What's up with the ninth chevron?

[NAHTMMM]

Originally Posted by Sa'ar Chasm

The whole dialling system makes very little sense. Generally, the Stargate series has been pretty good with their science (Red Sky being an exception), but they inherited a whole lot of gibberish from the movie. You don't need six points to define a location in three-dimensional space, you only need three, although that assumes you're using some sort of grid pattern not based on random squiggles.

I don't watch the show, but I assume that by "points" you mean "coordinates" or "numbers" or some such.
If you want to justify six coordinates, the values could be (x, y, z, t, energy required, check digit) or some such.

[Nate the Great]

I can't remember where I read this the other day, but someone was bringing up the whole "there are more than 39 Stargates, so this whole system is hooey" argument. Apparently, they don't realize that the point of origin is not one of the 38 standard glyphs, it's a symbol all it's own that's located in the same position on each Stargate. It's just like if my Enter key was painted red, Zeke's was painted blue, Sa'ar's was painted green, and so on. All else being equal, it's a quick way to point out "hey, I'm the Enter Key!"

I pity people (fictional though they may be) that have to use Pegasus Gates. Have you paid close attention to one of those glyphs? It's not five or so points in a simple pattern, it's dozens in a vague blob that you have to memorize!

[PointyHairedJedi]

...Did anyone happen to mention to you lately that it's none of it real? Not like Doctor Who of course, we know that's all true...

[Nate the Great]

What, like there's some law or social taboo that says I can't pity fictional characters?

[PointyHairedJedi]

Yes.

Even if it's only in my head, it still counts!

[Nate the Great]

Uh-huh. "Doctor Crane to the forums. Doctor Frasier Crane..."