5-5-5-5-5-5-5

For general discussion about Conway's Game of Life.
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Peter Armstrong
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5-5-5-5-5-5-5

Post by Peter Armstrong » October 25th, 2017, 8:32 pm

I'm referring to the pattern that Martin Gardner discusses in "The Colossal Book of Mathematics"
(pages 416-419). Could someone tell me who first used this pattern (as a Game-of-Life initial
state), and when, and what he-or-she named it? Thanks. - PA

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dvgrn
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Re: 5-5-5-5-5-5-5

Post by dvgrn » October 25th, 2017, 8:58 pm

Peter Armstrong wrote:I'm referring to the pattern that Martin Gardner discusses in "The Colossal Book of Mathematics"
(pages 416-419). Could someone tell me who first used this pattern (as a Game-of-Life initial
state), and when, and what he-or-she named it? Thanks. - PA
John Conway, sometime before October 1970, and the name seems to have been "5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5".

The last paragraph of the October 1970 Martin Gardner Mathematical Games column, the one that started the whole B3/S23 ball rolling, mentions the pattern by name (so to speak):
Rows consisting of sets of five counters, an empty cell separating adjacent sets, have also been tracked by Conway. The 5-5 row generates the pulsar CP 48-56-72 in 21 moves, 5-5-5 ends with four blocks, 5-5-5-5 ends with four honey farms and four blinkers, 5-5-5-5-5 terminates with a "spectacular display of eight gliders and eight blinkers. Then the gliders crash in pairs to become eight blocks." The form 5-5-5-5-5-5 ends with four blinkers, and 5-5-5-5-5-5-5, Conway remarks, "is marvelous to sit watching on the computer screen." He has yet to track it to its ultimate destiny, however.

Code: Select all

x = 41, y = 1, rule = LifeHistory
5C.5C.5C.5C.5C.5C.5C!
#C [[ GPS 30 AUTOSTART AUTOFIT HISTORYFIT THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 2 HEIGHT 320 LOOP 400 ]]

Peter Armstrong
Posts: 10
Joined: February 27th, 2016, 12:48 pm

Re: 5-5-5-5-5-5-5

Post by Peter Armstrong » October 26th, 2017, 12:30 pm

Thanks dvgrn! I'm writing a bunch of piano pieces based on this and a dozen-or-so other ConwayLIfe.com images. Now double-checking pattern-authors' names for its program notes. I'll yell here when the thing's done -- some months yet to go.

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