Almost knightship

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Almost knightship
4$16bo$11b2o2bo$11bob2o$10bo5b2o$6bobo2bo$5bo$5bo3bo2b3ob2o$5bo3bo4bo$ 10bob2o$6bo3bob2o$5b2ob3o$9b2obo$5b2o2b3o$5b2obo$8b2o4b2o$6b3o$7bo2b3o b2o$8b2o2b2o$9b3o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ ZOOM 12 Y 4 AUTOSTART GPS 2 THUMBSIZE 2 LOOP 7 PAUSE 2 T 6 PAUSE 2 ]]
Pattern type Miscellaneous
Number of cells 67
Bounding box 13 × 19
Static symmetry C1
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.

x = 12, y = 13, rule = B3/S23 3b2ob2o$2bo2b2o2bo$2bo7bo$bo3b2o3bo$2b3ob2ob3o$2bo3bo3bo$3bob7o$b2o2b 3o$2b2o3b2o2$o2bo$b4o$3b2o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 12 GPS 2 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 7 PAUSE 2 LOOP 8 ]]
(2,1)c/7 almost knightship that emits a deadly spark.
(click above to open LifeViewer)

Gallery

generation 0 (left) and generation 6 (right) show that the pattern is different by only two cells

References

  1. Eugene Langvagen‏‎ (March 23, 2003). "Miscellaneous". PLife Home Page. Retrieved on May 28, 2022.
  2. Tomas Rokicki (February 14, 2018). Four new almost-knightships CGOL (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
  3. praosylen (January 22, 2021). Re: Four new almost-knightships CGOL (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
  4. Adam P. Goucher (December 12, 2020). Message in #cgol on the Conwaylife Lounge Discord server

External links