Spark

A spark is a pattern that dies. The term is typically used to describe a collection of cells periodically thrown off by an oscillator or spaceship, but other dying patterns, particulary those consisting of only one or two cells (such as those produced by certain glider collisions, for example), are also described as sparks. For examples of small sparks see unix and heavyweight spaceship. For examples of much larger sparks, see Schick engine and phi spark.

Sparker

A sparker is an oscillator or spaceship that produces sparks.

Sparkers can give varieties of different sparks:

• Edge bit: A detached dot spark caused by the birth of three cells in a line, e.g. middleweight volcano.
• Corner bit/diagonal bit: A detached dot spark caused by the birth of three cells that form a pre-block-like shape, e.g. blocker.
• Horizontal domino: Two orthogonally connected detached bits at an edge, parallel to that edge, e.g. heavyweight volcano.
• Vertical domino: Two orthogonally connected detached bits at an edge but perpendicular to it. Oscillators that make these are called "pipsquirters", e.g. pipsquirter 1.
• Delayed domino: A domino spark where one bit appears first, and the other is added later, e.g. figure eight.
• Fountain bit: A single bit at an edge, with no other bits in the two rows behind it, e.g. fountain.
• Fountain domino: Two orthogonally connected bits at an edge, with no other bits in the two rows behind them, e.g. 258P3.
• Duoplet: Two diagonally connected detached bits at a corner, e.g. 48P31. Historically sometimes also called a "diagonal domino", but it is not a polyomino.
• Irreflectable duoplet: A duoplet spark that is incapable of reflecting gliders, e.g. 41P7.2.
• Reflectable duoplet: A duoplet spark that is capable of reflecting gliders, e.g. 34P14 shuttle.
• Banana spark: A three-bit spark capable of reflecting gliders, e.g. buckaroo.
• Finger: Like a vertical domino, but the domino is attached orthogonally to something, e.g. T-nosed p4.
• Thumb: Like a corner bit, but the dot is diagonally attached to something, e.g. Thumb 1.

Strength of sparkers

A sparker oscillator can be considered "strong", "moderate" or "weak" depending on its relation to the rest of the oscillator. This does not necessarily correlate to how accessible the spark is, because examples like 101 which have very inaccessible sparks are still considered "strong" under this classification scheme.^{[citation needed]}

• "Strong": the oscillator creates a spark that is a separate island, and the oscillator is not affected if the spark is removed, e.g. Unix, blocker and middleweight volcano.
• "Moderate": the oscillator creates a spark that is a separate island, but the spark is still required for the oscillator to survive, e.g. mold, fumarole and figure eight.
• "Weak": the oscillator includes one or more cells at its edge that remain connected to the oscillator, but can still be used to catalyze other nearby patterns, e.g. caterer, T-nosed p4 and thumb 1.

Smoke

Smoke is debris that is fairly long-lived but eventually dies out completely. Thus, it is basically a large spark, but the term is used especially when talking about the output from a spaceship (as in a smoking ship).

Tail spark

A tail spark is a spark that appears at the back of a spaceship. For example, there is a one-bit tail spark at the back of a lightweight spaceship, middleweight spaceship, and heavyweight spaceship in their less dense phases.

Belly spark

The belly spark is the part of a middleweight spaceship's or heavyweight spaceship's spark that is not its tail spark.

See also

• List of sparkers

External links

• Spark at Wikipedia

• Spark at the Life Lexicon