Blinker

Blinker
3o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ AUTOSTART ]] #C [[ LOOP 2 GPS 2 THUMBSIZE 2 ]]
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Pattern type	Muttering moat Oscillator
Number of cells	3
Bounding box	3 × 3
Period	2
Mod	Unknown
Heat	4
Volatility	0.80
Strict volatility	0.80
Discovered by	John Conway
Year of discovery	1970
Rules Outer-totalistic rules B3/S2 – B345678/S02345678 # of rules 212 = 4096
Glider synthesis Fewest gliders 2 Uploaded synthesis RLE blinker_synth.rle
Pattern files Plaintext blinker.cells RLE blinker.rle

The blinker is the smallest and most common oscillator, found by John Conway in March 1970. It is one of only a handful of known oscillators that is a polyomino, and it is the only known oscillator that is one cell thick (although the pentadecathlon is "almost" one cell thick in that there is a one cell thick pattern that is a grandparent of it).

Blinkers are very commonly formed in a set of four called the traffic light; they can similarly be born in two potential sets of six, the interchanges. There is also a fairly common constellation of four blinkers and two boat-ties.

Commonness

The blinker is more than one hundred times as common in Achim Flammenkamp's census as the second most common oscillator, the toad. The blinker is also the second most common object on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue.

External links

• Blinker at the Life Lexicon

• Blinker at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue