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A sawtooth is a finite pattern whose population grows without bound but does not tend to infinity. In other words, it is a pattern with population that reaches new heights infinitely often, but also infinitely often drops below some fixed value. Their name comes from the fact that their plot of population versus generation number looks roughly like an ever-increasing sawtooth graph.

Pattern collection

• 743 patterns (including 347 oscillators, 72 spaceships and 133 still lifes);
• 1788 images (447 animated and 1341 static);
• Over 3000 downloadable pattern files;
• Glider syntheses for 290 patterns.

Download pattern collection 2Mb .zip archive containing the 3000+ pattern files used on the wiki

• ...that no new spaceships were discovered after 1970 until 1989?
• ...that the fastest 90° stable reflector is over four times slower than its 180° counterpart?
• ...that sixteen spaceship velocities have been constructed, and an infinite number have been proven to be possible?
• ...that there are 71 distinct ways for two gliders to collide, but it is unknown how many distinct 3-glider collisions there are?
• ...that the largest interesting pattern constructed, the caterpillar, contains over 11 million cells?
• ...that the Gosper glider gun was the first pattern to be discovered that exhibits infinite growth?
• ...that the block-laying switch engine and the glider-producing switch engine are the only two infinitely-growing patterns that are known to have ever occurred naturally from a random starting configuration?
• ...that oscillators are known that oscillate at all periods other than 19, 23, 34, 38, 41, 43 and 53?
• ...that the pentadecathlon and the blinker are the only known oscillators that are polyominos in more than one phase?
• ...that it is impossible for a period 3 oscillator to be a phoenix?