Whiteboard Theories

The whiteboards throughout Black Mesa and Xen hold important clues to the ARG and its storyline. This page is an effort to compile data about the theories and what not discovered on the whiteboards.

You can find images of the whiteboards discussed on the Whiteboards page.

=Earthbound Whiteboards=

A statement by Gunsrequiem, September 26, 2012
 As of now, it has been determined that the whiteboards have revealed to us all that they can, and that pursuing this page further would be a waste of time. "Code_", one of the members on quakechat that recently joined, is extremely knowledgeable about many of the depictions on the whiteboards. He has taken a close look at each board and determined that each refers to its respective area of the labs. . . and nothing more. Although they are not related to the ARG, the whiteboards and the theorems therein ARE a testament to the incredible amount of effort the developers of BMS put into the environments to create an immersive experience for us all. Stormseeker obviously put a lot of research and effort into the whiteboards, even though he must have assumed the average Joe gamer wouldn't have paid more than a brief glance at each, and it shows. Good news for him--with the ARG rearing its head, a lot more of his work and the work of the other developers involved will hit the limelight. All of that said, I will keep this page of the wiki in its current state until the ARG is either solved or it is determined that the whiteboards have more knowledge to offer us. Until then, feel free to edit this page should you feel so inclined, and good luck to all of you! "The meat- and sauce-covered circle of doughy delight is a fallacy!"

This statement was made in the early days of the ARG. Later, it turned out that Code_ (aka 0418_08151814), who had been very helpful in identifying the subject matter on the earthbound whiteboards, was actually Stormseeker in disguise.

The Dr. Bottomley / Dr. Horn Whiteboard aka "The Big One" — SOLVED
This whiteboard is the one with the notorious lines of code on it. Except for basically explaining in black and white (literally) how to activate the large laser at the end of the level, it makes a couple of references:
 * 1) 1.21 GW is a reference to the amount of electricity needed to power the DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future
 * 2) There is a scribble by Dr. Horn: "DO NOT WIPE BOARD! --DR. HORN"
 * 3) Another scribble says: "NB - DO NOT ALLOW SECURITY OFFICER SISK NEAR MY PIZZAS - HE WILL  EAT THEM >: ( - DR. HORN"
 * 4) v = f λ is written on the top-left half of the board. It is a reference to sinusoidal wavelengths and the equation explains how the constant velocity (v) of a wave (also referred to as the "phase speed" of the wave) is equal to the frequency (f) of the wave times the wavelength (λ) of the wave.

The cipher on this whiteboard has been solved. See Code D for more information.

The Accelerated Lepton Optronic Linearity Cannon
Ain't that a mouthful? Anyway, this board appears to break down the laser cannons that are found throughout the lab--the ones necessary to completing the final laser puzzle. The schematic is pretty detailed, and there are a few interesting equations on the board. Boy, doesn't that lambda look familiar? Anyway, here's what this board has to offer:
 * 1) Another signature by Mr. Horn: "DO NOT WIPE BOARD! --DR. HORN"
 * 2) The equation encased by a yellow cloud is the equation for (drumroll!) a half-life! In other words, the half-life (t1/2) of the decaying quantity is equal to the natural log of 2 (ln2) which is equivalent to 0.693 divided by the decay constant (λ) of the decaying quantity; or t1/2 = ln2 / λ
 * 3) The line-graph with the solid, red and dashed lines is an explanation of the Sunyaev-Zel'Dovich effect (SZE) on a cosmic microwave background (CMB) spectrum. To put a long story short, it's explaining how the SZE (solid line) increases the CMB (red line) at higher frequencies--although it lowers the CMB at lower frequencies--thus making it possible to view galaxies in a stronger light. In other words, CMB is radiation that floats around in space, and by measuring it scientists can get a better picture of where things lie. The SZE is especially useful because it can be measured to determine how far away things are from Earth by using proportional data gathered from SZE signatures. The dashed line is probably just there to show the correlation / slope of the graph.
 * 4) The formula under the line-graph, kBTe / mec2, is a Maxwell-Boltzmann distributionin which "the kinetic energy distribution of electrons, ions and neutrals" is observed. The equation shown here is one derivation of the equations needed to calculate the temperatures of the involved particles--this one is used to calculate the temperature of the electron in the distribution. The formula to calculate the temperature for the ion is similar, and is "kBTi / mec2". These formulas are generally used to determine how much kinetic energy is dissipated into thermal energy.
 * 5) The diagram is of the actual ingame weapon Tau Cannon
 * 6) The title could be an acronym for A LOL cannon.

Alchemy board

 * See: Lapis Philosophorum

=Xen Whiteboards= In total nine whiteboards can be found in Xen. All but one of them are located in the Site 1A polytunnel labs (in the Xen chapter.) The final whiteboard, also known as The Conspiracy Whiteboard, is located in Dr. Horn's secret lair (in Gonarch's Lair.)

It has been theorized that the whiteboards in Xen are describing some kind of holographic projection system. The use of exotic matter would somehow make the system capable of giving physical substance to the holographic images. This holographic projection system would have been under the control of HALOS.

This theory has later been confirmed by Stormseeker on Twitter:
 * "Probably something to do with plasmonic nano optics created from exotic matter xenian crystals. Most likely along the lines of modulating light through nano slits in a metallic film, allowing for nm sized waveguides to allow for phase adjustments of subwavelength imaging. >_>"


 * "If you combine with the other boards, its a psuedo design for a hard light holographic system. :3"

And on Discord:
 * "the A1 labs investigating the crystals for nano lenses for some AI driven holographic system or something>_>"

Circled letters
Five of the whiteboards contain circled letters: L O C U T S

"LOCUTS" is only missing another letter 'U' from spelling "Locutus", which is one of the circled names on Dr. Horn's "conspiracy" whiteboard. It is shown as the link between the "Sphere of Chon" and the 21 into 1 figure.

Locutus is a latin word that means spoken, having spoken, or he who has spoken. It is also a reference to Star Trek TNG, where Locutus of Borg was the Borg designation forced upon Starfleet Captain Jean-Luc Picard after he was assimilated by the Borg.

One theory about the circled letters is that they might indicate an order in which to read the whiteboards.

Another theory is that the missing letter (U) was intentional and indicates that Storm is telling us that the only thing missing from HALOS being complete is ‘YOU’ and that the 'reward' being offered to the first person to solve this mystery will be their involuntary incorporation into HALOS.

Yet another theory is that the missing letter 'U' could be a reference to 'Yiu', which sounds phonetically similar to 'U'. A Dr Yiu is mentioned on the team roster whiteboard in Xen, as well as on the conspiracy whiteboard. Dr Yiu's fate and whereabouts are not known, and no HEV suit with her nametag has been found in Xen. In other words, the mysterious Yiu character is missing. Stormseeker reacting with a Myon emoji to the message "The only thing missing is Yiu" in the Discord chat seems to support this idea. Stormseeker once used the pronoun "it" when referencing the character. Yiu is also a real-life friend of Stormseeker.

Equations on the top left

 * Abbe number
 * Sellmeier dispersion equations
 * Complex refractive index
 * Equations for calculating the vector of a refracted ray using Snell's law and geometry/trigonometry.

Nano Lens Cross Section
This appears to be a diagram of a nanowire array hyperlens (see Superlens).

Text in the diagram:

 400nm [length] 200nm [diameter] Object Plane Image Transfer Image Plane

'Prismatic ExMat EP0021' (see Lorentz model.)

Text above the top middle diagram:

 Use specimen samples in fabrication of nano lenses triple array.

Text next to bottom middle diagram:

 Nano lens substrates. Modular formed metamaterial.

EM Wave Polarization Diagram
To the right is a diagram showing linear and circular polarization of electromagnetic (EM) waves. Below the diagram are equations related to that.

Red text at the bottom left
 NB. SAMPLES TO BE AQUIRED FROM SECTOR C - CLASSIFY LEVEL 8 - DR HORN

Equations on the top right
Equations combining Coulomb's law ('CL') and Newton's law of universal gravitation ('NL'). Mass is interpreted as 'Gravitational charge'.

Transcript
Text on the left:

Em = Electron mobility

Text on the bottom right:

Xen A whiteboard #3
On this whiteboard there are references to the X01/X02 labs as well as HALOS.

Transcript
Text in the middle:

Text on the right hand side:

A secret message
The red numbers in the supply manifest list hide a secret message: “SOYOUTHINKTHISISASECRETMESSAGE”

Decoded via JavaScript by faed:

'19 15 25 15 21 20 8 9 14 11 20 8 9 19 9 19 1 19 5 3 18 5 20 13 5 19 19 1 7 5'.split(' ').reduce((acc, num) => (acc + String.fromCharCode(64+parseInt(num))), '');

Supply drop schedule
NEXT SUPPLY DROP In - Mon - 07.30 Out - Mon - 09.00 [to LC SE complex] Leave time for transit to Biodome - call Sezen Ex 0013

Team rosters
On the right hand side of the whiteboard we find rosters listing four science teams.

The Conspiracy Whiteboard


This is the whiteboard that was found in Dr. Horn's Xen Lair.