Blinker
| Blinker | |||||||||
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| Pattern type | Oscillator | ||||||||
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| Oscillator type | Muttering moat | ||||||||
| Family | Clock | ||||||||
| Number of cells | 3 | ||||||||
| Bounding box | 3 × 3 | ||||||||
| Frequency class | 0.1 | ||||||||
| Period | 2 | ||||||||
| Mod | 1 | ||||||||
| Heat | 4 | ||||||||
| Volatility | 0.80 | ||||||||
| Strict volatility | 0.80 | ||||||||
| Rotor type | Pole 2 | ||||||||
| Discovered by | John Conway | ||||||||
| Year of discovery | 1970 | ||||||||
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The blinker is the smallest and most common oscillator, found by John Conway in March 1970. It is one of only a handful of known oscillators that is a polyomino, and it is the only known oscillator that is one cell thick (although the pentadecathlon is "almost" one cell thick in that there is a one cell thick pattern that is a grandparent of it).
Blinkers are very commonly formed in a set of four called the traffic light; they can similarly be born in two potential sets of six, the interchanges. There is also a fairly common constellation of four blinkers and two boat-ties.
When phased correctly, blinkers can provide a purpose similar to an induction coil as seen on the overweight emulator, and can sometimes be positioned so that it either contacts the oscillating segment directly or is one block away from it similarly to normal induction coils.
The blinker can also be a stationary segment known as "line" in certain still lifes; the most basic of these being integral sign but can also be used to connect any number of pre-blocks, tubs, beehives, loaves, mangoes, hooks, claws, etc. together. One example is boat line tub.
Commonness
The blinker is more than one hundred times as common in Achim Flammenkamp's census as the second most common oscillator, the toad.[1] The blinker is also the second most common object on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue.[2]
References
- ↑ Achim Flammenkamp (September 7, 2004). "Most seen natural occurring ash objects in Game of Life". Retrieved on January 15, 2009.
- ↑ Adam P. Goucher. "Statistics". Catagolue. Retrieved on June 24, 2016.
External links
- Blinker at the Life Lexicon
- 3P2.1 at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs
- Patterns
- Patterns with Catagolue frequency class 0
- Natural periodic objects
- Oscillators with 3 cells
- Periodic objects with minimum population 3
- Patterns with 3 cells
- Patterns found by John Conway
- Patterns found in 1970
- Patterns that can be constructed with 2 gliders
- Oscillators
- Clock variants
- Muttering moats
- Oscillators with period 2
- Oscillators with mod 1
- Oscillators with heat 4
- Oscillators with volatility 0.80
- Oscillators with strict volatility 0.80
- Oscillators with rotor Pole 2
- Patterns with rectangular orthogonal symmetry
- Flipping oscillators