>also requesting good half-life wallpapers
have you ever taken a science class?
>>323922603
You really should finish 8th grade physics - this is an adult only website.
>>323923464
nope
>>323923571
sadly my shitty school had really basic physics and that's it, never seen any kind of science since i finished it
>>323923572
How..?
>>323923660
God damn, what is the point of mandatory education if people don't get educated in the process...
Half-life is a physical property of an isotope. Quoting wiki here because I'm lazy as shit:
Half-life (t1⁄2) is the amount of time required for the amount of something to fall to half its initial value. The term is very commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay, but it is also used more generally for discussing any type of exponential decay.
>>323923834
Thank you anon, i just finished the game for the first time and it was amazing, they never say the word ''Half-life" during the entire game so i was wondering
>>323923834
>How...?
They give you like basic physics, ethics, law, lots of subjects without really diving in any of those, they expect you to get what you need out of them in university
>>323924258
I know that my country's education model is not exactly standard, but really: they don't teach basics of what an isotope is and what factors are relevant to it?
We have four years of chemistry (two hours a week) as part of general high-school curriculum, and at least two years in technical higher school curriculum.
I do understand that people who aren't native English speakers don't know what half-life is, because knowing the basic chemistry/physics and knowing it in English is something rather different.
I will admit that as a non-native speaker I've learned the meaning of the term when I was curious about the game's title. But I were taught the phenomena in school, I think all highschools here do that.
>>323923834
Everyone calling OP an idiot.
I know what half-life is, but to answer your question why is simple, GabeN nailed it picking out a cool sounding science word for an action game about a scientist. That's it really. I can't imagine any other reason as to why they chose half life. They could have called it any other science name like vidya does if there's a scifi element. Just throw cool science words around.
>>323923834
>>323923571
The fuck are you talking about
half-life is a direct reference to the total amount of time Gaben have spent eating since the steam launch
Because you'll be waiting half your life for 3 to come out.
>>323925596
>GabeN nailed it picking out a cool sounding science word for an action game about a scientist. That's it really.
Well, Gabe is a guy who worships Borges enough to spend six years trying to figure out how to turn his works into a game, so I would not dismiss the idea of some additional thoughts going into it entirely. But yeah: It's science-sounding and it's associated with decay, which kinda fits the subject matter. There probably isn't anything more to it.
>>323925596
The lambda represents half life, the lambda-complex was the central point of the story initally, and even when the game became larger and longer the significance remained.
Hot off wikipedia:
"Lambda indicates the radioactivity decay constant in nuclear physics and radioactivity. This constant is very simply related (by a multiplicative constant) to the HALF-LIFE of any radioactive material."
>>323923464
>>323923571
>>323923834
Not OP, but even if i know what Half Life means, I have to say that where I live(and in most countries around the world) we literally never study physics to that level at that age(13-14), we only have a very generic science class where the most deep chemistry/physics knowledge we have is knowing the periodic table of elements and knowing their atomic number.
Everything else is only teached if, when in high school, you choose a specific science oriented path to a diploma, otherwise science might not even be studied at all anymore, as example if we pick a classic or a linguistic path.
I'm not saying this shouldnt be teached, just that not knowing it is more common than you think, even for well educated people.
>>323922603
The half life of some elements take ages.
>>323926354
>teached
>>323922603
because it's a ~sciency~ term and it sounded cool
like Doom, or Quake, or something like that
>>323926492
English is not my first language, but you should have guessed that when what i said obviously implied i'm not american.
Stay in school, kids.
>>323926354
I will never understand why American (I assume you are american, right?) highschool education is so incredibly poorly designed. And it's not like they spend less time in school (or that the kids have anything else to do, really).
A model that has specialized classes for biology, physics and chemistry through out the entire highschool (two hours a week donation for each, PLUS additional semi-voluntary courses) has been utilized for a century in central and eastern Europe, and it actually works. And it does not go at the expense of social or liberal studies.
I don't get it. One generic "science" subject is simply not enough.
Maybe the difference is that in the model central Europe has, it's assumed that most highschool students aim for college, and those who don't usually go to more specialized "middle" school, I don't know.
I just don't understand why a country with significantly more money to spend on education would deliberately adopt a clearly inefficient and lackluster model like this.
It's a cool sounding physics term and you play as a physicist in the game. Pretty much everything in the series is a reference to some physics term. Blue Shift, Opposing Force, Gluon gun, Tau cannon, all the level names and soundtrack titles, etc.
You could say there's some double meaning with Gordon and G-man and all that crap, but it's pretty obvious they didn't put that much planning into the story back in the 90's and they've just been making it up as they go.
>>323925959
Yeah decay theme makes sense, I just usually don't read into titles at all. Like it could have been called Quantum Crisis or Anomaly Arc but Half-life sounds the coolest.
>>323927051
It's well known that Murrika, land of the sheep, has very poor education and a horrible horrible school system.
>>323927051
>I assume you are american, right?
No i'm not, and actually in America they're indeed taught what Half Life(and generally more deep physics) is in 8th grade, when they're 13-14 years old, is the majority of the rest of the world that doesnt work like that, and although like you said central and eastern Europe work like that too, not the entire Europe does, sadly.
>>323928017
>It's well known that Murrika, land of the sheep, has very poor education and a horrible horrible ELEMENTARY AND HIGH school system.
Just correcting that. Problems of political and ideological nature aside, even I have to admit America currently most of the worlds best universities. Though I suspect that will change over time.
It's the general education that is a problem in America.
>>323928705
This is the first time I've heard the concept of half-life was taught on american high schools, honestly. Although I have to concede one thing: american high school system is not all that unified, I don't doubt there are some schools that teach that kind of stuff. To my knowledge, they are certainly not the majority.
>>323924150
Interesting fact: They named Blue Shift and because of scientific shit too - blue shift being a decrease in wavelength because of the approaching object has an ever so slightly bluer hue
>>323929401
Mmmm, now i wonder if Opposing Force and Decay are physics terms aswell
>>323930215
Of course they are. Decay is... well, decay, it's actually what the half-life value represents. The transformation of an unstable element into a more stable one. And Opposing Force is from kinetics, it's just any force that goes in an opposite direction of the relevant measured force.
Better question
Why dowe all have to wear these ridiculous ties?
>>323927051
I live in Massachusetts, which has the best schools in the country, and we had specialized classes in highschool. The generic "science" class ended in 8th grade.
>>323930896
State school?
Also, I'm actually kinda glad to hear that. I really need to get off my ass someday and do a solid research on american high school curricula - if for no other reason than to convince myself things aren't as bad as I've been hearing up till this point.
>>323930668
No, Opposing Force is directly a military term. The Opposing Force (OPFOR) is the standard designation for any non-specified military threat. In Opposing Force you're playing from the POV of a HECU marine, one of the main "opposing forces" of the campaign.
>>323931384
That's obviously true and unquestionably the primary intention to convey... but I don't think the fact that opposing force is a common term used in physics as well was entirely irrelevant though.
But what about the wallpapers
>>323922603
>Why is it called Half-Life?
Gee, I don't know! It seems ALL DEAD to me!
DOHOHOHOHO
>>323922603
cause the series will forever remain half completed
because the series' only half completed
>>323932201
>not making your own wallpaper by putting the lambda logo on the center of a black texture and copy-pasting every scientific explanation for the names in this thread including the offtopic discussion about education
Come on now.
>>323931148
>Also, I'm actually kinda glad to hear that. I really need to get off my ass someday and do a solid research on american high school curricula - if for no other reason than to convince myself things aren't as bad as I've been hearing up till this point.
If you're from (I'm pretty sure) any other first world country on the planet, one point you'll probably find very weird but have to understand is that there are ZERO enforceable federal education standards, and the most recent attempt to even try to set something like that up (the "No Child Left Behind" Act) is getting dumped. So in reality it's a mixture of just as bad as you've probably heard and vastly better then you've heard, depending on where you live (obviously places doing well don't tend to make any news because there's no controversy there). A lot of the Deep South is horrible, constantly trying to force in religious teachings or dilute actual science any way they can. Other parts of the country may have good state standards, but shitty local implementations or are ludicrously overstretched in terms of budget, student/teacher ratios, etc. And some parts of the country are leading edge in all respects. Then of course there's the millions whose parents take them out of public education entirely and send them to private schools instead, which also range from crazy indoctrination centers to top flight college track facilities.
It gets very, very messy, and attempts at national reform get stomped due to mindless "states rights!" shibboleths. About the closest we get to national standards historically comes due to the free market: California and Texas are such gigantic populations that whatever they decide tends to strongly impact what textbook makers want to do. But dropping production costs from the net and electronics is making that less important too.
>>323922603
>>323922603
Because Gordon is a middle-aged man
>>323932835
Your history program fucking sucks, that cannot be denied.
95% of the time I see someone spouting pseudo-history they always happen to be American.
>>323927051
I live in New York, and you sir are completely misinformed. In high school, I did have separate classes for each Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Earth Science, and Marine Science. The generic "Science" topic is mainly associated with elementary, and middle school.
>>323932835
Thanks for the insights. I would not actually consider myself being from first world country (Central Europe, we have a long way to go). I suspect as much, though interestingly enough, (and this is mind you based on purely anecdotal evidence), people that I've talked who were from the "deep south" were freqently better off and seemed to have better basic education, religiously-controversial subjects not withstanding.
But again, my experience are few months in american during high school (Boston, but the school was awful) and then asking about every american that I could get a hold off on the subject matter: the numbers are in hundreds, but that does not make it any less anecdotal in the broad scale of things. Plus the stuff you'll see in media, but that is about as reliable as judging Japan on what you see in anime.
I've suspected there is problem with enforcement of central curricula, but did not know it was this bad. I assumed at least some bare basics are in place.
In my country, safe for special "testing" schools and private schools which are few and interestingly enough generally much WORSE than state schools, there are solid state-wide regulations on everything, schedules and hour-dotations. The differences are still huge, of course, due to competence (or more frequently incompetence) of the local administration.
>>323933913
Here in New York, every school is good, one just has to know how to make use of them. Public Schools are generally mediocre unless you're in a Honors program, and Private/Special Schools are primarily good for only the matters in which you seek, i.e. not being able to learn with large sums of people, learning disabilities, etc.
>>323933868
I've actually attended to a state high school in Boston (sophomore) for a few weeks and there was an unified "science" class (three hours a week, plus additional two for "lab works" every second week if I remember correctly - it's been many years) that apparently was divided into blocks - few months dedicated to biology, few to chemistry etc... on a rotation of sort. A lot of people I've talked to reported the same thing.
This is also the very first time I've heard of subject labeled "Marine science" in my life. Don't take this as me not believing you though.
>>323922603
>Why is it called Half-Life
Because you spent half your life waiting for the sequel
>>323933913
>I've suspected there is problem with enforcement of central curricula, but did not know it was this bad. I assumed at least some bare basics are in place.
Nope, or I should say, there are no actual enforced basics in place. Obviously there are various groups that try to name & shame outside of government. The major science groups like the AAAS do put out education recommendations and guidelines, nobody is forced to adopt them but many states do. There are national groups for other subjects that do similarly good work in other fields also. There's some national testing like the SATs/ACTs and AP exams that create pressure. And of course there is some pushback from colleges and business: if a state gets TOO bad, and colleges announce that they'll simply stop accepting student public high school diplomas in certain subjects without additional testing to prove they really know the subject for real, that can create a lot of political pressure too. Finally, there is the court system. Certain things would simply not be allowed period because they violate the First Amendment for example. But it's very messy, stuff does take time, and even when a state passes something flagrantly un-Constitutional it must be knocked down in court, which can take months to years, and obviously by that point a significant number of kids have already suffered through it.
Ultimately it comes down to another instance of historical baggage and first-mover disadvantage. Sometimes organic evolutionary development and trail blazing can be great, but sometimes it can also result in being locked in to a suboptimal state that can be hard to break out of. Early American history was quite decentralized out of pure necessity, and education very haphazard. By them time that might have changed attitudes were firmly entrenched, and some of the opportunities for reform were squandered or killed by entrenched interests. So it goes sometimes. Applies to vidya and technology in general too.
>>323933132
he's 27
>>323931384
It's clearly a double meaning.
Blue Shift is about your shift as a security guard dressed in blue uniform, but also a reference to Doppler blueshift.
>>323936075
Again, thanks a lot for all the insights. What you are saying makes a lot of sense. But then again, having the experience with the view of the opposite direction, I kinda feel obliged to say what you probably already figured out yourself: the meddlings of a central institutions come with their own massive set of problems. In my country, while there are relatively stable and solid guidelines for the schedule organization, hour-dotations etc, we did not have an unified graduation exam system of any sort. Or to be more precise, the state-wide model was that graduation exam is (in most subjects, with some exceptions) oral, in front of a committee composed of the teachers from that very school plus "a head of the committee" who has always been somebody from a different school, serving as both an observer and holding certain special privileges.
So basically, while the form of the graduation exam was more-or-less the same across all schools, the actual EXPECTATIONS and standards varied drastically.
Needless to say, more than a few people pointed out that this model is hardly objective and impersonal, plus obviously the sheer form of the exam made it impossible to be recognized in any international institution.
So a state-wide program was established to replace this model with a more modern, written exam with universal expectations and blind-study model evaluation. And... you would not believe the amount of SHIT that came with that reform. I was unfortunately member of the generation that was directly caught in the middle of this shit - luckly for us our teachers ignored it entirely, but in many schools several entire waves of students were fuck in the ass as a result.
And then you have... whatever happened to english and swedish education.
I still prefer our, more centralized model. But the dangers and issues with it are severe. Especially when politics and ideologies start to get involved.
>>323927520
g-man was a fan term
>>323939816
Nah, the model was called gman, the code even says its g-man.
