The definition of Half-Life

[Piecemak3r]

quote:
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Originally posted by vetebulle
Because you can't predict the full time.

Dont ask me why, I haven't gotten to that course yet.
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and the only reason we arent given Total Decay Times is because you need to know the amount of material present to be decayed. If you have 1kg of a material it will take much longer to decay than 1g of a material. Half-Life is supposed to be an overall representation for the DECAY RATE of the material.....I.E. on peridodic table we give atomic mass...they cant give the mass for what your waying because they DONT KNOW how much you are weighing. Make sense?

 

[Logic]

Originally posted by Piecemak3r
and the only reason we arent given Total Decay Times is because you need to know the amount of material present to be decayed. If you have 1kg of a material it will take much longer to decay than 1g of a material. Half-Life is supposed to be an overall representation for the DECAY RATE of the material.....I.E. on peridodic table we give atomic mass...they cant give the mass for what your waying because they DONT KNOW how much you are weighing. Make sense?

Good point. I feel stupid now for not realizing that, it's really obvious :cheese:

Edit: btw to quote, just hit the "quote" button under the post you want to quote, then use the page that comes up to post your reply.

 

[RakuraiTenjin]

Originally posted by Ares
I don't know physics (and I wish I did, makes me wanna switch majors) but why use a half-life instead of the full time it takes for a radioactive element to decay? What's so significant about the half way mark?

Radioactivity never fully goes away, thus there is no full mark, must use the half life (It's easier tha using like a 3/4 mark or something dumb)

 

[JonTheCanuck]

why did they name their game half-life? i dont see any relevance with the definition to the game.... this has always puzzled me... i've been aware of what half-life actually meant since gr 10 (graduated now) but still have no idea as to why they called it that

 

[InsertNameHere]

I took this from city-17.net, kudos to mooreburg for finding it all out:

Using the Merriam Webster online dictionary gives some definations other than what is immediately associated with a word.

The noun form of "combine" for instance:

Quote:
Main Entry: 2com·bine
Pronunciation: 'käm-"bIn
Function: noun
Date: 1886
1 : a combination especially of business or political interests
2 : a harvesting machine that heads, threshes, and cleans grain while moving over a field


"Half-Life" is always associated with the amount of time it takes for half the atoms of a radioactive substance to disintegrate. However, it looks like another definition could apply to what we've so far about City 17:

Quote:
2 : a period of usefulness or popularity preceding decline or obsolescence <slang usually has a short half-life>


The period of time that the combine spends in City 17 could be considered it's "Half-Life" using that definition of the word. The Combine will be there as long as City 17 is "useful" and obviously after it's done, City 17 will be "obsolete." It's already mentioned in the very minimal details we've received about the game that Earth's populace is dwindling, and its "resources depleted." Perhaps there is something in City 17 that is vital to whatever the Combine's ultimate objective is. As I mentioned, in one of the screenshots, Combine soldiers have humans lined up against a wall as if just to keep them under control. It doesn't seem like killing humans is their ultimate goal, unless ofcourse someone like Gordon comes along and attempts to fight them.

It was mentioned in the E3 commentary by a Valve employee during the "Traptown" sequence that Father Gregory, a "survivalist monk" set up traps for Gordon to use. There's the convential use of the word, which is someone who can enter an environment, and use their own abilities and the items immediately at hand to live.

There's also another interesting connotation of the word:

Quote:
Main Entry: sur·viv·al·ist
Pronunciation: -v&-list
Function: noun
Date: 1970
: one who views survival as a primary objective; especially : one who has prepared to survive in the anarchy of an anticipated breakdown of society


It would be somewhat strange for a scientist and a monk to be closely knit given how different their world view and explanation of major events would be. Perhaps "Father Gregory" is someone Gordon met inbetween the Black Mesa incident and his arrival at City 17. A relgious person's seemingly apocolyptic view of events could start to seem "not so crazy" after something like the Black Mesa incident.

A guess as to which "Eastern European" country this may take place in:

Quote:
Main Entry: xen-
Variant(s): or xeno-
Function: combining form
Etymology: Late Latin, from Greek, from xenos stranger, guest, host
1 : guest : foreigner <xenophobia>
2 : strange : foreign <xenolith>


In the Kleiner lab sequence video, Alyx mentions that what they are working on is her "first real hope of striking back at the combine." This suggests that she has been fighting against it, or fleeing from it for some time. This is not her first encounter with it, as it presumably is for Gordon.

Dr. Kleiner mentions the "Hilbert Inclusive" while working on this computer just before the scanners show up. There is something in computational geometry known as the "Hilbert Space Filling Curve."

In this analysis of it, an interesting example is mentioned, which is the heuristic traveling salesman that visits cities in a linear, predetermined fashion.

About the Traveling Salesman Problem:

Quote:
A travelling salesman is to visit a number of cities; how to plan the trip so every city is visited once and just once and the whole trip is as short as possible?

The problem is old and still unsolved. It's clear that some of all possible trips has to be the shortest (there might be more than one beeing equally short), but at the present no other method is known but to calculate all possible tours. And the number of trips grows very rapidly with the number of cities - and eventually the computation of the trips overwhelms any computer.


A combine that visits all of Earth's cities once, and just once could be a heuristic traveling salesman. An alien presence that is attempting to pillage Earth of its resources would want to do so in the least amount of time as possible. It's pretty much speculated that City 17 is the last city on Earth with any practical value to the combine. It's also Gordon's first and only stop since this harvesting of Earth began, while he was off doing whatever the hell the G-Man had hired him to do.

However, another aspect of the Traveling Salesman is that he comes back to the starting city. If City 17 is the last City with any worthwhile resources, than where is the city that the combine started in and would have to go back to upon completion? My guess - Anytown, New Mexico, where research was continued after the Black Mesa incident.

 

[VoidWraith]

I doubt it has any relevance other than the fact that its related to science, and the main character is a scientist. Just like Blue Shift doesn't involve interstellar distances... Its just a catchy title, with a bit of a pun involved.

 

[InsertNameHere]

Half-Life of the Black Mesa incident....how many years have passed between HL and HL2? Maybe they mention how many people are still alive. Living people = radioactivity in the metaphor.

And please, take the time to read my previous post, quoted from Mooreburg. It explains everything a lot better than anyone has so far.

 

[VoidWraith]

I'm sticking with my belief that its pretty irrelevant. Things like Xen and the Combine are named that for two reasons. However, I don't see the relevance of the travelling salesman bit at all.

 

[Thadius Dean]

lambda is also means gay...

so if there is a fraternity (sp?) with the lambda symbol in it it means that its a fraternity for gay people

and no im not trying to be funny, its just a fact i picked up in a book.

but im sure that has nothing to do with half-life

 

[InsertNameHere]

Hmm....are you sure about that?

 

[Pressure]

Its kinda like the post where people say "HEY I FOUND OUT THAT THE HL LOGO IS A REAL THING!!! ITS LAMBDA!!!!!! OMGZZZZZZZ!!!!!"

Half-Life is a simple concept that even three year old know about :/

 

[PSX]

I saw something that explaining in some detail the resemblance that Half-Life has to do with the game; I'll see if I can dig it up

edit:

okay, perhaps not in much detail, but here's what I found

Half-life also refers to semi-sentient beings. This is something which acts independently, responds to stimuli and consumes nutrients, but does not act with thought as a Human or an animal might. Most insects live out half-lifes, as do the less intelligent animals (such as small fish). The sierra game Half-life is appropriately titled because the creatures which you combat live out Half-lifes.

double edit:

lol...

If one were to hook up a device witch detects radiation emissions to some cyanide and thow the whole mess in a box with a cat, one could get something very interesting.

 

[Wesisapie]

lambda is mainly used for wavelength.

also, a guy asked why they don't measure the time for all the mass to disappear. because, that never happens.

imagine:

you start with a whole.
you take away a half
you then take away half of a half.
and so on.

you will never get zero.

paradox UP IN YO HIZZAY, BIATCH

 

[PSX]

yes, like explained here

Neither the volume nor the mass of the original sample visibly decreases, however, because the unstable cobalt-60 nuclei decay into stable nickel-60 nuclei, which remain with the still-undecayed cobalt-60.

 

[Narcolepsy]

Originally posted by VoidWraith
I doubt it has any relevance other than the fact that its related to science, and the main character is a scientist. Just like Blue Shift doesn't involve interstellar distances... Its just a catchy title, with a bit of a pun involved.

Ah, so going to Xen isn't an interstellar distance?

 

[FictiousWill]

perhaps not... could it be a temporal one?

 

[RhapSidious]

Originally posted by VoidWraith
I doubt it has any relevance other than the fact that its related to science, and the main character is a scientist. Just like Blue Shift doesn't involve interstellar distances... Its just a catchy title, with a bit of a pun involved.

BLUE SHIFT:
The blue shift is a decrease in the wavelength of the light that is emitted from an object that is moving toward us. This decrease in wavelength makes the object appear to be bluer than it actually is. For example, when a star is travelling towards Earth, its light appears bluer (the light waves are shortened, shortening the wavelength). Compare with red shift.
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All of the Half Life series titles have been scientific puns that fit.

Blue Shift as in the above definition and as in 'boys in blue' (ie. cops)

Opposing Force as in the other side (ie marines) and Newton's law that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

 

[Lucifer Crass]

Red shift is that theory of universal expansion. Kinda cool to think about