LifeWiki:Did you know archive

This page contains the various tidbits of information that appear on the LifeWiki main page in the "Did you know..." box.

Did you know...

... that the caterpillar contains over 11 million cells, the 0E0P metacell contains over 18 million cells and the unnamed (34,7)c/156 spaceship contains over 25 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 (and various combinations of two switch engines) are the only infinitely-growing patterns that are known to have ever occurred naturally from an asymmetric random starting configuration?
... that it wasn't until 2023 that Conway's Game of Life was proven to be omniperiodic?
... that the pentadecathlon and the blinker are the only known oscillators that are polyominoes in more than one phase?
... that it is impossible for any finite oscillator to be a phoenix with any period other than 2?
... that the 16 × 16 soup with the longest known lifespan lasts for over 52,000 generations before stabilizing?
... that replicators with quadratic population growth have been known to exist in Conway's Game of Life since the early 1970s, but none were found until 2018 when Adam P. Goucher constructed the 0E0P metacell?
... that the first known p23 oscillator was not found until 2019, the first known p38 oscillator was not found until 2022, and the first p19 and p41 oscillators were not found until 2023?
... that a pattern whose population grows without bound but does not tend to infinity is known as a sawtooth?
... that there are over 35.4 billion distinct strict still lifes with 34 or fewer cells?
... that some infinitely-growing patterns can be constructed with as few as three gliders?
... that quadratically-growing patterns have been found with as few as 20 initial cells?
... that the blinker is the only known finite oscillator that is one cell thick?
... that Gemini, the first spaceship found in Conway's Game of Life that travels in an oblique direction, was discovered in 2010?
... that there are still lifes (such as the quad pseudo still life) that can be split into four stable islands, but not two or three?
... that no new spaceship speeds were discovered between 1970 and 1989?
... that the first stable reflector was found in October 1996, and the first fast stable reflector appeared in 2013, allowing the construction of oscillators of all periods ≥43 ticks?
... that twenty-two spaceship velocities have been constructed, excluding several infinitely adjustable families of ships?
... that there are 71 distinct ways for two gliders to collide, but it is unknown how many distinct 3-glider collisions there are?
... that to display the smallest known gun pattern for a Gemini spaceship at 1 cell = 1 pixel, on a standard-density video monitor, a screen over one mile square would be needed?
... that no odd-period glider guns were known before 1995, when a period 565 p5-spark-assisted B-heptomino loop was constructed by David Buckingham?
... that even though the speed limit for spaceships is c/2 in a vacuum, in a medium of stripes agar there are "spaceships" that can travel at lightspeed along the stripes, or two thirds of lightspeed perpendicular to the stripes?
... that the smallest known spacefiller pattern consists of 107 cells?
... that the smallest known sawtooth pattern in Conway's Life consists of only 177 cells?
... that there are now over two hundred known Herschel conduits, counting stable conduits only, and a much larger number if oscillator-supported conduits are included?
... that the period-21 glider gun discovered in 2021 was the seventh smallest gun in bounding box when found?
... that a pattern exists in which no cell in the unbounded Life plane ever becomes periodic?
... that several different universal constructors in Conway’s Life have been shown to be capable of constructing their own circuitry?
... that there are dozens of known Cordership variants, including puffers, rakes and wickstretchers, with periods of any multiple of 96?
... that greyships have been constructed with speeds of c/2, c/3, c/4, c/5, and 2c/5?
... that most greyships travel parallel to the stripes in their included agars, but a few travel perpendicular to the stripes, or "against the grain"?
... that a pattern has been constructed that calculates and prints out the digits of pi in decimal, and a similar one prints out the decimal digits of the Golden Ratio?
... that several different patterns have been constructed to calculate and display the sequence of prime numbers, and some have been adapted to display only twin primes or Fermat primes?
... that two completely different types of oblique spaceships, the waterbear and the half-baked knightship, were constructed in 2014?
... that no Caterpillar-type spaceships were completed for almost ten years after the original Caterpillar was constructed in 2004, but that two different designs, the waterbear and the centipede, were finished in 2014?
... that the first spiral-growth pattern in Conway's Life was constructed in 2014?
... that among known glider recipes for irreducible objects, the Gemini spaceship has the largest known minimal recipe not counting encoded RCT recipes, currently 173,449 gliders — the runner-up being the self-synthesizing oblique loopship which is its own 144,221-glider synthesis?
... that it was shown in 2014 that any salvo of gliders, no matter how tightly packed, can be constructed by crashing together gliders whose initial positions are farther apart than any chosen finite distance?
... that no spaceships with velocities other than c/4 diagonal (glider), c/2 orthogonal (*WSS variants), and c/12 diagonal (Corderships) had known glider syntheses until 2003, when a 2c/5 spaceship gun was constructed?
... that after ten years with no new small spaceship syntheses, a glider construction was found for the c/7 loafer in 2013 less than three hours after its discovery?
... that a spaceship made of spaceships was only a theoretical concept in Conway's Life (except for 0E0P metacell patterns that were much too large to run) until an explicit universal constructor based example was constructed in 2021?
... that glider constructions for the B29, X66, half-X66 with HWSS, Pushalong 1, 25P3H1V0.1, 30P5H2V0, 30P4H2V0, a pufferfish spaceship, and the weekender were discovered in 2015 — more than twice as many new spaceship recipes as had been completed in the entire previous decade?
... that in 2014 and 2015 alone, more new spaceship syntheses have been completed than were found in all the years between 1970 and 2013?
... that as of September 2023 there are 253 different still lifes known to be constructible by colliding four or fewer gliders, but this list is almost certainly not complete?
... that in 2014 a new natural infinite growth pattern was discovered, starting from a symmetric random starting configuration?
... that the first self-constructing Conway's Life pattern was built in 2010?
... that the first glider synthesis for a c/3 spaceship was completed in 2014?
... that the first "macro-spaceship" gun (a Gemini spaceship gun) was constructed in 2010, followed by the HBK gun in January 2015 and a Demonoid gun in December 2015?
... that the waterbear was the first known high-speed oblique spaceship, many orders of magnitude faster than Gemini spaceships and half-baked knightships?
... that there are no known direct reflectors for lightspeed wire signals, or for signals in 2c/3 wires, but that very large reflectors for these signals can be constructed using stable or periodic circuitry?
... that 24 ten-cell patterns exhibit infinite growth, with 17 unique pattern types, but that it has been proven that no nine-cell pattern exhibits infinite growth?
... that all still lifes up to 22 bits have a known glider synthesis, but that there is a 184-cell still life that cannot be synthesised, so there is a population threshold between these at which not all still lifes can be constructed?
... that the French kiss remained without a glider synthesis until 2013, and there are still fourteen 17-bit p2s that have not been successfully synthesized?
... that Adam P. Goucher's distributed Catagolue soup-search project, started in February 2015, has tested several orders of magnitude more random soups than any previous such project, and has contributed to the reduction of many glider construction recipes?
... that with the appearance of the 0E0P metacell, the number of periods for which strict volatility 1 oscillators were known went from 12 to infinity?
... that Copperhead is not only the first c/10 orthogonal spaceship ever found, but also remarkably compact for a pattern not discovered until 2016?
... that loafer is the fifth smallest non-flotilla spaceship, but was discovered 43 years after the four spaceships smaller than it?
... that despite being the fourth smallest non-flotilla orthogonal spaceship, loafer did not appear from a single randomly generated soup until 2020?
... that all known glider eaters take at least four ticks to recover to their original state after eating a glider?
... that among Life-like (outer-totalistic) rules, Conway's Life's "near neighbours" B35/S23, B36/S23, and B38/S23 are not explosive, but B37/S23 is?
... that there is roughly one chance in 10^(N/3) that a still life appearing out of random soup will have a population of exactly N cells?
... that the number of still lifes with N+1 bits is roughly 2.48 times larger than the number of N-bit still lifes?
... that the odds of a randomly-chosen 20 × 20 soup pattern being a methuselah that lasts between N and N + 1000 ticks, are roughly the same as the odds that it will last any amount of time longer than N + 1000 ticks?
... that all still lifes up to 17 cells can be synthesized at a cost of less than one glider per cell?
... that the first elementary knightship, Sir Robin, was discovered only in 2018, with there having been a very close call in 2004?
... that there is a 5 × 2 counterexample to the Coolout Conjecture, proving that patterns that are internally compatible with stability can not always be made part of a larger still life, no matter what cells are added around the edges?
... that a Conway's Life pattern representing a complete programmable 8-bit computer, consisting only of buckaroos, p60 glider guns, and glider duplicators, was completed in November 2016?
... that whilst no elementary oblique spaceships were found in B3/S23 until 2018, and none have occurred naturally, at least two naturally occurring reactions have been discovered in B38/S23 that travel in an oblique direction?
... that not all statorless oscillators are phoenixes, but statorless period 2 oscillators must be phoenixes?
... that no pattern inside a 6 × 6 bounding box is a Garden of Eden?
... that Garden of Eden patterns with only 45 live cells have been found?
... that there are orphans that are 5 cells high, but 4-cell-high orphans are impossible?
... that 6-cell-high Garden of Eden patterns were constructed as far back as 1973, but 5-cell-high GoEs were unknown until Steven Eker found some in 2016?
... that while both a big S and a ship-tie require four gliders to synthesise individually, there is a dirty 3-glider collision whose final ash contains one of each?

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