Conduit: Difference between revisions
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* [http://www.argentum.freeserve.co.uk/lex_c.htm#conduit Conduit] at the Life Lexicon | * [http://www.argentum.freeserve.co.uk/lex_c.htm#conduit Conduit] at the Life Lexicon | ||
* [http://radicaleye.com/lifepage/patterns/bhept/bhept.html] Buckingham on B-heptominos in oscillators | * [http://radicaleye.com/lifepage/patterns/bhept/bhept.html] Buckingham on B-heptominos in oscillators | ||
* [http://radicaleye.com/lifepage/patterns/ssrefl/ssrefl.html] Stephen Silver on stable reflectors | * [http://radicaleye.com/lifepage/patterns/ssrefl/ssrefl.html] Stephen Silver on stable reflectors | ||
[[Category:Conduits| ]] | [[Category:Conduits| ]] | ||
Revision as of 03:34, 8 November 2014
A conduit is an arrangement of still lifes and/or oscillators that move an active object to another location without themselves being permanently damaged. The object may be transformed into a different active object in the process, but no permanent debris may be left behind. Alternatively, gliders or other spaceships may be emitted; they will either abandon the site of their creation, or can be absorbed by eaters. Probably the most important conduit is conduit 1, in which a B-heptomino is transformed into a Herschel in 59 generations.
Herschel conduits
The most prolific stable conduits are those which rotate, reflect or translate a Herschel in a certain number of generations. Oscillators of all periods => 58 can be built using these sixteen elementary conduits. All except the smallest stable reflectors use Herschel conduits, the counter-examples being the rectifier and boojum reflector.
Herschel conduits can be chained in order to form a Herschel track. Karel Suhajda's search program Hersrch automates the process of building a track.
The elementary conduits are codenamed according to the final orientation of the output Herschel relative to the input Herschel, and the number of generations it takes for the output Herschel to reach the same phase as the input Herschel. For example, the R64 conduit performs a right turn in 64 generations; R designates right turn, L left turn, F flip, and x displacement:
- R64
- Fx77
- L112
- F116
- F117
- Fx119
- Bx125
- Fx153
- L156
- Fx158
- F166
- F171
- Fx176
- Lx200
- Rx202
- Bx222
Many of these use the block+snake combination (conduit 1) in order to clean up the output B-heptomino to produce an output Herschel. Dave Greene, with the invention of his boojum reflector, discovered a way to remove this block using the first natural glider of the Herschel. However, these conduits are not considered 'elementary', since they contain a boojum reflector.