Thread for basic questions

For general discussion about Conway's Game of Life.
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by dvgrn » February 25th, 2016, 4:56 pm

Kiran wrote:This pattern looks like the result of a corrupted rle.
Yes, it's Mark's multi-state RLE format with some marked cells -- works fine in Golly, but LifeViewer doesn't handle it very well. Here's the two-state equivalent:

Code: Select all

x = 316, y = 225, rule = B3/S23
61bo$59bobo$60b2o78bo$19bobo76bo42bo76bo$20b2o40bo35b2o39b3o76b2o$20bo
39b2o35bobo2b2o77b2o3bo30bobo2b2o$61b2o39bobo77b2ob2o35bobo$58b2o42bo
38b2o38bo3bobo34bo$17bobo21b3o13bobo21b3o25b2o10b3o18b2o5b2o10b3o37b3o
25b2o10b3o$18b2o2b2o17bo2bo14bo21bo2bo23b2o11bo2bo16bo6b2o11bo2bo36bo
2bo23b2o11bo2bo$18bo3bobo16bo26b3o10bo13b2o13bo10bo13b2o13bo10bo19b3o
17bo13b2o13bo10bo$22bo18bo3bo22bo12bo3bo8bobo24bo3bo8bobo24bo3bo15bo
19bo3bo8bobo24bo3bo22bo$41bo3bo23bo11bo3bo10bo24bo3bo10bo24bo3bo16bo
18bo3bo10bo24bo3bo20bobo$41bo39bo39bo39bo14bo24bo39bo25b2o$42bobo37bob
o37bobo37bobo11b2o24bobo37bobo$175bobo97bo$273bobo$274b2o6$139bobo$
140b2o$140bo$20bobo37bobo37bobo$21b2o38b2o38b2o$21bo19b3o12bo4bo19b3o
17bo19b3o11bo5b2o18b3o37b3o$41bo2bo12bo23bo2bo36bo2bo11b2o2bo2bo17bo2b
o36bo2bo$21b2o18bo13b3o3b2o18bo13bo5b2o18bo13b2o3bo2bo17bo39bo$21b2o
18bo3bo16bo18bo3bo7bobo6bo18bo3bo15b2o18bo3bo35bo3bo$17b3o21bo3bo15bo
19bo3bo8b2o4bo20bo3bo5b2o28bo3bo5b2o28bo3bo$19bo21bo19bobo17bo18b2o19b
o10b2o3b2o22bo8bobo10bo17bo$18bo4b3o16bobo17b2o18bobo37bobo6bo4bobo23b
obo7bo4bo4b3o9b3o5bobo78bo$23bo73b2o39bo38b2o3bob2o98bo$24bo34b3o34bob
o3b2o72bobo4b3o96b3o$59bo2bo35bo2bobo79b2o55bo45bo$59bo43bo135bobo44bo
$59bo179b2o45bo$60bobo$91b2o150bo$90bobo104bobo42b2o$92bo104b2o43bobo$
198bo$231bobo$232b2o$232bo7b2o$239bobo$238bobo$239bo$183bobo4b2o$184b
2o3bobo$184bo3bobo$17bo171bo$18b2o$17b2o68bo3b2o133bo$87b2o2bobo132b2o
$86bobo2bo63bobo20bo32b3o11bobo33b3o47b3o$155b2o21b2o31bo2bo46bo2bo46b
o2bo$156bo20bobo31bo49bo49bo$211bo3bo45bo3bo45bo3bo$211bo3bo45bo3bo45b
o3bo$211bo49bo49bo$212bobo47bobo47bobo2$29bo92bo$30bo3bo85bobo$28b3o2b
o87b2o$33b3o2$99b2o$98b2o30b2o2b2o$100bo30b2obobo$130bo3bo3$224bo$34bo
190b2o$34b2o188b2o$33bobo5$235bo$234b2o$70b2o162bobo$69bobo$71bo160b2o
$231bobo$233bo2$186bo53b2o$187b2o50b2o$186b2o53bo3$61b3o47b3o47b3o47b
3o37b3o$61bo2bo46bo2bo46bo2bo46bo2bo36bo2bo$61bo49bo49bo49bo39bo$61bo
3bo45bo3bo45bo3bo45bo3bo35bo3bo$61bo3bo45bo3bo45bo3bo27b2o5bo10bo39bo
3bo$61bo49bo49bo31bobo2b2o11bo6b3o30bo$62bobo47bobo47bobo29bobo2b2o11b
obo5bo31bobo4b3o$195bo23bo41bo$260bo5$229bo$227bobo$45bobo41bobo136b2o
$45b2o43b2o$46bo43bo10bo131bobo$19bo31bobo45b2o133b2o$18bo28b2o2b2o47b
2o132bo$18b3o25bobo3bo18b2o18b2o18b3o$36b2o10bo7b2o12bobo3b2o12bobo3b
2o13bo2bo$17bo19bo19bo12b2o5bo12b2o5bo13bo$16b2o16b3o17b3o17b3o10bo6b
3o14bo3bo$16bobo15bo19bo19bo12b2o5bo16bo3bo$86bobo22bo$112bobo4$179bo$
180b2o$179b2o3$45bobo41bobo$45b2o43b2o151bo$46bo43bo153bo$51bobo188b3o
$47b2o2b2o193bo$46bobo3bo18b2o18b2o18b3o132bo$48bo21bobo17bobo18bo2bo
59bo71bo$35b2o18b2o13b2o3b2o13b2o3b2o14bo63b2o$35bo19bo19bo11bo7bo15bo
3bo58b2o$15b2o16bobo17bobo17bobo11b2o4bobo15bo3bo$14b2o17b2o18b2o18b2o
11bobo4b2o16bo$11b2o3bo95bobo65bobo$10bobo77bo90b2o$12bo77b2o82bobo4bo
$89bobo83b2o$175bo5$77bobo$78b2o$78bo66bo32b3o$144bo35bo$82bo61b3o32bo
$37bo44bobo186b3o$35bobo19b2o18b2o3b2o56b2o129bo2bo$36b2o19b2o18b2o62b
o129bo$o3bo28b2o37bobo57bobo3b3o130bo3bo$b2obobo25bobo38b2o58b2o3bo
132bo3bo$2o2b2o16bo11bo7bo19bo10bo8bo50bo8b2o127bo$21bobo17bobo17bobo
17bobo57bobo128bobo$6b3o13bo19bo19bo12bo6bo52bo6bo$6bo69b2o58b2o$7bo
67b2o58b2o$111b3o47b3o47b3o$72bo6bo31bo2bo17bo6bo21bo2bo46bo2bo$72b2o
5b2o30bo20b2o5b2o20bo49bo$71bobo4bobo30bo3bo15bobo4bobo20bo3bo45bo3bo$
111bo3bo45bo3bo45bo3bo$111bo49bo49bo$74b3o35bobo19b3o25bobo47bobo$76bo
59bo$75bo59bo2$94bobo$94b2o$85bo9bo$83bobo$84b2o$241b2o$241bo$73b3o17b
3o148bo$48b2o80b2o28b2o81b2o$49b2o$48bo79bo3bo25bo3bo8b3o$70b2o18b2o
36bo4bo24bo4bo7bo2bo$51bo17bo2bo16bo2bo37bobobo25bobobo6bo$50b2o18bobo
17bobo38bobobo25bobobo5bo3bo$50bobo18bo19bo3bo36bo4bo12bo11bo4bo3bo3bo
$94b2o37bo3bo10b2o13bo3bo3bo$94bobo52b2o21bobo68bo$134b2o9b2o17b2o78bo
$144b2o96b3o$146bo99bo$111b3o21b2o28b2o79bo$111bo2bo20bo29bo80bo$111bo
22b2o2b3o23b2o2b3o$111bo3bo18bo3bob3o21bo3bob3o$111bo3bo18b2obo4bo21b
2obo4bo$111bo24bobo27bobo$112bobo17bo4bob2o21bo4bob2o$132b3obo3bo21b3o
bo3bo$134b3o2b2o23b3o2b2o$139bo29bo$138b2o28b2o10$271b3o$271bo2bo$271b
o$271bo3bo$271bo3bo$271bo$272bobo!

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 3rd, 2016, 1:53 pm

What is the smallest rake rake (MMM breeder)?

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 8th, 2016, 2:15 pm

Could we find a knightship of population <500 in regular B3/S23? And how soon could that be?


We do have almost knightship, which could possibly be stabilised in some way:

Code: Select all

x = 13, y = 19, rule = B3/S23
11bo$6b2o2bo$6bob2o$5bo5b2o$bobo2bo$o$o3bo2b3ob2o$o3bo4bo$5bob2o$bo3bo
b2o$2ob3o$4b2obo$2o2b3o$2obo$3b2o4b2o$b3o$2bo2b3ob2o$3b2o2b2o$4b3o!

And this ship which comes in the golly patterns files:

Code: Select all

x = 7, y = 4, rule = B013568/S01
bo4bo$b2ob3o$2o3bo$2bobo!


Also, what about finding small(ish) ships for speeds known in algorithms extremely similar to Life?

Like 9c/28:

Code: Select all

x = 15, y = 16, rule = B37/S23
2bo$b3o$3bo2$12bo$11b3o$2o9bo$4bob2o$o2b2o$2bo4b3o$2o6b2o3b2o$2o6b2o$
10b2o2bo$12bo$13b2o$13b2o!
and c/98:

Code: Select all

x = 9, y = 17, rule = B36/S23
2b3o$o$bobo2b2o$2bo3bobo$7bo8$7bo$2bo3bobo$bobo2b2o$o$2b3o!

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by biggiemac » March 8th, 2016, 4:18 pm

With the 9c/28 and c/98 speeds, nothing makes them magic numbers in CGOL. The long-term behavior of a life-like CA, even with a tiny change, is significantly different than that of CGOL (e.g., run the pi heptomino to completion in B3/S238). There is really no predictive power, no way to say that since something has one behavior in one rule, that it should have similar behavior in another. For a given pattern, either the difference doesn't come up, so the behavior is exactly the same, or it does, in which case there's no way to recover the original behavior. The ships above are both in the latter category.

I think an automated spaceship search would choke so badly at period 28 or 98 that there's no point in ever running one. Instead, statistically there are tons of more reachable spaceships at smaller periods, just barely past the edge of current technology/patience. That includes knightships, which moebius's "knight" programs have been trying to make more attainable.

There's also a big complexity difference between naturally occurring patterns and those found by search programs.

THOUGHT: There might be a way to set up a soup searcher so that it doesn't have such a predisposition against slow spaceships. Currently, any spaceship that forms would have to do so at the edge of the reaction envelope, facing the right direction, and then get out of the way of any other active reactions (many of which propagate close to c/2). However, it's relatively easy to check for a given object whether that object is an oscillator or spaceship of any period < N for some large enough N. At the cost of speed, then, one could take snapshots of the soup prior to it stabilizing and do censuses of active objects as well as ash. There would have to be some very smart rejection to avoid wasting all of the time on methuselahs, and also some very smart code to determine which active objects deserve to be treated as separate for a given snapshot. But the time/effort cost could pay off because this method would have a much higher chance of identifying temporary spaceships in soups.

One possible procedure would be to put each object in its own universe and run that to stabilization, knowing beforehand the ash products of most methuselahs, and using the same analysis apgsearch variants use for oscillators, spaceships and linear+ growth. However, this is dreadfully slow, and if we use a snapshot every 50 gens (seems potentially reasonable), then long-lived soups could mean we look at hundreds of objects hundreds of times, far outweighing the potential gain.

It just makes me sad to think of a loafer or a tiny c/18 ship or something crashing into a blinker in the middle of a forgotten apgnano search..
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 8th, 2016, 4:41 pm

biggiemac wrote:It just makes me sad to think of a loafer or a tiny c/18 ship or something crashing into a blinker in the middle of a forgotten apgnano search..
Then why not make it delete known stationary lifes that might get in the way? And then again, vital things like the loaf pushed by a loafer or the block hauled by the copperhead would get removed. So we could make objects close to a reaction not get destroyed, but that reaction may well be a ship that it's about to bugger over...

What may be worth considering, however, is a search program that evades these errors mostly, for example: taking objects found in soups and running those to completion, and if they happen to be a 45786473457c/9007199254740992 orthogonal ship or something, they get displayed under results (and you get displayed alongside your discovery in the Life community).


Back on topic: simply because a ship in a similar rule set does not function does not necessarily mean it cannot be tweaked or a similar ship cannot be built. For example, the c/98 uses boats - which are stable in both 3/23 and 36/23. Assuming a reaction is found which is similar to the one in the ship, or any reaction in general is found using boats or any other still life, a ship could be patched together which runs at a whole new speed. I doubt any of that came out right, but hopefully you understand what I was basically saying.

Of course, this is not always the case, as in this compact orthogonal c/5648:

Code: Select all

x = 12, y = 14, rule = B3457/S4568
4bo2bo$4b4o$2b8o$2b2ob2ob2o$obobo2bobobo$2ob6ob2o$ob3o2b3obo$3ob4ob3o$
2ob6ob2o$b3o4b3o$b3o4b3o$3b2o2b2o$3bo4bo$5b2o!

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by dvgrn » March 8th, 2016, 6:19 pm

muzik wrote:Back on topic: simply because a ship in a similar rule set does not function does not necessarily mean it cannot be tweaked or a similar ship cannot be built. For example, the c/98 uses boats - which are stable in both 3/23 and 36/23. Assuming a reaction is found which is similar to the one in the ship, or any reaction in general is found using boats or any other still life, a ship could be patched together which runs at a whole new speed.
I think I understand, but I have to disagree -- in practice, anyway. For example, there's no particular point in looking for a c/98 spaceship in B3/S23 with a pair of trailing boats in it at those locations.

Certainly it's theoretically possible that such a spaceship exists, but it's no more likely than a spaceship with any other stable back end, and no more likely than a c/88 spaceship, or any other nearby speed.

The fact that the c/98 happens to work is an emergent property of the B36/S23 rule. The 6-neighbor birth rule is invoked in that active reaction -- here, there and everywhere. It's in there at far too low a level for it to be possible to just pull out all those reactions and replace them with something else, keeping "everything else the same".

In general, a pattern in one rule just plain doesn't give any information about behavior in another rule, unless it can be shown that a birth or survival rule with some neighbor count is never used in a particular reaction. In that case, the exact same pattern will trivially work in multiple rules, as biggiemac mentioned at the top of his message. Even tiny changes in the rule will tend to cause huge changes in the emergent patterns that appear.

... Now, you could build a replicator-metacell in Conway's Life that emulates HighLife, and then you could build a meta-c/98 spaceship and it would work fine -- but that's definitely cheating.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 9th, 2016, 2:22 pm

dvgrn wrote:... Now, you could build a replicator-metacell in Conway's Life that emulates HighLife, and then you could build a meta-c/98 spaceship and it would work fine -- but that's definitely cheating.
And would not count because the cells aren't actually moving.


Of course, small ships that exist in rules similar to regular Life obviously won't work in regular Life, but since the rules are similar we can at least assume that there are small ships of exotic speeds not yet seen in the real thing. I know I'm a noob at the whole cellular automata thing, and am stating the obvious all the time, but basically, since strange speeds exist for small patterns in similar rules, this means that it is highly likely that there may be something like a shockingly small 18c/231 ship right behind the door. It's highly unlikely that these will be discovered way too soon unless an interesting and intriguing reaction is found, since most attention seems to be focused on speeds like c/8, c/9 and 3c/7.


On that note, I've been considering setting up a thread containing notable partials for undiscovered, high priority speeds, for research to be conducted on. (I could also add in a few small ships of these speeds from other rules to display how fast they will move, although this might not be way too helpful.)
Last edited by muzik on March 9th, 2016, 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by biggiemac » March 9th, 2016, 4:45 pm

muzik wrote:18c/23 ship
Just to be nit-picky, it is provable that such a velocity is impossible in CGOL. But if you said 9c/23 nobody could disprove you!
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by codeholic » March 9th, 2016, 4:50 pm

muzik wrote:
dvgrn wrote:... Now, you could build a replicator-metacell in Conway's Life that emulates HighLife, and then you could build a meta-c/98 spaceship and it would work fine -- but that's definitely cheating.
And would not count because the cells aren't actually moving.
Dave meant metacells that do not need medium, thus "replicator-metacell". They are already technologically possible, but no explicit example has been constructed yet. They would count.
muzik wrote:I know I'm a noob at the whole cellular automata thing, and am stating the obvious all the time, but basically, since strange speeds exist for small patterns in similar rules, this means that it is highly likely that there may be something like a shockingly small 18c/23 ship right behind the door.
It's not only unlikely, it certainly does not exist.
muzik wrote:On that note, I've been considering setting up a thread containing notable partials for undiscovered, high priority speeds, for research to be conducted on.
There are already threads that are dedicated to spaceship partials. Is there really a need to create a new one?
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 9th, 2016, 4:55 pm

codeholic wrote:
muzik wrote:I know I'm a noob at the whole cellular automata thing, and am stating the obvious all the time, but basically, since strange speeds exist for small patterns in similar rules, this means that it is highly likely that there may be something like a shockingly small 18c/23 ship right behind the door.
It's not only unlikely, it certainly does not exist.
I definitely typed in 231. I hate this keyboard
codeholic wrote:
muzik wrote:On that note, I've been considering setting up a thread containing notable partials for undiscovered, high priority speeds, for research to be conducted on.
There are already threads that are dedicated to spaceship partials. Is there really a need to create a new one?
It would most likely be more convenient to have them in one thread than have to rake through hundreds of random, unrelated posts to find them.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 13th, 2016, 11:34 am

Would it be possible to make a ship using a queen bee, and a reaction to "push" (or pull) it ahead?

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by dvgrn » March 13th, 2016, 9:38 pm

muzik wrote:Would it be possible to make a ship using a queen bee, and a reaction to "push" (or pull) it ahead?
Might be. Doesn't sound any likelier than "a ship using a ____, and a reaction to move it" for any number of other objects -- pi, century, dove, wing, LOM, etc., etc. If you have an actual example where an object and a push/pull reaction work together to move the object at some particular speed, then you can maybe make a guess about whether it can be turned into a spaceship. Without a promising start like that, this kind of question really just seems like vague hand-waving.

If you just put a queen bee in to WLS or a custom zfind or whatever, and specify that you want the queen bee to have moved N cells in T ticks, then it's always possible that you might find a solution, if you specify the constraints just right. However, for any specific search, the odds of success are (I think) probably very very low.

This is something that is hard to understand from people just talking about it. Unfortunately, your best bet at developing a sense of likely vs. improbable is to go ahead and run multi-day searches for a while, and have them not return anything (!).

This will probably be due to trying to search in too large a search space. It's very easy to set up WLS with so many unknown cells that you're effectively searching for a needle in a haystack the size of Jupiter. The needle is probably in there somewhere, but that doesn't mean that your search is going to find it.

So then to fix the Jupiter-sized-haystack problem need to add more or less arbitrary constraints. Once you've reduced the search space to a reasonable size, and then at least the search will finish and you'll know whether or not there's an answer in that particular space.

Queen bees are symmetric, so that reduces the number of unknown cells by quite a bit -- but then again, they're pretty big and move around quite a bit, so that brings the unknown cell count up again. On balance I'm thinking it would be hard to set up a search for a magic queen-bee pusher, where the search would complete in a reasonable amount of time. But you're welcome to give it a try, of course!

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by pi_guy314 » March 21st, 2016, 5:39 pm

Sorry if this was asked before, but I was wondering if it would be practical to use multiple layers of glider stream used to protect an object from stray gliders. It can also be used to detect whenever gliders hit the stream using the gaps it leaves behind. Here's a pattern to show what I mean:

Code: Select all

x = 112, y = 98, rule = B3/S23
25b2o$25b2o$11bo10b2o6bo3b2o$11bobo7b3o5bo3bobo$2o12b2o6b2o6b5o$2o12b
2o9b2o4b3o$14b2o9b2o$11bobo$11bo11bo$21bobo$22b2o5$30bo$31bo$29b3o6$
38bo$36bobo$37b2o$87bo$86bo$86b3o2$45bo$46bo$44b3o6$53bo$51bobo$52b2o
5$60bo$61bo$59b3o6$68bo$66bobo$67b2o5$75bo$76bo$74b3o6$83bo$81bobo$82b
2o5$90bo$91bo$89b3o6$98bo$96bobo$97b2o5$105bo$106bo$104b3o2$108b2o$
108bobo$110bo$110b2o!
I know that a glider might cause an explosion that could pass through the glider stream. To further protect the object, multiple layers of glider stream could be used and each one would be isolated. Maybe a different period of gun would be best. Maybe a different type of spaceship could be used instead.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by muzik » March 24th, 2016, 9:24 am

Well, it could be interesting for a memory circuit thing. There could also maybe be another glider gun farther down the line which annhialates with the other glider stream, and a disruption further up which would cancel the gliders could allow a few of those to pass through.


Here is a cleaner (and shorter) glider reaction:

Code: Select all

x = 64, y = 38, rule = B3/S23
24bo$22bobo$12b2o6b2o12b2o$11bo3bo4b2o12b2o25bo$2o8bo5bo3b2o39bobo$2o
8bo3bob2o4bobo36b2o$10bo5bo7bo$11bo3bo$12b2o26$47b2o$47bo$48b3o$50bo!


Question: On the wiki, it says that c/12 diagonal takes are easy to construct, but I can't seem to find any examples?

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by Alexey_Nigin » March 24th, 2016, 9:29 am

muzik wrote:Question: On the wiki, it says that c/12 diagonal takes are easy to construct, but I can't seem to find any examples?
I don't know what diagonal takes are, but c/12 diagonal rakes can be found here:

http://pentadecathlon.com/lifeNews/2005 ... ships.html
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by codeholic » March 24th, 2016, 9:31 am

jslife/velocity-c12d/rake*
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by codeholic » April 3rd, 2016, 11:19 am

Who and when discovered this gun?

Code: Select all

x = 31, y = 31, rule = B3/S23
4b2o$5bo$5bobo$6b2o5$15b2o$12b2o2bo$12bo2bo$2o11b3o$bo$bobo$2b2o9$27b
2o$27bo$28b3o$30bo$16b2o$16bo$17b3o$19bo!
I think it is worth an article in LifeWiki.
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by M. I. Wright » April 3rd, 2016, 11:45 am

Not sure, but that might have been a result of the recent-ish discussion of the H' object? If so it'll be in one of the posts in the 'The Hunting of the New Herschel Conduits' thread from a few months ago.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by codeholic » April 3rd, 2016, 11:48 am

It is an old gun, I found it in the listing on pentadecathlon.com and wondered that I'd never seen it before (or completely forgot about it).
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by dvgrn » April 3rd, 2016, 12:15 pm

codeholic wrote:Who and when discovered this [p184 glider] gun?...
I think it is worth an article in LifeWiki.
Dave Buckingham, sometime before 7 July 1996 (reported then by Mark Niemiec).

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by biggiemac » April 3rd, 2016, 12:39 pm

I remember seeing it in the old gun collection.

I find it very interesting that the two earliest known simple guns (p30 GGG and p46 twin bees gun) both have comparably simple but unrelated guns at multiples of their period, 30 x 4 = 120 for the Simkin gun and 46 * 4 = 184 for this gun. Furthermore, while the originals are based upon shuttles, the latter are based upon Herschel conduits.

Also the p138 gun based on Gabriel Nivasch's p138 is 46 x 3. Many a strange coincidence.
Physics: sophistication from simplicity.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by Rich Holmes » April 10th, 2016, 10:06 am

What's a helix?

The term is used in this forum and in a couple articles in the wiki, but I don't see a definition anywhere.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by gmc_nxtman » April 10th, 2016, 10:56 am

Would it be possible to search for a small glider gun of period < 20 by searching for oscillators which emit gliders as "sparks"? As in, a small billiard-ish oscillator-like thing emitting gliders, akin to oscillators emitting large sparks.

It could possibly be found by drifter search.

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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by codeholic » April 10th, 2016, 11:09 am

Rich Holmes wrote:What's a helix?
Essentially it is a wick, that burns at a certain speed. Some move faster than they burn, thus you can use them as frontends for macro-spaceships. I recommend an article on Caterpillar by Gabriel Nivasch.
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Re: Thread for basic questions

Post by dvgrn » April 10th, 2016, 11:18 am

Rich Holmes wrote:What's a helix?

The term is used in this forum and in a couple articles in the wiki, but I don't see a definition anywhere.
It's odd that the definition wasn't copied from the Life Lexicon, since that's where a lot of other LifeWiki definitions got their start.

See the Life Lexicon definition for starters. Drat, there's another Lexicon entry that needs updating, since it talks only about the Caterpillar, and these days we also have waterbear and now Caterloopillar helices.

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