Dot
| Dot | |||||||||
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| Pattern type | Spark | ||||||||
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| Number of cells | 1 | ||||||||
| Bounding box | 1 × 1 | ||||||||
| Static symmetry | D8_1 | ||||||||
| Discovered by | John Conway | ||||||||
| Year of discovery | 1969 | ||||||||
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A dot is a single cell, and it is the only possible haplomino (1-cell polyomino). It is almost exclusively used as a spark, in which case it is referred to as a dot spark.
Dot sparks are one of the most common sparks in existence, and are highly favoured due to their ability to perturb objects.
Despite dots being common, they are usually not alone, for example in obo! spark. A pattern that dies completely will very rarely have exactly one live cell immediately before death. The most common dot parent is the following diagonally symmetric 5-cell pattern.
| Most common dot parent (click above to open LifeViewer) |
Production of dots as sparks
Dot sparks are created by a wide array of oscillators and spaceships. Examples include the xWSS family, all of which create at least one dot spark.
Use in oscillators
The barberpole family of oscillators have rotors comprised solely of isolated dots which sustain life despite immediately dying. Lone dot agars also exist which are agars comprised solely of dots.
Larger objects can also be perturbed by dot sparks to create oscillators of a higher period; see for example bi-block hassler and two pond and two block reaction.
See also
- Corner dot, a specific type of dot spark
- Dot sparkers (category)