OCA:Snowflakes

Snowflakes
x=0, y = 0, rule = B2ci3ai4c8/S02ae3eijkq4iz5ar6i7e ! #C [[ THEME Inverse ]] #C [[ RANDOMIZE2 RANDSEED 1729 THUMBLAUNCH THUMBNAIL THUMBSIZE 2 GRID ZOOM 6 WIDTH 600 HEIGHT 600 LABEL 90 -20 2 "#G" AUTOSTART PAUSE 2 GPS 8 LOOP 256 ]] LifeViewer-generated pseudorandom soup
View static image
Rulestring	02ae3eijkq4iz5ar6i7e/2ci3ai4c8 B2ci3ai4c8/S02ae3eijkq4iz5ar6i7e
Character	Chaotic

Snowflakes is a non-totalistic Life-like cellular automaton first discovered by users BlinkerSpawn and dani that is omniperiodic. It is named in reference to a very common 21 cell still life (the snowflake) that has a 2 cell seed:

x = 21, y = 9, rule = B2ci3ai4c8/S02ae3eijkq4iz5ar6i7e $4bo$2b5o$2bo3bo$b2obob2o6bobo$2bo3bo$2b5o$4bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

Patterns

Spaceships

There are two very important small orthogonal spaceships:

x = 10, y = 3, rule = B2ci3ai4c8/S02ae3eijkq4iz5ar6i7e 6bo2bo$obo3b3o$3o4bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

The c/2 is generally labeled as G, and the 2c/4 as R. There exist G guns for all possible periods greater than 11. R guns can exist for periods 9 and above, but no guns have ever been found of periods 9 and 10.

Besides c/2 orthogonal, the only known spaceship speeds are 2c/6 orthogonal, 2c/19 orthogonal and 2c/12 diagonal, with the smallest examples being:

x = 41, y = 10, rule = B2ci3ai4c8/S02ae3eijkq4iz5ar6i7e 9b6o10b3o10bo$5bo2b5obo10bobo9b3o$3o6bobobobo9b3o12bo$8bob3obo9bo3bo$ 4b3o2bo2b3o22bo2bo$bo6bobo10bo9bo$8b3o10bo4bo4bo$5bo15bo9bo$23bo5bo$ 26bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer)

The latter two spaceships have since appeared naturally in C1 soups, and have a synthesis from G's. For all known speeds there are puffers, but only the orthogonal speeds have rakes.

A universal constructor is in the works by Goldtiger997 and several other users, which may lead to a very high-period spaceship, much like Life's universal constructor-based spaceships.

External links

• Snowflakes (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums

Snowflakes at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue