This Life lexicon is compiled by Stephen A. Silver from various sources
and
may be copied, modified and distributed
under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike
3.0 Unported licence.
See the original credit page for all
credits
and the original download location.
Glider syntheses for all still lifes and known oscillators with at most 14 cells were found by Dave Buckingham. As of June 2018, this limit has been increased to 18 cells.
Perhaps the most interesting glider syntheses are those of spaceships, because these can be used to create corresponding guns and rakes. Many of the c/2 spaceships that are based on standard spaceships have been synthesized, mostly by Mark Niemiec. In June 1998 Stephen Silver found syntheses for some of the Corderships (although it was not until July 1999 that Jason Summers used this to build a Cordership gun). In May 2000, Noam Elkies suggested that a 2c/5 spaceship found by Tim Coe in May 1996 might be a candidate for glider synthesis. Initial attempts to construct a synthesis for this spaceship got fairly close, but it was only in March 2003 that Summers and Elkies managed to find a way to perform the crucial last step. Summers then used the new synthesis to build a c/2 forward rake for the 2c/5 spaceship; this was the first example in Life of a rake which fires spaceships that travel in the same direction as the rake but more slowly.
A 3-glider synthesis of a pentadecathlon is shown in the diagram below. This was found in April 1997 by Heinrich Koenig and came as a surprise, as it was widely assumed that anything using just three gliders would already be known.
The Game of Life is not your typical computer game. It is a cellular automaton, and was invented by Cambridge mathematician John Conway.
This game became widely known when it was mentioned in an article published by Scientific American in 1970. It consists of a grid of cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply. Depending on the initial conditions, the cells form various patterns throughout the course of the game.
Each cell with one or no neighbors dies, as if by solitude.
Each cell with four or more neighbors dies, as if by overpopulation.
Each cell with two or three neighbors survives.
Each cell with three neighbors becomes populated.
Video’s about the Game of Life
Interesting articles about John Conway
These are services I personally use and trust every day. These links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you choose to make a purchase—at no extra cost to you. This helps support this site and allows me to continue improving it. Thank you for your support!
This site is made by Edwin Martin <edwin@playgameoflife.com>