Eater/block frob
| Eater/block frob | |||||||||||||
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| Pattern type | Oscillator | ||||||||||||
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| Number of cells | 20 | ||||||||||||
| Bounding box | 10 × 10 | ||||||||||||
| Period | 4 (mod: 4) | ||||||||||||
| Heat | 8.5 | ||||||||||||
| Volatility | 0.55 | 0.55 | ||||||||||||
| Kinetic symmetry | Unspecified | ||||||||||||
| Discovered by | David Buckingham | ||||||||||||
| Year of discovery | Unknown | ||||||||||||
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Eater/block frob is a period-4 oscillator found by David Buckingham in 1976 or earlier.[1] Composed of an eater 1, a block, and what is roughly a melusine, it is essentially a tub-with-tail eater constantly being hassled. "Frob" is used by MIT as a generic term meaning "thing".[2]
The block can be replaced with a long hook with tail, and the eater 1 can be replaced with an eater bridge eater or an emulator.
Its grin makes it useful in the p4 bumper.
Carson Cheng found an 11-glider synthesis of this oscillator on June 30, 2022.[3] A 10-glider synthesis was found in April 2023.[4]
Occurrence and variants
This oscillator first appeared naturally on April 3, 2022, in a soup found by Charity Engine using apgsearch,[5] though a seminatural C4_1 tetramerisation occurred on March 4, 2022, 30 days earlier,[6] in which each quadrant's eater head is fused to the roughly-melusine to form a roughly-fuse with tail and nine. The reduction of the 5 cells in the eater body and melusine tail seems to make it easier to find than the monomer, despite each quadrant having to occur at a fixed displacement from the centre. On May 17, 2022, Charity Engine also found a D8_1 oscillator, that contains the frob's rotor in each of its octants, with the roughly-melusine's eater tail's stabilisation fulfilled by gutter preservation, and has 4.5 fewer cells per octant than the monomer.
| (click above to open LifeViewer) |
| (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here |
| (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here |
A similar replacement of the roughly-melusine to that in the D8_1 variant above can be achieved with a dimer with a tub. Two eater/block frobs can also hassle a beacon (that replaces the block for each), in either a cis- or trans- configuration, from which another D8_1 variant has also occurred seminaturally, with the eaters on the outside.
See also
References
- ↑ Dean Hickerson's oscillator stamp collection. Retrieved on March 14, 2020.
- ↑ Mark Niemiec (November 27, 2016). Re: Help with names (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Carson Cheng (June 28, 2022). Re: Synthesising Oscillators (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ shinjuku (#4077651254) (April 7, 2023). Job triggered by Adam P. Goucher at GitLab Catagolue project.
- ↑ Ian07 (April 3, 2022). Re: Soup search results (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ attribute page, first soup
External links
- Eater/block frob at the Life Lexicon
- Eater/block frob at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- The 23 twenty-bit period 4 oscillators at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page (download pattern file: 20/20eebf.rle)
- 20P4.4 at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs
- Eater/long hook with tail frob at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- Eater bridge eater/block frob at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- Patterns
- Oscillators with 20 cells
- Periodic objects with minimum population 20
- Patterns with 20 cells
- Patterns found by David Buckingham
- Patterns that can be constructed with 10 gliders
- Patterns that can be constructed with 8 gliders
- Oscillators
- Oscillators with period 4
- Oscillators with mod 4
- Oscillators with heat 8
- Oscillators with volatility 0.55
- Oscillators with strict volatility 0.55
- Sparkers
- Sparkers with period 4
- Weak sparkers
- Natural periodic objects