this post was submitted on 24 Feb 2025
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Asklemmy

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago

fuck it up and waste the first shot on a non-portal supporting surface

[–] [email protected] 81 points 5 days ago (4 children)
[–] dukeofdummies 2 points 4 days ago

See, I don't think water is the way to do it. I think you do it with a massive lead pole with teeth to lock into a gear.

Fully contained, no spillage

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

that looks just like me lol

[–] [email protected] 5 points 5 days ago

I mean, genuinely, this would be infinite energy. I was thinking of somehow using magnets and induction to generate power, but it would be excessively high frequency and would be antithetical to multi-phase power.

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Make a drain hole at the bottom of a lake, that comes out above it. Put in a water wheel, free energy.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Never thought about it before, but I guess this makes portal guns impossible, since scenarios like this break conservation of energy.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Well, the videogame kind are definitely impossible, but if the gravitational field could travel through the portal then it would probably still conserve energy. The gravitational interactions around vertical portals would be exceptionally weird. If they were close enough, you'd probably experience weightlessness while in between them, but I can't wrap my head around what would happen as they move further apart. That makes me hope someone tries to make a mod that models that in Portal...

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago

Maybe conservation of energy is wrong.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

But you know it’s possible from firsthand experience. Whomsth’n’t reached terminal velocity by shooting the ceiling & floor and jumping in?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Put the other portal in a geostationary space station: free access to orbit.

The single most (energy) expensive thing humans do is put things in orbit.

[–] Noblesavage 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

Love the idea, but (spoiler for the end of Portal 2) >!isn't that kind of what Chell did at the end of Portal 2 to defeat GlaDOS? The portal on the Moon causes the portal on Earth to suction everything out into space.!<

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

The portals would just need to be in a pressure equalizing chamber for that.

[–] SwordInStone 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Your spoiler tag doesn't work

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[–] andrewth09 26 points 5 days ago

I'm going to be really sad when I fire my first shot from my single use portal gun only to find out the surface needed to be coated with moon dust.

[–] TheBananaKing 33 points 5 days ago (1 children)

One at the white house, one at the sun.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (1 children)

Be carefully secret service is now on to you. Maybe add /s so they know you're joking and not intending any harm to dumb animals there

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 days ago

He meant to say "In portal"

[–] latenightnoir 38 points 6 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (6 children)

How fast would this suck up all of our atmosphere? Hours? Days?

[–] [email protected] 33 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Probably years, if not more. XKCD's "What If?" has a nice explanation on a similar question, but in that case it was a portal at the bottom of the mariana trench and the question was about draining the oceans. The answer is that you probably wouldn't notice in all your lifetime.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (2 children)

I remember that video, but Iβ€˜m not sure it is comparable β€” air might flow faster than water [citation needed] and there might be less of it [citation needed].

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 days ago
  1. But two sheets of plywood
  2. Portal on each
  3. ???
  4. Profit
[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Shoot the portal on two moveable plates. Move the plates as needed to ship goods. For instance, I imagine making a lot of money shoving sea ice into a portal exiting Lake Powell.

[–] FooBarrington 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Granted. The portals immediately close when you try to move the plates.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago (2 children)

As far as I remember in Portal, the portals could move if the plates moved.

[–] FooBarrington 2 points 4 days ago

So lore-wise it's not supposed to be possible, but that one room does indeed have moving portals. The explanation is supposedly that portals disappear when the object they are on is accelerated.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

In Portal 2 there was a section with moving plates, but only one portal could be on them.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Create infinite energy machine

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[–] SatansMaggotyCumFart 21 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I’ve always wanted to fuck my own ass.

[–] ThePantser 23 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Won't work, as you thrust your ass will pull away. Only way I could think of is having the portals on platforms that would move with you.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I appreciate your in depth analysis of this situation.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The good answer is to create some kind of perpetual motion machine.

The cool answer is to create some kind of roller coaster that just keeps going and going

The fun answer is to create some chaos. Put one behind a door or something and the other in some unexpected place.

[–] dukeofdummies 2 points 4 days ago

Oh, see I was thinking a portal on the ISS, but absolutely you could place one against the other, plop in a MASSIVE pole with teeth to match a gear, and just constantly generate power.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Take advantage of the free energy and build a power plant around it.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Like, I can only shoot two portals ever? Single-use would imply only being able to shoot one portal, but that doesn't seem very useful.

Also wasn't portal travel hella toxic? To the point that it killed Cave Johnson? I sure as hell won't be using it to save time on my commute or anything.

I think I'd have to use it for violence, like sending a war criminal off a large building, but you couldn't even really have fun with it. Everyone fantasizes about launching a billionaire straight into space, but you'd need multiple portals to get them into a situation where they're building momentum first.

Also, if there's no material emancipation grids, are the portals just there forever? The portal gun doesn't have an off switch or a way to deactivate existing portals.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Portal travel isn't toxic. However, ground up moon rocks, which are an almost perfect portal conductor, are very bad for you.

[–] Zahille7 17 points 6 days ago (1 children)

"The bean counters told me we literally didn't have $7 to buy moon rocks with, let alone $70 million. Bought 'em anyway! Ground them up, mixed them into a gel. And guess what? Ground up moon rocks are pure poison!"

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 6 days ago

I didn't think it was portal travel that killed him, it was breathing in the moon dust

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Best use would be to get two steel plates or something, of apropriate dimensions for portals and shoot them there. Now I have two portals I can move as I please and where I please

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago (3 children)

In the game if a wall moved the portal would evaporate.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Read the instructions.
Sell it to a space agency that promises it to use it as a wormhole.

It needs to be aimed at our moon (Selene) and an exo-dwarf planet.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

shoot one portal in my bathroom. Carry the emergency bathroom gun everywhere just in case. No emergency will ever actually be important enough to use it but the peace of mind is always there...

[–] MTK 8 points 5 days ago (2 children)

One on my butt, one in the toilet, never need to poop again!

Bonus points if someone finds the toilet πŸ˜‰

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I would think about buying a house out in the middle of nowhere and link up a closet with one in my house. Free extra square feet in my house.

Realistically, I'd link up my house with a family member's house that we need to fly to.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 6 days ago

Your houses would become an extremely valuable trade route.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Reverse engineer it

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