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The wonderful thing about Portal is that even though the player is given several physics-defying tools, Valve tries very hard to make sure that the basic principles of Newtonian mechanics are followed wherever possible. In this feature, we briefly examine a few topics in physics that pertain to what will be one of this year's most beloved video games, Portal 2.

The Portal: Neither Here Nor There

We clearly don't have the technology to create a portal gun. Even if we did, it would be a more primitive form of teleportation. Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku believes that in the future, we will be able to teleport water molecules to the moon as scientists have already been able to teleport atoms of simple elements from one place to another. Unfortunately, this type of teleportation requires destroying the original copy of something, sending information about this object's make-up somewhere else, and re-building it from scratch. This would be very sketchy for humans considering the number of cells (and within them, atoms) that make up a human body.

The teleportation technology in Portal lies way beyond our means (for now) and is deeply embedded in the realm of science fiction. When you think about how you've interacted with portals in the game, you have to appreciate how the folks at Valve give Isaac Newton a nod in their attempt to stay true to classical mechanics - that is, once you get by that first big " hump, "the portals themselves.

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