During a period of boredom earlier I decided to try and simulate the physics of opening a portal on the moon. Assuming that a portal has an area of roughly two square meters (the player is a bit under 128 units, the physical opening of the portal is really a 64x128 rectangle) and that the air pressure on Earth will take a very long time to drop off, I can plug into the choked flow equations and get:

Then use the equation Velocity = Mass Flow / (Density * Area) and it seems that all the air (and Wheatley and the Space Core and Rick and the Portal Gun...) is being launched into space at 197.67 meters per second.

This is an order of magnitude less than the moon's escape velocity, so Wheatley isn't coming back to Earth. It's also too low to go into a stable orbit. So he'll crash into the moon again at some point.

My question is, now, does anyone know of a good way to calculate his trajectory? It seems that the portal opened normal to the vector from the Earth to the moon, so in the absence of the Earth he's just crash right into the place where the portal was. But the rotation and orbit of the moon might mess that up.

Any thoughts?

Omg, you really try to calculate Wheatleys fly through space? Didnt thought that someone would ever do that But your question, no Idea..

FelixGriffin wrote:

My head

In layman's terms, the mass of the air rushing past every second is the area of the portal times the square root of a bunch of stuff. The main ones are the air pressure in Michigan this afternoon (1021) and the density of the air (1.225). The 1.4 just has to do with the way air moves. The result is 434.3 kilograms every second. If we divide that by the density of the air and the area of the portal we get how fast the air is moving, and I assumed Wheatley's velocity would be the same (which isn't quite accurate but is good enough for now).

In better layman's terms, speedy air go in, speedy air come out.

Yes, and because there are not enough forces in space, Wheatley can't just stop where he is and he doesn't have a way to force controlled movement, so he should keep speeding in space and he can't speak in space because there's no matter in space.

FelixGriffin wrote:
In better layman's terms, speedy air go in, speedy air come out.

YAY. I can understand now!

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the moon has enough gravity to turn that air into an atmosphere, and I'm anyway not going to start breathing neurotoxic gas.

Okay, new problem I just noticed: why did the portal close after GLaDOS pulled you in? The portal gun couldn't have hit a fizzler, it was leaving the moon at 197.67 meaters per second. And it's not a range limit or you couldn't have opened the moon portal.

FelixGriffin wrote:
Okay, new problem I just noticed: why did the portal close after GLaDOS pulled you in? The portal gun couldn't have hit a fizzler, it was leaving the moon at 197.67 meaters per second. And it's not a range limit or you couldn't have opened the moon portal.

Maybe she washed the paint off?

I'm assuming she remote-fizzled it or moved the panel around.

FelixGriffin wrote:
Okay, new problem I just noticed: why did the portal close after GLaDOS pulled you in? The portal gun couldn't have hit a fizzler, it was leaving the moon at 197.67 meaters per second. And it's not a range limit or you couldn't have opened the moon portal.

Maybe the Portal will close when its at a distance from thousands of metres from the Portalgun,
but that would be to much random, that the portal closes "randomly", through the brocken connection or anything. I think that GLaDOS can close Portals manually.

TheTobbell wrote:
FelixGriffin wrote:

Okay, new problem I just noticed: why did the portal close after GLaDOS pulled you in? The portal gun couldn't have hit a fizzler, it was leaving the moon at 197.67 meaters per second. And it's not a range limit or you couldn't have opened the moon portal.

Maybe the Portal will close when its at a distance from thousands of metres from the Portalgun,
but that would be to much random, that the portal closes "randomly", through the brocken connection or anything. I think that GLaDOS can close Portals manually.

But then how did the Moon one stay open for so long? It was as far from the Portalgun at the start as the Earth one was at the end.

FelixGriffin wrote:
TheTobbell wrote:

FelixGriffin wrote:

Okay, new problem I just noticed: why did the portal close after GLaDOS pulled you in? The portal gun couldn't have hit a fizzler, it was leaving the moon at 197.67 meaters per second. And it's not a range limit or you couldn't have opened the moon portal.

Maybe the Portal will close when its at a distance from thousands of metres from the Portalgun,
but that would be to much random, that the portal closes "randomly", through the brocken connection or anything. I think that GLaDOS can close Portals manually.

But then how did the Moon one stay open for so long? It was as far from the Portalgun at the start as the Earth one was at the end.

I know what you mean, and i dont know an answer..

My theory: Wheatley can control the gun remotely (the same way it can fire portals when it's on the stand in Test Chambers 4 and 11, it seems to be wireless because you can just pick it up), and he's trying to find a way to portal back to Earth. Of course it's almost impossible to hit Conversion Gel by firing from space, but he could have accidentally shot a blue portal on the moon while experimenting.

Doesn't anyone think this is a bit trivial? There isn't any secret meaning behind the portal closing. GLaDOS closed it or something.

Dr.Toaster Waffles wrote:
Doesn't anyone think this is a bit trivial? There isn't any secret meaning behind the portal closing. GLaDOS closed it or something.

Of course. But it's fun to debate.

i think glados definitely closed it. probably because chell was passing out from suffocation and glados had to set her down.

Or maybe the portal device broke on account of the fact that over the course of two games, it has been dropped multiple times, shot at, hit by lasers and energy pellets, been in toxic goo, fallen into the incinerator, fished out again, covered in three types of gel, blown up seconds before it is evacuated into space where it collides with debris from the remains of Wheatley's chamber. Frankly, it's amazing it didn't break down earlier.

Although I do think it's more likely that GLaDOS shut it down remotely when she took control back. If she can fizzle Companion cubes at will, then she can shut down portals.

Nice calculation, btw!

> Quote:

Although I do think it's more likely that GLaDOS shut it down remotely when she took control back. If she can fizzle Companion cubes at will, then she can shut down portals.

whyyy!?!?!? I was going to say that.