Loafer
Loafer | |||||||||
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Pattern type | Spaceship | ||||||||
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Number of cells | 20 | ||||||||
Bounding box | 9 × 9 | ||||||||
Direction | Orthogonal | ||||||||
Period | 7 (mod: 7) | ||||||||
Speed | c/7 | c/7 | ||||||||
Heat | 14.6 | ||||||||
Kinetic symmetry | n | ||||||||
Discovered by | Josh Ball | ||||||||
Year of discovery | 2013 | ||||||||
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Loafer (also the loafer) is a c/7 orthogonal spaceship found by Josh Ball on February 17, 2013.[1] Its name refers to both its slow speed and loaf-pushing behaviour.
It is the fifth smallest known spaceship in terms of cell count (after glider, lightweight spaceship, middleweight spaceship and heavyweight spaceship), being tied with five nontrivial standard spaceship flotillae: LWSS on MWSS 1, LWSS on HWSS 1, LWSS on HWSS 2, MWSS on MWSS 1 and MWSS on MWSS 2.
Loafer ranked second place in the Pattern of the Year 2013 competition in a belated vote held on the ConwayLife.com forums, behind the Snark.[2]
Uses and reactions
On February 22, 2013, Paul Tooke built a sawtooth that uses loafer's ability to turn a middleweight spaceship into a loaf.[3]
On March 9, 2013, Mike Playle found a stable loafer-to-Herschel conduit, apparently by means of the same search program (or its earlier version) that gave the world the Snark a month and a half later.[4]
On June 11, 2016, Simon Ekström created a loafer-to-glider conduit, based on a loafer-to-pi found by praosylen.[5][6]
Nico Brown noted that the loafer can be cleanly destroyed by an eater 1 positioned at the loafer's foot.[7]
Left: a loafer eater found by Nico Brown. Right: a loafer-to-B-heptomino converter by Mike Playle, shown with BFx59H and ghost Herschel. (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here |
Occurrence
- See also: List of natural spaceships
Despite the loafer's remarkably small size, it did not occur naturally until April 1, 2020,[8][note 1] making it the first spaceship of a non-standard speed to occur in an asymmetric soup. A second soup was found by Rob Liston on June 2, 2020,[10] and a third soup in August.[11] Ten loafer-producing soups (of which three are symmetric) have been found as of October 2024.[12]
Catagolue has a dedicated badge which will be given out to anyone who discovers one.
Construction
Adam P. Goucher found an 18-glider synthesis for this spaceship on the day of its discovery which Matthias Merzenich reduced to 8 gliders the following day.[13] Two loafer guns were built by Shannon Omick on February 19th of the same year, using these syntheses.[14]
An one-glider seed for the loafer was constructed in February 2013,[15] followed by a smaller version in March 2015.[16]
A 8G synthesis for the loafer. Repeat time is 154 ticks. (click above to open LifeViewer) |
An 1G seed for the loafer[16] (click above to open LifeViewer) |
In other rules
In 4diagonal (Life with the B4c transition added), there is a 16-cell c/7 spaceship, formed from two copies of half of the loafer's foot mutually supporting each other.[17]
The double-foot spaceship and loafer (click above to open LifeViewer) |
See also
Notes
- ↑ Coincidentally, this occurred exactly two years after Dave Greene posted a fake loafer-producing soup on April Fools' Day 2018.[9]
References
- ↑ Josh Ball (February 17, 2013). Re: c/7 orthogonal spaceships (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ 77topaz (March 29, 2018). Re: Belated Pattern of the Year 2013 competition: Voting (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Paul Tooke (February 22, 2013). Re: c/7 orthogonal spaceships (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Mike Playle (March 9, 2013). Re: c/7 orthogonal spaceships (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ praosylen (18 February 2015). Re: The Hunting of the New Herschel Conduits (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Simon Ekström (11 June 2016). Re: Thread For Requesting Help (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Nico Brown (February 20, 2013). Re: c/7 orthogonal spaceships (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Billabob (April 1, 2020). Re: Soup search results (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Dave Greene (April 1, 2018). Re: I have constructed a lightspeed spaceship in B3/S23! (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Lewis Patterson (June 3, 2020). Re: Soup search results (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ toroidalet (August 17, 2020). Re: Soup search results (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Adam P. Goucher. "Loafer". Catagolue. Retrieved on February, 2024.
- ↑ c/7 Orthogonal Spaceship at Game of Life News. Posted by Adam P. Goucher on March 10, 2013.
- ↑ Shannon Omick (February 18, 2013). Re: c/7 orthogonal spaceships (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Dave Greene (February 21, 2013). Re: c/7 orthogonal spaceships (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Dave Greene (Mar 14, 2015). Re: Quadratic-Growth Geminoid Challenge (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ PHPBB12345 (January 1, 2017). Loafer-like spaceship (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
External links
- Loafer at the Life Lexicon
- Loafer at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- 20P7H1V0.1 at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs
- The 6 twenty-bit spaceships at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page
- Patterns
- Spaceships with 20 cells
- Periodic objects with minimum population 20
- Patterns with 20 cells
- Patterns found by Josh Ball
- Patterns found in 2013
- Patterns that can be constructed with 8 gliders
- Spaceships
- Spaceships with period 7
- Orthogonal spaceships
- Spaceships with speed c/7
- Spaceships with unsimplified speed c/7
- Spaceships with heat 14
- Spaceships with mod 7
- Spaceships with n symmetry
- Pattern of the Year top contenders
- Natural periodic objects