Fuse

A fuse is a wick that burns at one end, hopefully creating useful (or at least interesting) byproducts. A clean fuse is much to be desired, even one leaving no residue. The messier the debris, the harder it would be to combine it with something else.

Examples

Various details which can be observed while examining the history of a burnt fuse:

• It is usually named for a noteworthy initial condition or avatar, which may or may not reappear as the fuse burns. If it reappears, the smallest, or most symmetrical, phase would probably have been chosen as the namesake and initiator.
• During and after startup a fuse may leave no residue, leave an initial residue which could change form or altogether disappear after a time, or persist for a long time.
• Three times are important statistics for the fuse:
  • the transient time, after which it has entered a cycle
  • the length of the internal cycle, after which the avatar repeats
  • the length of the external cycle, which is the time for debris left by the burning to repeat, which may be a multiple of the internal cycle since it may require time to settle down. As the externally visible cycle, it is the one cited as the period of the fuse.
• A fuse may arise from a moving phase change in a wick without destroying the integrity of the wick, as for the phoenix-tub eater or the lightspeed wire. Indeed, all equilibria might be so regarded.

fuse	periodicity	initial namesake	eventual equilibrium
raw diagonal	trans = 0 cycle = 1 period = 1		keeps on losing southwest end cell until all cells are lost
hivemaker	trans = 14 cycle = 4 period = 4
baker	trans = 7 cycle = 2 period = 4
beacon maker	trans = 16 cycle = 4 period = 8
boat maker	trans = 5 cycle = 2 period = 4
harvester	trans = 5 cycle = 4 period = 4
Dual fuse	trans = 7 cycle = 2 period = 4
Tubs eating Phoenix	trans = 0 cycle = 2 period = 2		loses a domino, lengthens barge, all at uniform width
Cow	4
lightspeed wire	trans = 0 cycle = 4 period = 4		the glitch moves off to the right along a protected rail

See also

• Reverse fuse
• Superstring
• List of fuses

External links

• Fuse at the Life Lexicon