not just an A

head_crabs

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i was playing HL2 yesterday and i see the A symbols all over. i never knew what they stand for. i found out they are called lambdas. im sure most of you knew that. so i looked up the word lambda and got the symbol like the one in the game. its greek i found it means a few things. First of all, it represents scales, and thus balance. The Greeks considered balance to be the constant adjustment necessary to keep opposing forces from overcoming each other. sounds sort of like the game.To the Spartans, the lambda meant unity. They felt that society should never infringe on anyone's individuality and freedom. The Romans adopted the letter to represent `the light of knowledge shed into the darkness of ignorance.' Finally, in physics the symbol designates an energy exchange. Thus the lambda, with all its meanings. and here is the gay part. especially apt symbol for the gay liberation movement, which energetically seeks a balance in society and which strives through enlightenment to secure equal rights for homosexual people." now gays are fine but that has nothing to do with the rest of its meaning.
 
Play Half-Life 1 to really find why the lamba symbol's all over. But those other meanings are interresting though (well, except the gay one :p)
 
Cool research, but I think it's known that they simply chose the lambda as a symbol for Half-Life because it is scientific and looks cool. But it is so much more fun to search for literary significance.
 
Is it safe to admit I already knew the gay meaning of the lambda symbol?
Maybe I should very quickly add I learned it from these forums :rolling:
Well those guys in the lambda labs, you know how they get at parties...
 
It means half-life, the time taken to half a Radioadical substance and half that half to an half and half that to an half and half etece teetecetecc etc. Usefull way to find out age of Bones.
 
what does that mean??? are you for real. its LAMBDA. i gave the true meanings of LAMBDA
 
The Lambda symbol is used in physics as part of the wave equation represnting wavelength. V = fλ I think.
It's also part of the equation used to find the Half-Life of a material, the half-life being the time it takes for half the particles in a molecule of the material to be lost. I don't know the exact equation but I know it's part of it.
 
AJ Rimmer said:
Is it safe to admit I already knew the gay meaning of the lambda symbol?

Wasn't that posted here like 1-2 weeks ago?
 
Lambda was the name of the research facility doing teleporation experiments in halflife 1.

Do you mean Black mesa??
 
No, there was a section in Black Mesa called the Lambda complex. From what I've seen, they seemed to be the ones who developed the teleportation and made the initial links with Xen. Nearly the whole first game is spent trying to get to the Lambda complex so you can teleport to Xen and kill Nihilanth.
 
Yeah lambda information has been mentioned several times before with all those links used before. And for the reference, its not just an 'A' its actually the greek letter for 'L' so in fact the title spells 'H L L F - L I F E 2' So it never really made sense there.
 
head_crabs said:
and here is the gay part.
AHA! I knew it all along! Gordon Freeman, in his tight orange spandex.... with a GAY Lambda right smack in the middle.....
omg Gordon's ghey!!
I knew there was something odd about having to "use" barney to get him to follow you. :LOL:
 
i cant belive i didnt know about the area in HL1 called lambda. i dont know how i forgot but i had to know it at one time
 
No lambs were harmed during the making of this thread.

Yeah I had to say it, **** you if you think it's retarded.
 
Pesmerga said:
No lambs were harmed during the making of this thread.

Yeah I had to say it, **** you if you think it's retarded.
Silence of the Lambda scientists.
 
So HL2 is, in fact, a rebellion to defeat the oppressive homophobists and to bring homosexual liberation to the world, thusly defeating a universally-wide predjuice society of multi-dimensional straight beings? Well, that doesn't happen everyday :LOL:.
 
The lambda symbol thing is the scientific symbol for wavelength in physics. :)
 
It's amazing how many things can be interpreted in gazzillion ways in Half-Life, makes you think if it was intentional. Like if Valve meant for us to be goin' Half-Nuts trying to figure every little detail out. At which they succeeded admirably if it was.
 
Unimita said:
So HL2 is, in fact, a rebellion to defeat the oppressive homophobists and to bring homosexual liberation to the world, thusly defeating a universally-wide predjuice society of multi-dimensional straight beings? Well, that doesn't happen everyday :LOL:.


Did anybody tell EMINEM??? :)
 
jus forget bout this lambda stuff. the "A" looks cool and thats that
 
[De-rail alert]

et nunc regis intelligitis erudimini qui judicatis terram.

Amo
Amas
Amatit
Again

*chortle*

The letter Lambda also looks very similar to the logo adopted by Britains own "Aphex Twin"

I think the whole Lambda symbol on the case of the game is simply a visual pun.
 
It's not an "A". It is used in nuclear physics, and is the Greek letter for L. So really, it'd be HLLF Life instead of Half Life :p
 
Hectic Glenn said:
Yeah lambda information has been mentioned several times before with all those links used before. And for the reference, its not just an 'A' its actually the greek letter for 'L' so in fact the title spells 'H L L F - L I F E 2' So it never really made sense there.
Thanks for reading my post on the first page einstein!
 
The_Wookie said:
[De-rail alert]
The letter Lambda also looks very similar to the logo adopted by Britains own "Aphex Twin"
See my avatar :)
 
Yarr, that be the one.

Man I am soooooo drunk :)

I need to replace my Aphex Twin stuff, my ex smashed all my records and CDs to smithereens when she wanted to get rid of me. :-(

Oh and G0|2d0|\| F|233/\/\4|\| 4 +3|-| \/\/1|\| !!!11!!1!one!!11!
 
Actually, Lambda is also the symbol for wavelength... and resonance. I think.
 
Well, they used that "A" symbols as a symbol of the upcoming revolution... I think.
 
Ravioli said:
It means half-life, the time taken to half a Radioadical substance and half that half to an half and half that to an half and half etece teetecetecc etc. Usefull way to find out age of Bones.

^^^^^^
 
a lamba is an H in another language. they used it as an a, because i looks like an A!
 
kinda off topic, but theres a shadow near my railing outside, and its the shape of a lambda symbol, ill get an image of it some time
 
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