portals were placed and then released. But I digress...)

Since portal behavior is strictly local, I contend that if you could move one portal into another, the effect would become infinitely local, and probably both portals (and whatever unfortunate object/organism held the movable portal) would collapse into an infinitely small "bubble universe" permanently disconnected from the rest of reality.

Ok, For the sake of my sanity, everyone here needs to watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU1fixMAObI

It explains dimension in terms most people can comprehend.
It's about 12 minutes long, but easly worth the watch.

That being said, If you were to somehow place a portal on your own chest(which I don't think is possible, as we know portals can't be supported on moving surfaces), then run into another portal, you would likely die.
Thus far we know that a portal cannot travel through another portal. So when you dive into the wall, your head would come out your chest. At the point when the chest portal comes in contact with the wall portal, it would disengage. Then you're either thrown back out the one you came in (probably would be the result of Apature science employees knowing that some jackass would try this), or you would be cut in half. Personally, I'm opting for the cutting in half option, as it thins the gene pool of somebody who would take that risk.

Either way, this senario is flawed in oh so many ways. Portals of different size can't exist. If they did, you'd have to either deal with expansion & miniturization, or loss of matter. Example: Put a large wooden door through a large portal, only to have a normal sized portal shaped door come out on the other side.

you wouldnt actually need different sized portals... if the person was big enough. tilting a portal on its side would make it fit through the other portal just fine...

on another note, nice video on youtube

and on another note, I didn't really think about what would happen.

Since the portal is so small, the person that enters the portal will get smaller... but... considering the portal is on this chest, it would be quite impossible for him to pass through it... for a portal can not pass though another portal.

Very Interesting stuff, i thought about it quite alot one day, but now im too lazy to add anything, off to bed with me.

Of course portals can be placed on moving objects--motion is relative. The Earth is spinning and circling the sun and the sun is circling the milky way. However, whether or not portals can be moved relative to each other is the question. I would imagine that it would be no problem as long as the surfaces are either flat (which again, we run into trouble defining how flat is flat enough) or the contours somehow match up like puzzle pieces.

The motion of the earth isn't in question. What we know cannot be done, is portals being moved after they have been deployed, in relation to their environment. There are numerous examples of this inside the game.

Another way to imagine the very first picture - try eating yourself (whole)

You would get to an impossible situation where you had swallowed your legs and lower torso but would be unable to swallow any more. This could be similar to trying to portal through your own chest.

Lets imagine what would happen if portals could be placed underwater and there is a porta-able surface under the sea.
Now unless we can place one portal in another gravitational system (like on mars) or in a sealed container nothing much would happen. Sure the sea would flood into the room but it would fill releatively slowly (seeing as a portal is only a few square feet in area) and once your house had filled it would leak into the street to the nearest river and back to where it came from. Basically creating an artificial river.
If you could place the second portal on the ground the immence pressure from the several miles of sea would push the watter through with such a force it would probably reach the top of the Empire State building (anyone want to do the math? could be quite interesting to see just how far it would be fountained)

On the portal-on-mars note, anyone got anything on how far appart you could place linked portals?...how does a portal know which other portal to link to?...