What do portals feel like?

Half-Life Series
#61

Two posibillities(Surelly I wrote posibillities wrong…):

1: The Devs. Like this thread and laugh with it.

2: Anyone with power to close threads hasn’t seen it. If this is the case, those who like this thread enjoy your time left…

#62

This question is, at first glance, an easy question. Given a bit more thought, and it becomes a fairly complex one to answer. Since I am a video game and science nerd, I will try to make this a reliably accurate interpretation of how I see portals:

  1. First is the issue of momentum conservation between portals. We will use the infinite loop here, one portal in the ceiling and one in the floor below. Upon entering the floor portal, the sensation is akin to that of walking off a ledge, where gravity takes effect as it normally would. The force of gravity on any object on Earth varies based on its distance from the center of Earth’s mass. Even when considering the tallest rooms in the Aperture Science Enrichment Center, the difference in height from floor to ceiling isn’t that big in the grand scheme of things, and it only creates a negligible variation on the force of gravity on the object/person. So, a person jumps into the portal and begins their fall, accelerating at 9.809 meters per second squared (W00t, metrics! ^^). Upon reaching the floor, they re-enter the portal and continue on as if they never hit the ground, continuously accelerating until he/she reaches terminal velocity, where the force of gravity on the person is equal to the opposing force caused by that person’s drag. So, speaking purely in terms of momentum and gravity, so long as the person keeps entering his/her portals without touching the walls/floors/etc, they will continue moving through space under the normal rules of physics upon exiting each portal pair (e.g. after exiting a portal in the wall, the person immediately starts descending due to gravity.

  2. a) Now let’s look at how portals interact with environmental/atmospheric conditions. A good example would be a portal outside (e.g. the side of an office building, on the pavement, etc.) on Earth, and a portal on a surface in a vacuum (outer space, or any space with an atmospheric pressure of zero) Upon the linking of both portals, the laws of physics take affect instantaneously. In this case, atmospheric pressure gravitates towards the lowest pressure point in an attempt to equalize. In the extreme case of moving from a space with atmospheric pressure to a space without, the atmosphere will seamlessly flow through the portal pair into the space with little or no atmospheric pressure. This next example contains quite a bit of guesswork, since I have only a very basic knowledge of astrophysics. Let’s say a portal on Earth were to be linked to a portal on the Moon. When that happens, Earth’s atmosphere would be rapidly transferred to the Moon. Either all of the Earth’s atmosphere is sucked into the vacuum of space (I feel this is the most logical result), or the Moon’s gravitational force will trap and form its own atmosphere until both the Earth and the Moon have equal atmospheric pressures (I’m not sure if the Moon’s gravity is strong enough for this to happen).

  3. b) The same principle applies to portals linking two areas that vastly differ in thermal energy, or heat. When the connection is made, energy is immediately exchanged between both areas, and this continues until their temperatures are equalized and they reach thermal equilibrium. Therefore, if a person were to approach and enter this recently created portal pair, they would not feel an instantaneous change in temperature. Instead, they would feel it increase/decrease as they approached the portal, and once they entered and exited, it would then decrease/increase as they moved away from the portal.

  4. Finally, I will pose my interpretation as to what the actual act of going through portals feels like. I will be using a portal pair under ideal conditions, e.g. on opposite sides of a sealed room with constant temperature, pressure, etc. GLaDOS directly refers to the portals as “inter-dimensional gates.” This means that when the portals are created, time and space is bent and warped according to the numerous dimensions that have been added between them. So, while Portal A and Portal B may be on opposite ends of a room, the actual distance between them is zero. This also means that the portals technically exist in only two dimensions, height and width. Since they are linked and have a total distance of zero between them, they exist on the same infinitesimally small plane in the third dimension. When a person walks into a portal they feel absolutely nothing, because they’re passing through a plane that exists but cannot be quantified in any capacity. Given the depth (thickness) of the human body, at each increment of time as the person passes through the portal, an infinitesimally thin portion of their body exists on the same plane as the portals. While it may take a fraction of a second to pass through the portals, the rate at which a person is transferred between portals is instantaneous, taking no time at all. Since the transfer takes place instantaneously, the human body isn’t given enough time to process all (if any) interactions that take place in the process of moving between portals. That isn’t to say that nothing is taking place during that instant in time, for if science fiction has taught us anything, it’s that the first few experiments with all variations of portal/teleportation technology results in very unpleasant scenes (like the cat mentioned in HL2). These mishaps allude to what can happen to matter, organic or not, when it traverses space and time through multiple dimensions. The technical processes that are necessary to keep these incidents from happening are beyond me, but it can be concluded that the Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device was designed so that the user experiences nothing and is not affected in any way by the portals it creates. Of course, you don’t have to take my word for it, GLaDOS told you so to begin with. That is, she told you before she started enhancing the truth. Or did she…

Anyway, this is my honest take on portals, and if there is any bullshit here it is purely accidental and unintentional. I hope I didn’t bore you all to death.

#63

tl;dr

#64
#65

I read it. And it was somewhat informative. Oh, and GLaDOS says that she’ll stop enhancing the truth. Not start.

#66

I’m not reading that wall of text, but my idea is, as Hunter said stepping on a portal on the floor is most likely similar to step off a ledge, and walking through two portals placed on walls is most likely like walking through a door. Except, in both cases, I’m sure there is a lot of vertigo or some similar psychological effect from being in one spot and suddenly being in another. Or perhaps not as it’d feel like the room you entered through the portal was simply a room next to the one with the first portal, and the portal is just a hole between the two rooms.

#67

I think its a little bit like the first drop of a roller coaster, because it always accelerates a bit when coming out of a portal and there’s this “WHOOSH”-sound

You should have gone to the Namco Station thats on the opposite side and play some fine killerspiele :slight_smile: At least thats what I did all the day in london.

#68

… I will try it next time I go there…

#69

no it doesn’t.

#70

I think it does sometimes, but that’s a glitch.

#71

maybe, but usually it shouldn’t. there’s two entire chambers dedicated to conservation of momentum. :expressionless:

#72

have you seen portal 2 co-op trailer? it accelerates.

#73

:facepalm: Nobody’s questioning gravity you know…

#74

Funny. Feels like I was the FIRST one to start a thread called, “What do portals feel like?”

#75

nobody is talking about portal 2, derp.

#76

in theory if portal 2 is using the same engine for portals than in portal 1 it doesn’t matter if it’s portal 1 or 2… also no need to go to defensive so fast. I was just saying that inthe co-op trailer of portal 2 shows the player… 2? Maybe it’s player 1, well, anyways that player is accelerating when entering in the portals…

#77

The question is, wheather going through portals on vertical surfaces adds a tiny bit to the forward momentum or not.
IMO it does feel like it but it actually doesn’t. Maybe it’s just the portal funnel.

#78

it’s called walking, well done. glad you’ve figured it out.
also there’s a substance in portal 2 that causes you to accelerate, but that’s not what ANYONE is talking about because that substance is not in portal.

#79

is there a sustance wich makes you accelerate? WOW time to go to youtube, thanx for the info I had no idea.

#80

Portals feel like a bullet to the eye

Founded in 2004, Leakfree.org became one of the first online communities dedicated to Valve’s Source engine development. It is more famously known for the formation of Black Mesa: Source under the 'Leakfree Modification Team' handle in September 2004.