How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

[Boreas]

Were you ever sitting there and gone "Hmm, How just did they come up with the name 'Half-Life'?" Because i have. And my 10th grade biology teacher gave me the answer today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half-life

In Radioactive Terms, a "Half-Life" is the term used for the amount of time it takes for the radioactive Isotopes in an object to deplete to half. Its literal definition is the basic depletion of 1/2 of a quantities initial value. So, if i had ice cream cones out and i recorded the amount of time it took people to eat half of them, that amount of time would be the "Half-Life" of the ice cream cones being uneaten. We learned about it as we were learning evolution, seeing as Radioactive Dating is the act of determining the amount of half-life's in an objects isotopes to defer age of something.

Now you may be asking "Well, WTF does Radioactive Isotopes have to do with the computer game?". Well, im not exactly sure lol. As the story goes, he is a scientist at black mesa, and he is needed to conduct an experiment. Evidently all those years at MIT havent gone to waste as his job is to push a specimen (A Xen Crystal) in a laser for analysis and so forth. When this happens, he creates a phenomena called a "Resonance Cascade", which opens a portal to the world of Xen. Im not exactly sure what the literal term "Half-life" has to do with all this, but being as they are dealing with a most likely radioactive material, half-life is the most badass of choices for a name.

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

You're 15 and only just learned what half life means? And from a biology teacher?

All of the Half Life series games have physics related names; Opposing force (Mechanics) and Blue Shift (Astronomy).

[Mo0by]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

We leant that shizz at GCSE.

[Oli]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

You're 15 and only just learned what half life means? And from a biology teacher?

All of the Half Life series games have physics related names; Opposing force (Mechanics) and Blue Shift (Astronomy).

What would you suggest that those names have to do with the games?

Opposing force, one of Newtons laws, suggests some sort of game from the perspective of the enemy or "other team".

Blue shift, in astronomical terms suggests the contraction of the universe/or other galaxies, planets, etc approaching a certain place. Now who wants to suggest what that has to do with this expansion.


And all of this and I have never played the Half Life expansions.

[Boreas]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

You're 15 and only just learned what half life means? And from a biology teacher?

Im sorry, Our curriculum doesnt have Radioactive Dating, And Isotopes until sophomore year lmao. We are starting Evolution and she just mentioned it.

[Flt. Sgt. Powderhound]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

What would you suggest that those names have to do with the games?

Opposing force, one of Newtons laws, suggests some sort of game from the perspective of the enemy or "other team".

Blue shift, in astronomical terms suggests the contraction of the universe/or other galaxies, planets, etc approaching a certain place. Now who wants to suggest what that has to do with this expansion.


And all of this and I have never played the Half Life expansions.

In Opposing Force, you play as a marine who's sent in to mop up the scientists. In Blue Shift, you play as a (blue) security guard. Yeah, OK, the last one is a bit tenuous.

Also, the another expansion pack was called Decay.

EDIT: Wikipedia reveals that the security guard you play as is assigned to the blue shift.

[CaptainKirk]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

I think I learned about radioactive decay in elementary school, but definitely in 6th grade, then again in 8th.

[n00bhaus3r]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

Haha. Yeah. I remember going to the library when I was a little kiddie and reading a book about nuke reactors. I suppose you'd learn it in Biology with carbon dating and what-not. I mean, a bio class without any mention of radioactive dating? Rubbish!

@Kirk, I guess that means I learned it in 6th and 8th grade, too. lol.

[KillerStickMan]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

Meh, I never learned about it until sometime in high school. I never found it interesting at all really, and it's not like it's important to any general topics.

[jesus]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

I learned about it for the first time this year (grade 12) in math class lol

[Boreas]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

Meh, I never learned about it until sometime in high school. I never found it interesting at all really, and it's not like it's important to any general topics.

Yea, i dont find radioactive dating interesting at all , but the connection kinda tickled my insides.

[KillerStickMan]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

Yea, i dont find radioactive dating interesting at all , but the connection kinda tickled my insides.

In case you were wondering the Half-Life symbol (lambda) stands for the constant of radioactive decay.

[MrChris_CJ]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

Opposing Force was awesome

Sheppard needs to be in one of the next half life games

he needs his own episode!

[Kylee!]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

I vaguely remember learning this sometime...

I remember thinking the scientific meaning had nothing to do with the game, and thinking that the game was referring to the term in a more literal sense than anything else.

[CptainCrunch]

Re: How did the name "Half-Life" come to be?

:shakehead: At 15 I was learning how to cut isotopes. Man, times have changed.

I was taking introduction to chemistry, thinking that I would like chemistry classes, but apparently intro to chem doesnt let you take chemistry, you have to take chem 1, so I had to take biology and that class was BAD.

Now you know :wee:

Crunch