David Buckingham
| David Buckingham | |
| Born | Unknown |
|---|---|
| Residence | Canada |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Institutions | Unknown |
| Alma mater | University of Waterloo |
David J. Buckingham is a Life enthusiast who has not only found hundreds of important patterns, but who has also greatly developed the theory of what is known about oscillators and glider synthesis.
His most well-known discovery was revealed in 1996; a suite of track components that use eaters and other still lifes to move a Herschel. By combining several of these he showed that it is possible to produce circular conduits that take arbitrarily long to cycle a single Herschel. By placing multiple Herschels in such a conduit, oscillators of relatively small periods can be obtained.
Oscillators of all periods 58 and above can be obtained in this way -- the Herschels collide with each other if they are closer than 58 generations apart. Since Herschels naturally release gliders, this also yields glider guns of all periods 62 and above -- the Herschels collide with the escaping gliders if they are closer than 62 generations apart.
He has also found many other oscillators, including hundreds of billiard table configurations, as well as a basic puffer train. He helped Noam Elkies construct the first period 39 oscillator in July 2000. Similarly, he helped construct the first guns with true period equal to 50, 54, 55, and 56. He, Jason Summers and Dean Hickerson found the first c/12 wickstretcher in March 1999.
He developed most of the existing technology used in glider synthesis of still lifes, oscillators, and spaceships, and methodically generated syntheses of all still lifes and oscillators up to 14 cells, as well as many larger ones. He also significantly expanded the lists of known still lifes, first listing the 12 cell still lifes (simultaneously with Douglas G. Petrie and Everett Boyer), then listing the 13 cell still lifes, and using Peter Raynham's search program to first list the 14 cell still lifes.
See also
External links
- "Game of Life Status page". Retrieved on April 22, 2009.
- David Buckingham at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page (Life Credits)
Patterns found by David Buckingham
$
3
H
P
- P10 traffic light hassler
- P132 pi-heptomino hassler
- P26 pre-pulsar shuttle
- P28 pre-pulsar shuttle
- P29 pre-pulsar shuttle
- P40 B-heptomino shuttle
- P44 pi-heptomino hassler
- P47 pre-pulsar shuttle
- P54 shuttle
- P55 pre-pulsar hassler
- P56 B-heptomino shuttle
- P59 Herschel loop 1
- P60 traffic light hassler
- P61 Herschel loop 1
- P67 Herschel loop
- Pedestle
- Penny lane
- Pentant
- Period-184 glider gun
- Period-246 glider gun
- Period-256 glider gun
- Period-44 glider gun
- Period-808 glider gun
- Period-856 glider gun
- Protein
- Pulsar quadrant
- Pyrotechnecium
U