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Stargate Dialing
As any fan of the Stargate franchise knows, from the movie in 1994 we know that the dialing of a Stargate is 6 symbols represented by constellations which pinpoint a destination of travel. The movie makes it clear that this is because to travel anywhere in 3D space we need 6 points forming a crosshairs and a 7th point that is a point of origin.
The Math
Mathematically this isn't exactly true. To travel anywhere in 3D space you need actually 3 to 4 things depending on your coordinate system. Most people are familiar with Cartesian Coordinate System, this is what schools use. There are 2 points needed for Cartesian coordinates (x, y, and z) for origin and (x, y, and z) for destination.
More common for navigation is instead a spherical coordinate system, in airplanes and and water craft it's actually a Polar Coordinate System, where you only need to know 2 things to travel anywhere in 2D space (airplanes and ships at sea don't use 3D coordinates as they plot courses based on points on the surface of the Earth). In Polar Coordinates you just need a bearing and distance (r, θ) where r is distance from your starting position and θ is the angle from your starting position (usually facing North is 0), starting at the direction one is currently facing as 0.
Watch a TV show or movie that shows courses being plotted, one can see a distance being measured with a tool called a compass (not to be confused with the way of finding North). This measures exact distance on a map from one point to another. The angle is measured with a protractor and the help of a compass (the kind that finds North).
Using North as 0 degrees one can then use Polar Coordinates to plot any course in 2D space. Pilots in aircraft also communicate their "flight level" (altitude) and submarines communicate their depth but these aren't used to plot their course from point A to B on the map.
Stargate Image Source
The images for the Hermod Gate are taken from a blog post by David Gian-Cursio on his web site from July of 2021. The author has different versions of the 3D mesh available at the link above. It is excellent work and I take no credit for the awesome job creating this object digitally.
The active gate image comes from the Stargate Wiki and the image of the wormhole without a gate comes from a stock image site.