Help with names

[GUYTU6J]

I decide to translate some English to Chinese,but I don't really understand why these objects are named so.
----------still lives----------
aircraft carrier
professor
shillelagh
omnibus
narcissus(xs36_rr0vhe0ehv0rr)
symmetrical synapse,(xs38_69ab8ba96z695d1d596)
----------osc p2----------
by flops
why not
cha cha
fox
laputa
negentropy
----------osc p3----------
candelabra
candlefrobra
caterer
biting off more than they can chew
stillater
protein
new five
hustler
germ
en retard
crowd
cousins
double ewe
surprise
----------other osc----------
mold,p4
mazing,p4
jack,p4
penny lane,p4
wavefront,p4
siesta,p5
chemist,p5
mathematician,p5
technician,p5
voldiag,p5
pentoad,p5
pentant,p5
pedestle,p5
montana,p5
blonker,p6
$rats,p6
extremely impressive,p6
burloaferimeter,p7
airforce,p7
hebdarole,p7
R2D2,p8
jolson,p15
eureka,p30
zweiback,p30
hectic,p30
gourmet,p32
popover,p32
6 bits,p75
centinal,p100
----------other----------
titanic toroidal traveler
washerwoman
thunderbird
caber tosser
wasp,p3 ship
enterprise,p4 ship
orion,p4 ship
hammerhead,p4 ship
lumps of muck
quetzal
t-tetsons
ecologist,p20 ship
mosquito
birthday puffer

[Alexey_Nigin]

I will give it a try.

Professor

The blocks look like eyes, the cells below them form a moustache and the cells above are like eyebrows. Who has big eyebrows and moustache? Professor!

Code: Select all

x = 9, y = 11, rule = B3/S23
b2o3b2o$o2bobo2bo$2obobob2o$3bobo$2obobob2o$2obobob2o$3bobo$3bobo$2obo
bob2o$o2bobo2bo$b2o3b2o!

Symmetrical synapse

Synapse is a connection between neurons, and it looks much like this still life. But two "ends" of a synapse are very different, unlike two parts of the still life. Hence the first word of the name.

Code: Select all

x = 9, y = 9, rule = B3/S23
bobobobo$ob2ob2obo$o7bo$b7o2$b7o$o7bo$ob2ob2obo$bobobobo!

Biting off more than they can chew

In this oscillator, eaters try to devour a pond predecessor, but apparently fail.

Code: Select all

x = 12, y = 12, rule = B3/S23
o11b$3o9b$3bo8b$2b2o8b$3b2o7b$4b2o6b$3bo2bo5b$3bo2b2o4b$4b2ob3o2b$8bob
ob$10bob$10b2o!

New five

Something about five-cell rotor?

Code: Select all

x = 9, y = 9, rule = B3/S23
2b2o5b$bo2bo4b$bobo2bo2b$2obob2o2b$o8b$b3ob4o$5bo2bo$ob2o5b$2ob2o

R2D2

The name derives from a form with a larger and less symmetric stator discovered by Noam Elkies in August 1994.

I don't know what the original stator was, but even with the new one the oscillator resembles R2D2 quite a lot (or maybe it's just me watching too much Star Wars). Does anybody have that old stator?

Code: Select all

x = 11, y = 10, rule = B3/S23
5bo5b$4bobo4b$3bobobo3b$3bobobo3b$2obo3bob2o$2obo3bob2o$3bo3bo3b$3bobo
bo3b$4bobo4b$5bo!

Centinal

"Cent" means 100 (oscillator's period) and "inal" is probably just a fancy suffix.

Code: Select all

x = 52, y = 17, rule = B3/S23
2o48b2o$bo48bob$bobo21b2o21bobob$2b2o8bo12b2o12b2o7b2o2b$11b2o26bobo
10b$10b2o29bo10b$11b2o2b2o22b3o10b4$11b2o2b2o22b3o10b$10b2o29bo10b$11b
2o26bobo10b$2b2o8bo12b2o12b2o7b2o2b$bobo21b2o21bobob$bo48bob$2o48b2o!

Enterprise

You should watch more Star Trek.

Code: Select all

x = 21, y = 21, rule = B3/S23
8bo12b$6b2obo11b$4b2o3bo11b$3bo3b2o12b$2bo4b2obo10b$bo2b2ob3obo9b$bo
19b$3bobo3b2o10b$2o3bobo13b$o3bo3b2o11b$bo2b2o2bo2bo9b$4b2o3bo8bo2b$
10bobo3bobobo$12b2ob3o2bo$12b2o4b2ob$13bob2o4b2$11bobo7b$11bo9b$11b3o
7b$12bobo!

Ecologist

It has a huge spark that can be used to delete debris.

Code: Select all

x = 27, y = 18, rule = b3/s23
bo2bo5b2o15b$o8b4o14b$o3bo3b2ob2o14b$4o5b2o16b4$11b2o14b$2b3o7b2o13b$
2bo6bo2bo14b$2bobo6bo15b$3b2o3b2o17b$25b2o$25bob$bo2bo18b3ob$o26b$o3bo
22b$4o!

Birthday puffer

This puffer was found on Adam P. Goucher's birthday.

Code: Select all

x = 16, y = 16, rule = B3/S23
bbboobbbboobbbbo$
ooboobboobbobooo$
obboooooobboooob$
bbboobobobboooob$
bbboobbobbobbboo$
bboooboobbbobobb$
oboobobbbooobboo$
oobooobobooobobb$
ooobbobobooobooo$
obbobobooobobobb$
boooboobbbbbbobb$
ooobboobooboobob$
bbobobbbobbbbobo$
bboboboooobbobbo$
bobbbboobboooooo$
obbbbbbboooobbbb!

Let me know if my explanations are not clear enough.

[muzik]

Bread is infamous for getting mouldy even when it's physically impossible for it to grow. A loaf is bread before it gets cut. Mold grows on the loaf still life.

Code: Select all

x = 6, y = 5, rule = B36/S23
3b3o$bob3o$obobo$o2bo$b2o!

[GUYTU6J]

Thanks!I have only a non-english background

[Scorbie]

Bread is infamous for getting mouldy even when it's physically impossible for it to grow. A loaf is bread before it gets cut. Mold grows on the loaf still life.

Huh! Didn't know that until now. Thanks! And that's why jam is named jam!

R2D2

The name derives from a form with a larger and less symmetric stator discovered by Noam Elkies in August 1994.

I don't know what the original stator was, but even with the new one the oscillator resembles R2D2 quite a lot (or maybe it's just me watching too much Star Wars). Does anybody have that old stator?

I think I saw that on jslife/p8. Not sure.

[GUYTU6J]

I think I saw that on jslife/p8. Not sure.

This?

Code: Select all

x = 13, y = 13, rule = B3/S23
3$5b2ob2o$4bobobo$4bobobo$b2obo3bob2o$b2obo3bob2o$4bo3bo$4bobobo$5b2ob
2o!

[Scorbie]

I think I saw that on jslife/p8. Not sure.

This?

Code: Select all

x = 13, y = 13, rule = B3/S23
3$5b2ob2o$4bobobo$4bobobo$b2obo3bob2o$b2obo3bob2o$4bo3bo$4bobobo$5b2ob
2o!

Yeah. View it sideways and it looks like an R2D2.

Code: Select all

x = 8, y = 11, rule = B3/S23
3b2o$3b2o2$b6o$o6bo$2o3b3o2$8o$o6bo$3b2o$3b2o!

[praosylen]

Narcissus:

Code: Select all

x = 5, y = 11, rule = B3/S23
2ob2o$2ob2o2$5o$o3bo$b3o2$b3o$o3bo$5o2$2ob2o$2ob2o!

The name of the flower known in English as "Narcissus" comes from a story from Greek mythology in which a young hunter, named Narcissus, falls in love with his own reflection in a pool (don't ask). This still life is composed of two mirrored copies (like a reflection in a pool) of an induction coil looking like a smiling face (which would be Narcissus's).

Cha cha:

Code: Select all

x = 8, y = 6, rule = B3/S23
4bo$2bobobo$obobobo$bobobobo$bobobo$3bo!

In English, "cha cha" and "tea tea" are not the same thing. "Cha cha" generally refers to a style of dancing that includes a quick back-and-forth step, and is named for the sound this step makes.

Voldiag:

Code: Select all

x = 27, y = 27, rule = B3/S23
6b3o$4b2o$4bo$4bo3bo$b3ob2o$bo2bobo3b2o$o3b2o4bo3bo$o8bo2b3o$o2bo5bo4b 2o$7b2o3bo$5b2o4b3o3bo$5bo4bob3obobo$7bob3o2bo2b2o$7bo2b2o$6b3o2b2o7b 2o$8bo10b2o$11bo8bobo$10bobo5bobob3o$11b2o4bobo5bo$15bo2bo5b2o$14b4o$ 14bo$16b2o$17bo$17bobo$18b2o! 

This is a highly-volatile diagonally-symmetric period-5 oscilator.

Blonker

Code: Select all

x = 12, y = 8, rule = B3/S23
o2b2o4bo$2o2bob2obo$4bobo$5b2o$7bo$7bo3bo$9bobo$10bo!

The name is a portmanteau of "block" and "blinker", which appear at either end of the oscillator.

Mosquito
The image on the wiki page (as well as those on the pages for Mosquitoes 2 through 5) looks somewhat reminiscent of the shape of a mosquito.

[GUYTU6J]

Thanks!

[dvgrn]

aircraft carrier: John Conway's term (cf. LifeLine 2:12). I'm guessing the thought was "need another variation on the 'vessel' theme -- tub to boat to ship to ??. And since this is the same six cells as a ship, but moved to increase the size... okay, an aircraft carrier is a big ship with kind of square ends."

shillelagh: A shillelagh is an Irish walking stick/weapon, a "knotty stick with a large knob at the top". It's a bit of a stretch to see the similarity, but a lot of Life names need about this amount of imagination.

omnibus: "Omnibus" just means "for all" in Latin, but the word got applied to public vehicles in Paris and London in 1820-30, and that's where the short form "bus" eventually came from. Seems to me "omnibus" is now usually applied to big double-decker buses -- or maybe just British buses, I'm not sure. We just have regular buses here in the American Midwest.

Anyway, it appears that Adam Goucher applied "omnibus" to the 40-bit Life pattern for a combination of reasons -- unusual size, combined with unusual behavior: "Wait for ages to find one, and then four come along in quick succession" (in early Catagolue searches).

Buses that start out spaced at equal distances along a route tend to get clumped together over time, without even any need for a conspiracy of transportation bureaucrats to make them as useless as possible. Flanders and Swann mentioned this trait of omnibuses in a song called "A Transport of Delight", over half a century ago:

"We like to drive in convoys, we're most gregarious --
The big six-wheeler scarlet-painted London transport diesel-engined 97-horsepower omnibus."

I think that finishes off the still lifes. Anyone want to tackle the rest of osc-p2? Here are the remaining unexplained terms:

Code: Select all

----------osc p2----------
by flops
why not
fox
laputa
negentropy
----------osc p3----------
candelabra
candlefrobra
caterer
stillater
protein
hustler
germ
en retard
crowd
cousins
double ewe
surprise
----------other osc----------
mazing,p4
jack,p4
penny lane,p4
wavefront,p4
siesta,p5
chemist,p5
mathematician,p5
technician,p5
pentoad,p5
pentant,p5
pedestle,p5
montana,p5
$rats,p6
extremely impressive,p6
burloaferimeter,p7
airforce,p7
hebdarole,p7
jolson,p15
eureka,p30
zweiback,p30
hectic,p30
gourmet,p32
popover,p32
6 bits,p75
----------other----------
titanic toroidal traveler
washerwoman
thunderbird
caber tosser
wasp,p3 ship
orion,p4 ship
hammerhead,p4 ship
lumps of muck
quetzal
t-tetsons

[muzik]

The caterer caters to other oscillators and serves a single cell.

Code: Select all

x = 6, y = 8, rule = B3/S23
b3o$5bo$o4bo$4bo$b2o$bo$bo$bo!

[GUYTU6J]

Thanks!I want to add a term:Emu

[dvgrn]

Thanks!I want to add a term:Emu

A real-world emu is a large flightless bird from Australia. The Life Lexicon mentions 'emu' as 'Dave Buckingham's term for a Herschel loop that does not emit gliders (and so is "flightless")'. So that's the main etymological connection: no gliders flying out of a loop -> "flightless".

This analogy of giant gliderless loops with large flightless birds was later extended to the name "Quetzalcoatlus", which is a very very large bird (well, dinosaur, but that's where birds came from) that could actually fly after all.

At first, the only Herschel loops that could be built in the range from period 54 to period 61 were emu loops: a Herschel's first natural glider can't escape if another Herschel comes along before T=62, so it was only possible to make a loop work if all the output gliders were suppressed. Spark-assisted conduits were eventually found that allowed non-FNG gliders to escape. That trick made the Quetzal true-period guns able to "fly".

[GUYTU6J]

Why the Hertz oscillator is named so?

[GUYTU6J]

What does "blue" mean in MWSS out of the blue?
Also,is there a full list of prefixes which are used to name those barberpoles?

[wildmyron]

What does "blue" mean in MWSS out of the blue?
Also,is there a full list of prefixes which are used to name those barberpoles?

Out of the blue

Something that happens out of the blue is sudden and unexpected.
Example: "They seemed to be talking calmly when out of the blue she slapped him in the face!"

It is as if suddenly it started raining on a day when the sky was clear and blue.
Example: "Why did she do that?" Reply: "I have no idea. It was completely out of the blue."

You are surprised and unprepared when it happens out of the blue.
Example: "Did you know they would move you to a different project?" Reply: "Not at all. It was completely out of the blue."

[muzik]

Also,is there a full list of prefixes which are used to name those barberpoles?

bis - Latin for twice
tria - Greek, three
quattuor - Latin, four
pente - Greek, five
hex - Greek, six
sept - Latin, seven
oct - Latin, eight
All the ones after this are Latin I do believe

[GUYTU6J]

bis - Latin for twice
tria - Greek, three
quattuor - Latin, four
pente - Greek, five
hex - Greek, six
sept - Latin, seven
oct - Latin, eight
All the ones after this are Latin I do believe

Oh,can you continue to list please?Because it is quite different from this.

[muzik]

bis - Latin for twice
tria - Greek, three
quattuor - Latin, four
pente - Greek, five
hex - Greek, six
sept - Latin, seven
oct - Latin, eight
All the ones after this are Latin I do believe

Oh,can you continue to list please?Because it is quite different from this.

Nina, deca, undeca, duodeca, tredeca, quatturodeca

That's actually the page I copied most of them from lmao

[Gamedziner]

That's actually the page I copied most of them from lmao

I think you copied the parts under the "etymology" tab and not the "root" tab for some of them.

[GUYTU6J]

Nina, deca, undeca, duodeca, tredeca, quatturodeca

That's actually the page I copied most of them from lmao

Next is pentadeca!
Why don't we just simply change the "ium" suffix to "pole"

[drc]

Anybody else remember when the page for "Decapole" said that it was the "Biggest pattern ever constructed in 2016"?

[muzik]

Nina, deca, undeca, duodeca, tredeca, quatturodeca

That's actually the page I copied most of them from lmao

Next is pentadeca!
Why don't we just simply change the "ium" suffix to "pole"

We don't synthesise new barberpoles by smashing atoms together though. Although, we do with gliders... anyone up for creating a Periodic Table of Barberpoles?

Also, isn't the next one quindeca? Pentadeca would just be a nonsensical mashup of Latin and Greek (15 in greek is decapente, though)

[GUYTU6J]

Also, isn't the next one quindeca? Pentadeca would just be a nonsensical mashup of Latin and Greek (15 in greek is decapente, though)

Oh sorry,I knew nothing about this

[GUYTU6J]

Add two terms:B-52 bomber(Why it is a bomber?)
and AK-47 reaction(Is that just because AK-47 gun is famous? )