Switch engine/Snippet
Revision as of 20:31, 22 August 2012 by Nathaniel (talk | contribs) (moved Tank engine/Pippet to Switch engine/Snippet)
A switch engine is a methuselah that was found by Charles Corderman in 1971. It is unstable by itself, but it can be used to make c/12 diagonal puffers and spaceships.
There are two basic types of stabilized switch engine, both of which were also found by Charles Corderman: the period 288 block-laying switch engine (the more common of the two) and period 384 glider-producing switch engine. These two puffers are the most natural infinite growth patterns in Life, being the only ones ever seen to occur from random starting patterns.