Lambda?

[ankalar]

Why is the symbol for Half Life the Greek letter lambda? I have not actually played Half Life (don't shoot me :o) but I did not think it had anything to do with light or wavelengths...

[Direwolf]

Because of the role that the lambda complex has in the game I'd guess.
*Bang*

[Elite Suspect]

Lambda stands for half life. You'll learn it in physics or math.

[LoneDeranger]

Lambda is the symbol for gay pride ...

I'm not sure how that figures in the game.

[Dhoco X]

Chosen by New York Gay Activist Alliance in 1970 as symbol of the movement gay, the Lambda is a Greek letter who is equivalent at "L".

A flag of war with loviLambda was spread by a squad of Greek loving warriors, older than they were folloied to the battle for its young ones and demonstrated to its random and desire to fight until the death.

This symbol also was chosen by the International Congress of Gays Rights that aconteceum in Edinburgo, Escócia in 1974. Today the Lambda is considered a symbol of the rights of gays and lesbians.

Suck hu ?

[Impute]

Originally posted by Elite Suspect
Lambda stands for half life. You'll learn it in physics or math.

Wow.. you must have obviosuly not been there that day.

[Veritas_]

Yeah, what does it have to do with light and wavelengths?

[GhostValkyrie]

Lambda is actually the symbol for Wavelength.

Hmmm...I wonder when gays will adopt the BioHazard symbol...maybe after people forget what it really means. (No offense, but Lambda means Wavelength; leave it alone.)

[Impute]

Originally posted by Veritas_
Yeah, what does it have to do with light and wavelengths?

Yup

[Crusader]

Lambda is a symbol for many things, starting with the obvious wavelength, right through to the decay constant of a radioactive material: Half-Life = ln(2) / lambda

[ankalar]

You searched on Google for that. Also, it was probably a placeholder, I believe that it generally known as the symbol for wavelength.

[Crusader]

lol
No, I'm taking advanced level physics :)

[GhostValkyrie]

Originally posted by Crusader
Lambda is a symbol for many things, starting with the obvious wavelength, right through to the decay constant of a radioactive material: Half-Life = ln(2) / lambda

But Lambda isn't the symbol for HL, necessarily. In(2)/lamba... Half-Life is just the result of the equation. Well, I guess you could use Lambda for HL. But it seems careless.

[Crusader]

No, no, that's not what I'm saying, lambda is definitely NOT the symbol for half-life, I was just showing you what the decay constant was. Symbol for Half-Life is usually T1/2 in my books.

[LoneDeranger]

Ok you physics experts, do you have any idea what those equations at the end of the e3 video mean then?

[GhostValkyrie]

Originally posted by Crusader
No, no, that's not what I'm saying, lambda is definitely NOT the symbol for half-life, I was just showing you what the decay constant was. Symbol for Half-Life is usually T1/2 in my books.

Ok, sorry about the misunderstanding.

[Crusader]

No problem, just my dodgy explanation :)

[Washuu]

u learn what actual half-life is, early on in junior high....

[nw909]

Originally posted by LoneDeranger
Ok you physics experts, do you have any idea what those equations at the end of the e3 video mean then?

"9/30 gabe will make you his bitch."

it was written upside down so it looked like equations.

[GhostValkyrie]

Originally posted by nw909
"9/30 gabe will make you his bitch."

it was written upside down so it looked like equations.

Huh...I need to get that video again.

[Gorgon]

No guys all of you are wrong. Sory

The Correct thing is; lambda stands for is A FUNCTION in Eifel Programming Language that used in a wide range of Commercial and graphical application systems, such as database, very low languages of 3d max, and very low langauges of Operating system..etc. I think HL1 low level langauge has been writin in Eifel and one of the Symbole Founder at valve Suggested that Lambda Syble to be used.
thanks. but this is the fact.

[nw909]

Originally posted by G0rgon
No guys all of you are wrong. Sory

The Correct thing is; lambda stands for is A FUNCTION in Eifel Programming Language that used in a wide range of Commercial and graphical application systems, such as database, very low languages of 3d max, and very low langauges of Operating system..etc. I think HL1 low level langauge has been writin in Eifel and one of the Symbole Founder at valve Suggested that Lambda Syble to be used.
thanks. but this is the fact.

HALF-LIFE: the time required for half of the atoms of a radioactive substance to become disintegrated

BLUESHIFT: the displacement of the spectrum of an approaching celestial body toward shorter wavelengths

OPPOSING FORCE: An opposing force

[Crusader]

"OPPOSING FORCE: An opposing force" lol :D

[SupaKoopa]

Originally posted by nw909
"9/30 gabe will make you his bitch."

it was written upside down so it looked like equations.

lol really?

i dont want another daikatana...

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by nw909
OPPOSING FORCE: An opposing force

Genius

[nw909]

Originally posted by LoneDeranger
Genius

Well really, what is there to explain on an opposing force, its an opposing force, haha.

[The Mullinator]

The one thing that I am confused about is why they called the game "Half-Life" I mean maybe it was just an interesting way of using a term in physics that sounds like a good title for a game, but then again there is nothing to actually do with radioactive decay in the game, short of the occasional places of high radio activity that act as obstacles.

Does anyone know if there was some reason behind the title?

[Crusader]

Hmm, yeah... I suppose they just thought it sounded good, because I think in that situation you'd have much less than a half chance of living :P

Or maybe because when you finally crawl out of Black Mesa you'll be half dead and therefore... well, you get the picture ;)

[nw909]

they had to have picked it for the scientific name, afterall gordon works in a secret underground bunker running test on annomoulys materials.

[Chris_D]

Gorgon, you are actually wrong.

What nw909 says is correct. All the names of the HL1 series (excluding the third party Valve games such as DOD and CS) are named after physics / chemistry / science type things.

This has also been confirmed by Valve and he states that "we chose the titles of our games carefully". The fact that all three relate to science isn't just a coincidence.

[nw909]

Well, blue shift is actually a astronomy term but whatever :D

[ankalar]

Wow, this thread sucks now.

[Crusader]

Astronomy/Physics.... hmmm Astronomical Phsyics even...

[Chris_D]

Astrophysics :p

[LoneDeranger]

The names are clever, but I don't think they hold any special meaning as far as the game is concerned.

[razorblade kiss]

They call it Half Life , because for all of those who DIDNT know!... When you play the game and you get down to exactly 50 Health (half of your life, half-life) all the scientists in the game turn into Evil GaBe Newells running around with their hands in the air saying (Faulty Network Security! Faulty Network Security Gordon it's going to kill us all!) Then the walls start changing colors, and the water turns into toxic sludge that forms Teletubbies who spit acid G-men with umbrellas who stab your eyes out, and then your forced to play the remainder of the game in the dark. Cuz you have no eyes. And you cant quit the game, or turn off your computer until you beat the game in the dark, because console has been disabled. And when you reach 50 health a signal is sent to Valve Headquarters who contacts their old pals Microsoft to dispatch secret jibberoo agents to your home to steal your computer's power button, and put an electric force feild around your AC outlet so you cannot unplug your computer. If you guys ever EVER got down to exactly 50 health you would know this. It's hard to get down to 50, most people usually get headcrabbed to 48 or 49. Sometimes even 51, but not 50. It's a rare thing. But anywho glad I could clear things up for yas. :D

[The Mullinator]

o_0 :eek:

[GhostValkyrie]

Originally posted by LoneDeranger
The names are clever, but I don't think they hold any special meaning as far as the game is concerned.

I agree. The only bearing these titles have is that they are scientific terms. Opposing Force only has bearing because you were the enemy, an opposing force. I remember each year of science Hl was mentioned, Blue shift was mentioned in one year, and an Opposing Force was mentioned in two. There aren't even connections between the terms themselves.

[LoneDeranger]

Some other examples:

Headcrab - because it looks like a crab and goes on your head
Nihilath - has to do with Nihilism (go read Matrix theories)
G-Man - government man
Strider - based on the water insect
Biozeminade - ???

[bastard_loud]

Originally posted by razorblade kiss
acid G-men with umbrellas

I remember those.

Scary ;(

[Chris_D]

Gabe Newell: We're pretty careful in how we pick our names.

[marksmanHL2 :)]

lol, where did you get that from Chris?

[Chris_D]

The e-mail he sent me back in August.

[marksmanHL2 :)]

oh right.....


The one where you got the free stuff :D

Or another one. I honestly cant remember at all.

BTW, Gabe still responds to emails. I have send him some for support and he replied. But I wont post them. They have no new info at all. So I doubt you lot will care :P.

[LoneDeranger]

A bit off-topic:

Remember in HL1 intro there were these giant yellow robots carrying things and guys on forklifts? How come we did not see them in the game at all?

[marksmanHL2 :)]

I dunno....


It would have been cool to see stuff like that going on in the background...

Still the best FPS ever made :)

[Asus]

You didnt play Opposing Force then did you?
Early on there is one of those below you and you have to do something in order to continue.

[Chris_D]

You saw one in Oppoisng Force and Blue Shift (I think).

Mark, I got the t-shirt and poster because I exposed to him the fact that the Steam cache files could be read and extracted from. I was the first person to watch the high quality docks video on Steam; before it was released.

Anyway, the e-mail there is one of the 7 replies that I still have from Gabe. Unfortunately I did have more but my e-mail got hacked and deleted aall the e-mails over a 7 week period for some reason.

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Chris_D
You saw one in Oppoisng Force and Blue Shift (I think).

Mark, I got the t-shirt and poster because I exposed to him the fact that the Steam cache files could be read and extracted from. I was the first person to watch the high quality docks video on Steam; before it was released.

LOL cache files. I remember the good old days when hacking got you a free t-shirt not an arrest warrant.

[The Mullinator]

/me sits back and remembers the good old days

Oh ya, in the good old day's the /me command still worked. :dozey:

[Chris_D]

lmao Lone :D

[iamironsam]

Literally, I think the term Half Life was picked for the game because many high level physics laboratories, such as Black Mesa, deal with radioactive isotopes and unstable heavy atoms that decay over time.

Figuratively, the term Half Life could extend to the life expectancy of the character Gordon. Being presented with all the dangers and perils of Half Life the game, one wouldn't normally expect to live all that long.

To calculate the half life of a given sample, you determine the mass of the sample and then sit around and wait till half of the mass of the sample is left. From there you can determine the decay constant, symbolized with a lamba, to extend your findings to any given mass of the sample. Thus the use of the symbol lambda.

[Iconoclast]

...

Or not.

The name Half-Life was clearly chosen simply because it's "scientific" and it sounds cool.

[Gorgon]

Originally posted by LoneDeranger
A bit off-topic:

Remember in HL1 intro there were these giant yellow robots carrying things and guys on forklifts? How come we did not see them in the game at all?

we did in op4 i think.

right?:dozey:

[iamironsam]

Originally posted by Iconoclast
...

Or not.

The name Half-Life was clearly chosen simply because it's "scientific" and it sounds cool.

Blueshift obviously has a dual meaning. It's both the shift in the light spectrum generated by the speed of the stars moving away from us caused by the doppler effect, and also the shift to playing as a security gaurd.

Those connections I made for Half Life aren't that far fetched, and basically are just an extention of your simple "it's "scientific" and it sounds cool" explanation.

[Gorgon]

Well I think my brain need a break after a long working day.

I prefer watching THE MATRIX 1 and 3 live on TV now in 15 MinS.

Yo chris_D Select Channel 5 for THE MATRIX. if you feel the same. jokeing

[ComradeBadger]

Actually, yeah, Sam you are right :) (on both accounts :) )

I got the meaning of the 'Blue Shift' title :D

[iamironsam]

Originally posted by mrBadger
Actually, yeah, Sam you are right :) (on both accounts :) )

I got the meaning of the 'Blue Shift' title :D

See Iconoclast. Nah nah poo poo!

[iamironsam]

Opposing forces is a term that comes up in physics frequently when describing the effect any one given particle has on all the other particles in the universe due to gravity. So basically, the inertia displayed by any object is a result of the opposing forces caused by the gravity effects of every other particle in the universe. It's a little confusing and the term is pretty generic, so I decided to leave that one alone.

[LoneDeranger]

Originally posted by Iconoclast
...

Or not.

The name Half-Life was clearly chosen simply because it's "scientific" and it sounds cool.

Yeah I think that's basically it.

[perrkele]

Weren't they first going to call it "Quiver" instead of Half-Life? I believe I read it in a HL2 interview somewhere. Wonder why they dropped that name...

EDIT: Ahh found it at www.city-17.net:

Storm: Where did the name Half-Life come from?

Gabe Newell: We came up with the name pretty much the same way we make any decisions. Wetried to establish criteria (needed to be evocative of the theme, needed toavoid cliches in the genre, should have a corresponding visual mark, ...) webrain-stormed some ideas, and then picked Half-Life.

The original codename was Quiver.

[FictiousWill]

Because it doesn't sound manly and tough. In fact it sounds flaky and wet.

[The Dark Elf]

there's atleast one other game called Quiver so they might have had to change it cause of that and being confused between the two

[LoneDeranger]

Quiver .. LMAO

I would never buy a game titled like that.

[GhostValkyrie]

I could imagine running into LoneDeranger, at EbGames, 5 years ago:

GV: What the hell is this?

LD: Uhh...Quiver.

GV: What kind of name is that?

LD: Don't know. Sounds gay, if you ask me.

GV: I agree, let's go buy some beer.
:cheers:

[Typhon]

mmm, quivering....

you can take any name and twist it to mean something. Lambda could be like a lambda-expression in LISP, which allows you to have dynamic functions...maybe you (ie Gordon) are a lambda-person, you can adapt to solve anything!!!

Ha, I crack myself up.

[jat]

Originally posted by iamironsam
Blueshift obviously has a dual meaning. It's both the shift in the light spectrum generated by the speed of the stars moving away from us caused by the doppler effect,

Ermm dude, ur wrong, thats called the red shift, I beleive its related to the length of the wave (lambda) which also makes a connection to gamma rays (which has the longest wavelength or something), which also makes a link to researching into deep space (only type of ray we can see from the distance), which ALSO makes a link with aliens.....which links beack to Gordon screwing up!
:P

[Dan]

well technically blueshift is the opposite of red shift (think about it) stuff comming towards you really fast shifts towards the blue end of the spectrum. Anyways I think it also means that you are working a shift (security) in blue (aka blue uniform). Quiver would be kinda stupid, espcially when you compare it to the name Quake, Quiver sounds kinda weak. I remember the name Quake came from some really stupid source that wasn't ever in the game.

[nw909]

GODDAMNIT, QUIVER2 DIDN'T COME OUT ON SEPT30!

OMFG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Typhon]

lol :rolleyes:

[antistructure]

Originally posted by perrkele
The original codename was Quiver.


The Codename was Quiver, games usually have codenames or project names before they have a true name asigned to it. For instance at the moment Black Isle is working on a game, a Project named Van Buren, and it is rumored to be Fallout 3. So as bad a name as Quiver was, im sure it was just a project name.

[Sp00fman]

Lol, Quiver.... sounds like quake. They tried to ride on the fame john carmacs work?

[Sp00fman]

why am i still a headcrab? I'm way to 1337 for that.

must give up my friends and post more on this forum....

[iamironsam]

Originally posted by jat
Ermm dude, ur wrong, thats called the red shift, I beleive its related to the length of the wave (lambda) which also makes a connection to gamma rays (which has the longest wavelength or something), which also makes a link to researching into deep space (only type of ray we can see from the distance), which ALSO makes a link with aliens.....which links beack to Gordon screwing up!
:P

You're right, a red shift is found in the light emitted from stars moving away from us, and a blue shift is found in the light emitted from stars moving towards us. My mistake.

[Stryyder]

Originally posted by jat
Ermm dude, ur wrong, thats called the red shift, I beleive its related to the length of the wave (lambda) which also makes a connection to gamma rays (which has the longest wavelength or something), which also makes a link to researching into deep space (only type of ray we can see from the distance), which ALSO makes a link with aliens.....which links beack to Gordon screwing up!
:P

I love it when people correct someone but they are actually wrong!!!

[jat]

its what i do best :bounce: