Almost knightship
| Almost knightship | |||||||||
| View static image | |||||||||
| Pattern type | Miscellaneous | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Number of cells | 67 | ||||||||
| Bounding box | 13 × 19 | ||||||||
| Discovered by | Eugene Langvagen | ||||||||
| Year of discovery | 2004 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| |||||||||
Almost knightship is a partial spaceship discovered by Eugene Langvagen on March 23, 2004 using afind.[1] It would have been an elementary knightship if two cells at the back end were not incorrect after the 6th generation, which provided evidence that small elementary knightships may exist within a considerably small bounding box. The original search also found a slightly longer incomplete result with more incorrect cells.
Several more small almost knightships were found by Tomas Rokicki in February 2018, using a SAT solver,[2] of velocities (2,1)c/6 and (2,1)c/7. Further searching by Adam P. Goucher based on these partials led to the finding of a true elementary knightship, Sir Robin. Similarly, another almost knightship by Dylan Chen[3] was completed to give Sprayer. However, as of July 2023, none of the knightships uses the front end of the original almost knightship.
A further (2,1)c/7 almost knightship where 4 extra cells are produced in the formation of a spark was found by Goucher on December 12, 2020.[4] As of November 2023, though, no period-7 knightships have been found in regular Life.
| (2,1)c/7 almost knightship that emits a deadly spark. (click above to open LifeViewer) |
Image gallery
 generation 0 (left) and generation 6 (right) show that the pattern is different by only two cells |
References
- ↑ Eugene Langvagen (March 23, 2003). "Miscellaneous". PLife Home Page. Retrieved on May 28, 2022.
- ↑ Tomas Rokicki (February 14, 2018). Four new almost-knightships CGOL (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ praosylen (January 22, 2021). Re: Four new almost-knightships CGOL (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Adam P. Goucher (December 12, 2020). Message in #cgol on the Conwaylife Lounge Discord server
External links
- Almost knightship at the Life Lexicon