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lets say someone had some sort of star gate, lets just say its circular like the one on the show, the difference being instead of that watery portal thingy, there is a direct link between the two gates that you can clearly see through to the other side. basically as if it were a window that you could just walk through to the outside. what would happen if you opened the gate on earth to a world where the atmosphere was under more pressure, would there be any kind of explosive decompression, or a large air-blast or sonic boom? or if the other planet had higher gravity what would happen where the 2 meet?

  1. air can flow freely between the two portals
  2. the portal allows everything through, including light wind ect..
  3. the opening of the portal is instantaneous, it would be as if opening a window of a house to the outside

what would happen on the higher pressurized side? what would happen on the lower pressurized side? how dangerous would such a gate be?

looking for scientific answers

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    $\begingroup$ I don't have the math like Rick Sanchez, but logic is telling me that horrible, horrible shit is gonna happen because of pressure differentials. $\endgroup$
    – Z.Schroeder
    Sep 26, 2016 at 23:34
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    $\begingroup$ I always thought the water-like effects were related to the stargate equalizing. $\endgroup$
    – Cort Ammon
    Sep 26, 2016 at 23:44
  • $\begingroup$ You ought to proof-read. $\endgroup$
    – JDługosz
    Sep 27, 2016 at 7:24
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    $\begingroup$ Realistically, one building such a thing would want to include a buffer, a certain amount of resistance to anything passing through - so a person or animal walks through with extra effort, but effects due to pressure differences are likely to be limited to differences greater than your resistance threshold - and the gates never placed in conditions in which differences exceed this safety net by too much. $\endgroup$
    – Megha
    Sep 29, 2016 at 1:33

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I remember seeing somewhere (https://what-if.xkcd.com/14/) that opening a portal between Boston and Mexico (2400m difference in elevation) would result in wind speeds of over half the speed of sound (or around 700km/h) just from that slight pressure difference. I can only imagine it'd be even more dramatic in your case.

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From Xkcd

Formula for the flow speed of a fluid

Their portal is a closet but the same principal applies

Q = A * sqrt(2 g d) = flow rate

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