Whiteboard Theories

An effort to compile data about the theories and what not discovered on the whiteboards throughout Black Mesa and Xen.

You can find images of the whiteboards discussed here

Earthbound Whiteboards

A statement by Gunsrequiem (the original author of this page), September 26, 2012 (before the arrival of the Xen whiteboards.)

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!"

Summary of whiteboard subject matters

Whiteboard	Subject matter
c0a1x_labboard_am1	Lorentzian wormhole theory
c0a1x_labboard_am2	Crystal geology
c0a1x_labboard_am3	Some kind of mass spectrometry
c0a1x_labboard_am4	More Lorentzian theory
c0a1x_labboard_am5	Rocket fuel
c0a1x_labboard_am6	Nuclear alchemy
c1a1x_labboard_uc1	Cryogenics
c1a1x_labboard_uc2	More cryogenics
c1a1x_labboard_uc3	More cryogenics
c2a4x_labboard1	Schematic for the lasers and some easter egg stuff
c2a4x_labboard2	Various explanations as to how things work on the tau
c2a4x_labboard3	Something to do with nuclear weapons
c2a4x_labboard4	Hawking radiation
c2a4x_labboard5	Decay of particles (tauons) and how they are focused into beams
c2a4x_labboard6	Quantum field theory
c2a4x_labboard15	Budget discussion. Message to Anthony not to steal Dr. Horns pizzas. Mention of cascade ciphers (AES-Twofish-Serpent.)

The Dr. Bottomley / Dr. Horn Whiteboard aka "The Big One" — SOLVED

c2a4x_labboard1

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.

Cannon Diagram

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 distribution in 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

Circled letters

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

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.

Xen A whiteboard #1

xen_labboards_xena_01

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'.

Xen A whiteboard #2

xen_labboards_xena_02

Transcript

Text on the left:

RECIEVING SURFACE Use diffused scattered surface and organise photons via scattering analysis. Gallium Phosphide used to slow light. (GaP) - Em = 250 cm2(V-1s-1) (300 K). Image reconstituted with needle beam formed optronic laser surface plasmons to form focus. Crystalline metamaterial anisotropic hyperlens development must continue around remaining further 'far field' limiting factors using spherical instead of cylindrical to improve the hyperbolic dispersion of visible spectrum light to between 90nm and 200nm. This should allow for molecular level accuracy resolutions for the projection system. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NB - Propagation of evanescent waves to increase resolution (use focus array Lab D) | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Em = Electron mobility

Text on the bottom right:

Charge density oscillations or surface plasmon-polarization waves. Using the high resolution evanescent wave forms it should be possible to gain full colour hyper resolutions through the proposed array.

Xen A whiteboard #3

xen_labboards_xena_03

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

Transcript

Text in the middle:

Construct each prism lens base from used samples of exotic matter. Trigonal axis orientation allows for splitting to create lens interfacial angles. Most samples have partial conformity with constancy of interfacial angles. Bi refringence optical qualities need digitising for wave refraction corrections. Use surface based SHG for molecular interface observations.

Text on the right hand side:

Full colour projection will occur at higher resolutions should the beam photons be focused more using a needle beam optronic laser. Use focusing arrays in labs X01 and X02, keep flux dispersal regulated with 500MW-694.3nm ruby booster (temp for testing only.) Booster used for HALOS binary stream normally.

Xen A whiteboard #6

xen_labboards_xena_06

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.

TEAM 1 — Geosurvey 1 - Biolab 1A stage.
Mirfin	Fanaris
Olsen	Geslot
Kemp	Palamar
Makinen	Burnell

TEAM 2 — Site 8 forward obs. - OP2 - Alert 1.
(?) Horn Young [MIA] [Horn - MIA] - Contact Sec O. 'Sisk' Ex-1932
(?) Foreman [MIA]
(?) Nielsen [MIA]
(?) Stone [MIA]

TEAM 3 — Site 8 recovery
Junek ← lead.
Welsh ← survey.
Hubi ← comms.

TEAM 4 — Site 3C obs.
Jaggi	Dr Yiu - Team Specialist [provide flamethrower]
Tsarouhas
Soderberg
Sunabouzu