(2,1)c/6
| (2,1)c/6 | ||
| ||
| Spaceship | Yes | |
|---|---|---|
| Puffer | Yes | |
| Rake | Yes | |
| Wickstretcher | No | |
| Gun | No | |
(2,1)c/6 is a knightwise speed and the maximum possible such speed for a knightwise spaceship in Life. It is equivalent to one third[citation needed] of the speed of light.
Spaceships
On March 7, 2018 Adam P. Goucher and Tomas Rokicki discovered the first (2,1)c/6 spaceship, Sir Robin.
In July, three tagalongs were discovered, dubbed minstrels. One of those is capable of supporting knightwave.
More recently, thirteen other tagalongs were found for Sir Robin, many of which consist of multiple individual minstrels combined, as well as a stabilization for both ends of the knightwave. On top of that, a nontrivial flotilla of two Sir Robins was discovered, allowing for knightwise branching spaceships.
In May 2021, a second irreducible spaceship, sprayer, was discovered by Dylan Chen and Adam P. Goucher using ikpx2.
As of the discovery of Soba, (2,1)c/6 is currently the speed/displacement with the largest minimum elementary spaceship.
Puffers and rakes
A period-12 block puffer tagalong for the sprayer was discovered soon after the spaceship, again using ikpx2, which enabled the construction of a period-12 glider rake.
| The (2, 1)c/6 block puffer (click above to open LifeViewer) |
Almost spaceships
Prior to the discovery of Sir Robin, Eugene Langvagen found an almost knightship which differed from its original phase by only two cells:
 generation 0 (left) and generation 6 (right) show that the pattern is different by only two cells |
In early 2018, Tomas Rokicki found four other partials with this property, all with the same frontend as Sir Robin. The longest of these was fed into ikpx by Adam P. Goucher to encourage it to explore a different area of search space; Sir Robin swiftly dropped out of the program within a few hours.
See also
- c/6 diagonal
- c/6 orthogonal
- Speeds (category)
- Spaceships with speed (2,1)c/6 (category)
- Waves with speed (2,1)c/6 (category)
External links
- (2,1)c/6 technology thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- (2,1)c/6 spaceship at the Life Lexicon