I noe how Valve it's Logo for Half-Life

[Prince of China]

I was at school getting bored as usual, so I decided to look at a dictionary to look busy. I stumbled across this Greek part of the dictionary. The Half-Life sign is Greek for Lambda, and in Half-Life, there is a place called Lambda, and I was told Half-Life is a scientific term for a certain kind of...liquid.

 

[DeathScythe]

half-life (hflf, häf-)
n.
Physics. The time required for half the nuclei in a sample of a specific isotopic species to undergo radioactive decay.
Biology.
The time required for half the quantity of a drug or other substance deposited in a living organism to be metabolized or eliminated by normal biological processes. Also called biological half-life.
The time required for the radioactivity of material taken in by a living organism to be reduced to half its initial value by a combination of biological elimination processes and radioactive decay.


Maybe that helps, prolly not though

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Tredoslop
I was at school getting bored as usual, so I decided to look at a dictionary to look busy. I stumbled across this Greek part of the dictionary. The Half-Life sign is Greek for Lambda, and in Half-Life, there is a place called Lambda, and I was told Half-Life is a scientific term for a certain kind of...liquid.

Half-life means the time it takes for 1/2 of a substance to decay. For example, if you have 2 lb of Plutonium, after about 24,000 years you'll have 1lb of Plutonium. The rest will be converted to a different substance or energy.

 

[Xtasy0]

Originally posted by Tredoslop
I was at school getting bored as usual, so I decided to look at a dictionary to look busy. I stumbled across this Greek part of the dictionary. The Half-Life sign is Greek for Lambda, and in Half-Life, there is a place called Lambda, and I was told Half-Life is a scientific term for a certain kind of...liquid.

half life

n : the time required for something to fall to half its initial value (in particular, the time for half the atoms in a radioactive substance to disintegrate)


lambda

\Lamb"da\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?.] 1. The name of the Greek letter [Lambda], [lambda], corresponding with the English letter L, l.

2. (Anat.) The point of junction of the sagittal and lambdoid sutures of the skull.

 

[Wesisapie]

and thus 24,000 years is the half life of plutonium
i remember this stuff was all news to me about 3 years ago too

try to find out what blue shift and opposing forces are.. well opposing forces is kinda obvious.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Wesisapie
and thus 24,000 years is the half life of plutonium
i remember this stuff was all news to me about 3 years ago too

Yeah I actually remember that from my chemistry class in high-school 5 years ago. Chemistry was kind of fun.

 

[Wesisapie]

"i remember this stuff was all news to me about 3 years ago too"

that was directed at Tredoslap... not you LoneDeranger

 

[Spiffae]

blue shift refers to light shifting either red or blue, depending on whether the source is coming towards you or away from you.

it's also known as red shift.

blue shift was probably just a good way to get the color of barney's uniform in when they wanted a cool title.

 

[shibs_himself]

same Wesisapie, I'm surprised this is new to you people. In the game you go to the Lambda labs and when ya get to the entrance for it the Lambda symbol is right there.

Half-Life is just from science class. I can understand this though. Some of us have done our time in science classes already.

 

[Wesisapie]

Yeah i know... i was just giving Tredoslap something to think about.

 

[Gojin]

There was a post just like this a while ago and it spawned like 10 pages of argument. Those were fun times. People began to debate where the name Half-Life came from.

 

[GLMinorThreat]

Yeah the logo for half-life is amazingly... The symbol used to show that you are saying half life... Just like you use a symbol to show that you are saying pi...

 

[Armageddon]

Actually, doesn't the Half Life logo (the lambda) mean wavelength and not half life?

 

[BoS]

Lambda is the symbol for wave length, you are correct on that.
A blue shift is when a star or planet is moving away from us. The wave length of light given off by the star/planet increases in length. A longer wavelength means lower frequency which means slower speeds. Blue light travels slower than red light. Hence, the "blue shift". A half life has already been defined, but I'd just confirm that a half life is the time it takes for any substance to divide in half. Every substance has a different half life, it never changes. It could be miliseconds, or it could be billions of years, depends on the substance.

Everything in HL1 pertains to science. You may remember a level called Surface Tension. This has to do with the torque on a body at any given point, I do believe. I may have mixed that up.

I've taken 2 years of physics thus far, I know most things that I've said. If there's any other levels that sound sciencey, let me know, and I'll try to describe what they are.

 

[Armageddon]

BoS, you wouldn't happen to have taken calculus, would you? If you have, there are some pictures I and the rest of the community would like you to look at...

 

[$pazmatazz]

Originally posted by BoS
Lambda is the symbol for wave length, you are correct on that.
A blue shift is when a star or planet is moving away from us. The wave length of light given off by the star/planet increases in length. A longer wavelength means lower frequency which means slower speeds. Blue light travels slower than red light. Hence, the "blue shift". A half life has already been defined, but I'd just confirm that a half life is the time it takes for any substance to divide in half. Every substance has a different half life, it never changes. It could be miliseconds, or it could be billions of years, depends on the substance.

Everything in HL1 pertains to science. You may remember a level called Surface Tension. This has to do with the torque on a body at any given point, I do believe. I may have mixed that up.

I've taken 2 years of physics thus far, I know most things that I've said. If there's any other levels that sound sciencey, let me know, and I'll try to describe what they are.

I think you're reading into some of it too much. To me, Blue Shift is more like: Blue = Police/Security (thus Barney's job), Shift = His shift of work. In the game it was during his shift that things went awry.

And surface tension seems to refer more to the fact that, you've reached the surface, and there's tension due to the presence of hostiles.

 

[Darkside55]

I think it's a combination of both the scientific terms and also the nonscientific. For those who know scientific terms like what blue shift means (I didn't know this had a scientific meaning), they take it to mean the light of a star or planet as it increases/decreases in distance. For those who don't, they take it to mean blue for the color of Barney's uniform, and shift being his time of duty. There was another thread on this forum that also described "opposing force" as having something to do with magnetism; most people just took it as referring to the military being Gordon's opposition.

Interesting how Valve did these little plays on words for their titles.

 

[BoS]

I understand the way they used the terms in the game. I was just pointing out that it's interesting that almost everything in the game involves some form of chemistry or physics. It's the subtle things that make the game interesting and well thought out. I know they didn't mean blue shift that a star was moving away... OOOOOR... did they? Actually, Blue Shift was kinda goofy, and I don't feel it really tied in well. It was really just HL through someone elses eyes. Same events, different sector. When you think about it though, Barney, our "star" of Blue Shift has moved away from the main people (ie. Freeman and the GMan). He plays his own quest, "moving away" from the main story line. So, maybe they called it Blue Shift so that you WOULD read into it, just as I just have.

BTW... I have taken some calculus based math. Show me the image and ask the question and I'll try and help out in any way I can.

 

[Darkside55]

If the term "blue shift" refers to the light of a star or planet as it moves, perhaps the title was referring to the world as moving away? As in, reality moving away from the characters in-game, since the events are almost surreal?

Or maybe it means the way the world used to be was moving away, since the world has been changed by the time HL2 comes along? There's a ton of ways this could be read into...hmm...perhaps another planet was moving closer? Wouldn't that be red shift, though?

 

[Armageddon]

The calculus equations in question are here , BoS. Scroll down the page a bit. Gabe has said that these equations are in some way relevant to HL2's plot, so we'd like to know what they mean.

They aren't of particularly stunning quality but that should all change when the streaming E3 demo footage is released. When it is, go to 22:21 (possibly a different time if VALVe alters the video) and watch the movie frame by frame. Some equations and other stuff will speed by.

 

[Wesisapie]

I don't think it actually has anything to do with it, apart from the fact that it is cool when you find out that "Blue Shift" or whatever actually means something.

Other things that meant something were Surface Tension, as that guy said which is to do with the amount of pressure a surface (eg water) can sustain before the skin breaks.

And like i said in another post "opposing forces" is like with magnets, same poles = opposing forces.

Some other little things are "Office Complex" .... could be because it was a pretty complex level, and "apprehension"s double meaning... (ie you could be apprehensive, or apprehended)

In blue shift "Focal Point" is something you'll learn if you do mirrors and lenses in physics.

In op4, "crush depth" is the depth in water you can go before you get crushed, i guess.

 

[Slash]

rofl

 

[Wesisapie]

if you think these things are all coincidence, you are clearly mistaken. especially seeing as how most valve employees would be interested in physics and science and so on, and their love for "valves" and stuff like that (see screenshot with lots of machines)

 

[Phisionary]

Originally posted by BoS
A blue shift is when a star or planet is moving away from us. The wave length of light given off by the star/planet increases in length. A longer wavelength means lower frequency which means slower speeds. Blue light travels slower than red light. Hence, the "blue shift".

Um... does anybody else have a problem with this? I could be wrong (Although I'm pretty damn sure I'm not), but it should be the other way around.

[rant value=physics: primer of, and correctness in]

It's not hard to figure out if you know anything about waves or light spectrums... Visible light covers the full gradient of the electromagnetic spectrum that we (as humans) can see with our eyes. Blue (sometimes violet is used) is at one extreme, red is at the other. Violet is a higher frequency than red. At still higher frequencies, is ultraviolet, then x-ray, than gamma rays (note that these are mainly categorical seperations, and that the electromagnetic spectrum is a smooth gradiation of all light frequencies possible). Below Red is infra-red, microwave, and radio waves.

Now, to discuss this in the context of redshift, and relative velocity (I. E. as a star of other celestial body moves relative to earth and the Sol system, a measurement that the term 'red-shift' and 'blue-shift' is applied to). This has to do with a physical phenomena called the 'Doppler effect.' We all have seen (or, actually, heard) this effect in atcion.

An example. You're standing by a road. A car drives toward you, past you, and then drives away, at a constant speed (say, 50 mph). As the car is approaching, the sound of the car is somewhat high pitched (like the twelve-year-olds in voice comm mentioned in another thread).

As the car passes you, the sound lowers in pitch. As it drives away, the sound of the car is much deeper than it was when it approached. This is due to the Doppler effect and wave compression.

(At this point I was going to set up some analogies and describe what a waveform was, but this was becoming more and more like a complete primer for wave-based physics. So if you get it you get it and if you don't you don't)

The sound is effectively being compressed during the cars approach, and stretched out as it drives away. this compression effectively increases the frequency (and decreases the wavelength) of the sound wave.

Now, you observe an object (in space) using visible light, and it is moving toward you, at relativistic speeds (relativistic refers to the point at which Einsteins theory of relativity becomes a large factor, read: a significant fraction of the speed of light. Light (in a vacuum) travels at 300,000 kilometers per second).

If it's moving toward you, and the speed of the wave connot change (which is true of light and sound waves, in a particular medium and environment. Note that this is another error in the referanced post.), then the wave must be squeezed, and the frequency increased. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength. Something that looked white will have a shift in it's observed spectrum. It will become more blue. Blue shift.

Something moving away at a few million miles an hour will be observed as being more red. This measurement is used in cosmology (the studio of the cosmos, or the universe) as evidence that the universe is expanding. On an intergalactic scale, if we look in any direction, we will see objects that have red-shift. If everything is moving away from us, then the universe is expanding.

If this error was a typo, well.... sorry i bored you with this little Wave physics 101 thing here. I just figure that if we are going to make a lot of metaphorical connections between half-life (the game i mean) and the science it's based on, it should be correct science at least.

[/rant]

So: Red-shift, coming toward you. Blue shift, away from you. Light, doesn't change speed, regardless of spectrum.

Hmm... long enough i think, now...

-Phision

 

[BoS]

Light moves at 3 x 10^8 (10 to the power of 8), in a vacuum. In any other medium, speeds can change, which is why white light is able to be broken up. Different colors travel a different speeds. If white light travels through a prism, you see a rainbow, correct? This is because the different frequencies travel at diffrent speeds through glass.

Outer space, is considered a vacuum, light travels at it's constant speed as we all know it. Blue Shift takes place on Earth though, so... blah blah... what I've already said. Oh, blue shift, red shift... cars going by, this is known as the Doppler Effect . Yes, this is how the doppler radar works. Waves coming into the radar are different than waves moving away from the radar. It could be light or sound.

Anyway, after looking at the equation, that is advanced physics equation, not really calculus. The guy that was describing what it meant was on the right track.

The letter "c" is in the equation, this letter in physics describes the speed of light. Everything in that equation is some type of constant. Except for "x" which in most physics problems, represents distance. I'm not sure what the delta and the meu represent (the d and the u looking things). What I can say is that the bottom of the second part of that equation, they're multiplying the speed of light times "time" squared.

Right now I just had a brain fart for the simple equation for acceleration... but I can tell you that, that equation is talking about the acceleration of light. If I knew what the delta was representing, I could figure out some more.

Why would Valve want to divide by the acceleration of Light? Maybe the equation has to do with traveling at the speed of light, or perhaps time travel. Nothing is faster than the speed of light, but now they're dividing by the speed of light, squared. So maybe that means they've got something that breaks the boundaries of physics, and travels faster? I don't have any idea... but it's damn interesting.

PS. I'm only 18 and I just graduated from high school. I'm going to college for engineering and I'll be taking more calc and physics. Bare with me and my facts. If you can fill in my blanks, please do so. I'm doing the best I can to help out here with the ideas.

 

[MoJo|Night]

I havn't read the last 2 replies but doppler effect does alter the wavelength of radiation in question(in this case the light waves) relative to the observer, it does not effect the speed at which it travels. Electromagnetic waves all travel at the same speed depending on which medium they are in. Little thing called the speed of light, you might have heard of it ;-)

Would you believe I actually have a physics degree from university? Completely forgotten the lot in the years since, which is why I now make websites for a living

 

[Kamakazie]

aye.
the half-life name and the lambda sign are kind of a bit confusing. i rekon they chose the name half-life because of the radiactive "anomalous" material used in the very beginning and then the lambda sign partly because of the bunker but also because the half-life is to do with radioactive decay (as ppl have pointed out) which is where the mass of a body of a radioactive material is given off through radiation which is a wave and therefor has a wavelength which is the stated as lambda.

just a thought on how they connect exactly....... dunno. i always thought that a wavelength sign used in a game called Half-Life but hey....... it works

Kam

 

[shibs_himself]

mojo, do you have a portfolio site?

 

[Escher0]

been a lurker for a while, finally registered, anyway.

never realized till recently, but all the title have to do with science. (Some of this has been mentioned)

Half-Life - describes breakdown of unstable materials
Opposing Forces - two forces opposite in direction that cancel each other out
Blue Shift - the color or "Doppler" shift of moving objects
Surface Tension - the force that holds the surface of liquids together (ever notice you can fill a glass a little above the rim? thats surface tension)
Lambda - a Greek letter used to symbolize wavelength

I'm sure there are others, if you think of any possible ones, post it and I'll tell you if I've heard of it. Btw, I'm an engineering major in college. Well, actually, right now I'm at work, but you know what I mean.

edit:forgot Lambda

 

[Belisarius]

I thought the half-life of plutonium was only 35 years and then half of it would turn to lead.

 

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Belisarius
I thought the half-life of plutonium was only 35 years and then half of it would turn to lead.

More like 25,000

 

[Lupus]

Just finished a degree doing physics and biology, beware what you are getting into BoS hehe. Yeah you were along the right lines in your first post, but someone else just straightened that out a bit. I have always been confused by the association of half life and lambda in this game as others have also mentioned, perhaps there is a relation and I just forgot about it (each lecture I went to pushed another lecture out of my brain). Can't quite figure out the connection of radiactive decay and the wavelength of light. Though I guess the explanation would be: it's a game, so stop thinking too hard.

 

[Prince of China]

Wow, I got a science lesson and I'm not even in high school yet.

 

[BoS]

Like I said, I'm only 18, just finished high school, I admit, I'm no physicist. I'm going to college to major in mechanical engineering. There's plenty of physics involved in that though, so, I'm sure I'll have at least another 2 years under my belt. Then Half Life will make more sense. Wish me luck! If any of you know of Binghamton University in NY... that's where I'm going. Great engineering school for a SUNY.

 

[pinkerton]

half-life is the amount of time it takes for a sample of radioactive material to reduse it's self to half of what it was. Of corse, im sure this was answered like 20 times before i did, but i was too lazy to read everyones post.

 

[pinkerton]

Alright, just to add some uneeded info :

The half-life of carbon13, which is used to date fossiles, is about 6,000 years i belive (not sure exactly, I'm crazy and didnt pay enough attetion in biology) so that dateing anything older useing radioactive dateing methods (they scan for remaining amounts of c13 in the fossiles/objects, the amoust tells them how old it is) is impossible. The way we date older objects is by the use of relative dating, where we just say its that old because of how deep in the soil it is. If i am wrong about any of this and you know it, tell us please.

 

[Prince of China]

Originally posted by BoS
Like I said, I'm only 18, just finished high school, I admit, I'm no physicist. I'm going to college to major in mechanical engineering. There's plenty of physics involved in that though, so, I'm sure I'll have at least another 2 years under my belt. Then Half Life will make more sense. Wish me luck! If any of you know of Binghamton University in NY... that's where I'm going. Great engineering school for a SUNY.

K, good luck on your college year(s)...maybe you can answer more questions about HL.