John Conway, sometime before October 1970, and the name seems to have been "5-5-5-5-5-5-5-5".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
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 ]]