Snake
| Snake | |||||||||
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| Pattern type | Strict still life | ||||||||
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| Number of cells | 6 | ||||||||
| Bounding box | 4 × 2 | ||||||||
| Frequency class | 13.9 | ||||||||
| Static symmetry | .k | ||||||||
| Discovered by | JHC group | ||||||||
| Year of discovery | 1970 | ||||||||
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Snake is a 6-bit still life. It was discovered by the JHC group in 1970.[1]
Use as a rock
- Main article: Tutorials/Catalyses#Snake
The snake can act as a rock. An example is shown below in Conduit 1.
| Conduit 1, showing the snake as a rock catalyst (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here |
Use as an induction coil
A snake is the cheapest way in both population and bounding box to stabilize a line of three cells, such as in cauldron, and the cheapest in bounding box but not population for a line of five, such as in the eater 3. Snakes are also the most efficient way to stabilize certain non-flat regions such as those in 55P10 and 28P7.2, although aircraft carriers also work for this purpose.
Occurrence
Snake is the twenty-first most common still life in Achim Flammenkamp's census, being less common than boat-tie but slightly more common than big S.[2]
It is the 21st most common still life on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue, being less common than boat-tie but more common than big S. It is the rarest still life with 6 cells, being 3.6 times rarer than carrier.[3]
The snake is about twice as common in C2_4 (the symmetry it has) compared to asymmetric soups.
Glider synthesis
- Main article: Glider synthesis
There are known ways to construct a snake with four gliders. A number of different syntheses for the snake can be found in Mark Niemiec's glider synthesis database.[4]
On February 20, 2022, a method was found to construct pseudo still lifes consisting of an arbitrarily large stack of snakes.[5] These objects were previously notoriously difficult to synthesize – a stack of three snakes[6] formerly cost 67 gliders to construct, making it by far the most expensive pseudo still life with 18 cells.[7]
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Extensibility
Snake can be infinitely extended, as illustrated below:
Long8 snake
It can also be extended by repeatedly siamising it, this forms coiled snake. This family, together with block, are the only width-2 still lives in Conway's Life.
Snake
See also
- Aircraft carrier
- Snake bridge snake
- Silver's p5, period 5 oscillator
- Rattlesnake, period 11 oscillator
References
- ↑ Dean Hickerson's oscillator stamp collection. Retrieved on June 18, 2009.
- ↑ Achim Flammenkamp (September 7, 2004). "Most seen natural occurring ash objects in Game of Life". Retrieved on January 15, 2009.
- ↑ Adam P. Goucher. "Statistics". Catagolue. Retrieved on May 5, 2023.
- ↑ The 5 six-bit still-lifes at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page
- ↑ iNoMed (February 20, 2022). Re: Still Life Synthesis Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ A stack of three snakes on Catagolue: xs18_bd0db0bd
- ↑ Adam P. Goucher. "Census". Catagolue. Retrieved on February 15, 2022.
- ↑ GUYTU6J (February 21, 2022). Re: Thread for basic questions (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
External links
- Snake at the Life Lexicon
- Snake at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- The 5 six-bit still-lifes at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page (download pattern file: 0/6sn.rle)
- Snake at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs
- Patterns
- Patterns with Catagolue frequency class 13
- Natural periodic objects
- Periodic objects with minimum population 6
- Patterns with 6 cells
- Patterns found by JHC group
- Patterns found in 1970
- Patterns that can be constructed with 4 gliders
- Still lifes
- Strict still lifes
- Strict still lifes with 6 cells
- Strict still lifes with .k symmetry
- Catalysts
- Diagonal line stabilisations