Heavyweight spaceship

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Heavyweight spaceship
3b2o$bo4bo$o$o5bo$6o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ AUTOSTART ]] #C [[ Y 1.5 TRACKLOOP 4 -1/2 0 THUMBSIZE 2 GPS 4 ]]
Pattern type Spaceship
Family XWSS
Number of cells 13
Bounding box 7 × 4
Frequency class 15.7
Direction Orthogonal
Period 4 (mod: 2)
Speed c/2 | 2c/4
Heat 19
Kinetic symmetry n-c
Discovered by John Conway
Year of discovery 1970

The heavyweight spaceship (commonly abbreviated to HWSS) or (rarely) big fish is the fourth most common spaceship after the glider, lightweight spaceship and middleweight spaceship. It was found by John Conway in 1970 and travels at a speed of c/2 orthogonally. Its domino spark can be used to stabilize several tagalongs, including sidecar and half of x66. It is one of only three known spaceships that is a polyomino in any of its phases.

Construction

In 1973, Douglas G. Petrie made the first 8-glider synthesis for a heavyweight spaceship, involving a 3-glider ship, a 2-glider eater 1, and three other gliders from different directions in the final step.[1] Later, a head-on 3-glider collision producing a clean HWSS was found by Dave Buckingham.[2]

A number of different known ways to construct a heavyweight spaceship can be found in Mark Niemiec's glider synthesis database.[3]

There are four-object one-glider seeds for the HWSS, consisting of a loaf, a beehive and two blocks.[4][5] There are also three 1G seeds for the heavyweight spaceship in the octo3obj database.[6]

x = 9, y = 8, rule = B3/S23 bo$2bo$3o$7b2o$6b2o$2b2o4bo$b2o$3bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THEME Book ZOOM 10 AUTOSTART GPS 8 T 0 PAUSE 1 T 47 PAUSE 1 LOOP 48 ]]
3G synthesis for the HWSS
(click above to open LifeViewer)

Occurrence

See also: List of natural spaceships

The HWSS is the thirty-fifth most common object on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue.[7]

It is the fourth most common natural spaceship, being less common than the middleweight spaceship but about 355,000 times more common than MWSS on MWSS 1.

There are 26 results in the octohash database, 322 results in the octo3obj database,[note 1] and 30 three-glider collisions in the octo3g database with at least one escaping HWSS.

Interactions with other objects

The side and tail sparks allow an HWSS to make changes to other objects without being affected itself -- a "Heisenburp" effect. For example, gliders approaching from behind can be deleted in five different ways, or can be converted into a block, B-heptomino, or beehive, that can be reanimated to make catch and throw technologies, as shown below.

x = 90, y = 38, rule = B3/S23 7b3o18bo$6bo2bo17b3o$9bo16b2obo17b3o$5bo3bo16b3o18bo2bo$5bo3bo16b3o18b o19b3o18bo$b2o6bo11b2o3b3o12b2o4bo3bo9b2o4bo2bo10b2o4b3o$obo3bobo11bob o4b2o11bobo4bo3bo8bobo4bo12bobo3b2obo$2bo19bo19bo4bo14bo4bo3bo10bo3b3o $48bobo16bo3bo14b3o$67bo18b3o$68bobo16b2o20$27b3o$27bo2bo17bo19bo$27bo 19b3o17b3o$27bo3bo15bob2o15b2obo$27bo3bo16b3o15b3o$21b2o4bo13b2o5b3o 10b2o3b3o$20bobo5bobo9bobo5b3o9bobo3b3o$22bo19bo5b2o12bo4b2o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 WIDTH 1200 HEIGHT 600 ZOOM 12 GPS 5 ]]
First row: the five ways to delete a forward glider with an HWSS. Second row: three HWSS Heisenburp reactions with a forward glider
(click above to open LifeViewer)
RLE: here Plaintext: here

Two HWSSes can escort XWSS-like objects that would otherwise be unstable, forming a c/2 spaceship. Two similar examples are shown below.

x = 10, y = 18, rule = B3/S23 6b2o$4bo4bo$3bo$3bo5bo$3b6o4$b2o$2ob7o$b8o$2b6o2$6b2o$4bo4bo$3bo$3bo5b o$3b6o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ GPS 5 TRACKLOOP 20 -1/2 0 THUMBSIZE 3 WIDTH 800 HEIGHT 560 ]]
Two HWSSes escorting an otherwise unstable object, creating spaceship 51P20H10V0
(click above to open LifeViewer)
RLE: here Plaintext: here
Catagoluehere
x = 10, y = 17, rule = B3/S23 6b2o$4bo4bo$3bo$3bo5bo$3b6o4$b2o$2ob7o$b9o$2b8o$6b2o$4bo4bo$3bo$3bo5bo $3b6o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ GPS 5 TRACKLOOP 20 -1/2 0 THUMBSIZE 3 WIDTH 800 HEIGHT 560 ]]
Two HWSSes escorting an otherwise unstable object, creating spaceship 51P20H10V0.1 (Very long Coe ship between two HWSS[note 2])
(click above to open LifeViewer)
RLE: here Plaintext: here
Catagoluehere


Gallery

Notes

  1. There are two collisions (headerless RLEs are 10b3o$6b3obo$11bo$2o$2o7bo$9bo$9bo! and 10b3o$6b3obo$11bo$2o$2o$8b3o!), both converging to the same sequence, with two escaping heavyweight spaceships. The final population is 425.
  2. according to Mark Niemiec: https://conwaylife.com/ref/mniemiec/flotilla.htm#ss-3c

See also

References

  1. Robert Wainwright (June 1973). Lifeline, vol 10, page 5.
  2. Robert Wainwright (September 1973). Lifeline, vol 11, page 18,19.
  3. The 1 thirteen-bit spaceship at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page (download pattern file: ss/13hw.rle)
  4. Extrementhusiast (June 24, 2013). Re: Blockic Seeds (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
  5. knightlife (June 28, 2013). Re: Blockic Seeds (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
  6. Dave Greene (October 21, 2022). Re: Octohash fingerprints (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
  7. Adam P. Goucher. "Statistics". Catagolue. Retrieved on June 24, 2016.

External links