Copperhead

Copperhead
b2o2b2o$3b2o$3b2o$obo2bobo$o6bo2$o6bo$b2o2b2o$2b4o2$3b2o$3b2o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ AUTOSTART ]] #C [[ TRACKLOOP 10 0 -1/10 THUMBSIZE 3 GPS 5 HEIGHT 800 WIDTH 483 ]]
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Pattern type	Spaceship
Number of cells	28
Bounding box	6 × 12
Direction	Orthogonal
Period	10 (mod: Unknown)
Speed	c/10 | Unknown
Heat	27.8
Kinetic symmetry	Unspecified
Discovered by	zdr
Year of discovery	2016
Rules Outer-totalistic rules B3/S23 – B38/S0238 # of rules 23 = 8
Glider synthesis Fewest gliders 22† Uploaded synthesis RLE copperhead_synth.rle †Can be constructed with 15 gliders using the reverse caber tosser universal constructor.
Pattern files RLE copperhead.rle

Copperhead is a c/10 orthogonal spaceship discovered by 'zdr' on March 5, 2016.

Reactions

The ship hauls a block behind it, which makes for interesting reactions involving other ships. Dean Hickerson built a sawtooth, that uses copperhead's ability to turn a heavyweight spaceship into a loaf. It can also eat gliders and middleweight spaceships cleanly from behind, and lightweight spaceships from the side of the block. Its front end can cleanly burn through blinkers, creating a c/10 blinker fuse.

Tagalong

Simon Ekström found a tagalong with a large spark on March 20, 2016. Tanner Jacobi noticed that it can be attached to two other identical tagalongs, thus allowing for ships of arbitrary size. Nico Brown built a puffer and a rake using copperheads with tagalongs to make a signal loop.

Unlike most tagalongs, this tagalong actually temporarily interacts with the hauled block, and is thus not a true tagalong but a whole new spaceship. However, blocks hauled by the tagalongs in tagalong pyramids are unaffected, and are thus true tagalongs.

Synthesis

The first synthesis was proposed by Aidan F. Pierce on the day of discovery. An alternative synthesis utilising fumarole as a predecessor, presented by Tanner Jacobi an hour later, was much more efficient. After optimizations by Mark Niemiec and Chris Cain the total synthesis cost made 22 gliders. A copperhead gun was then completed by Alexey Nigin on March 6, 2016. A faster gun was constructed one day later.

The first copperhead to emerge from the ash of a soup appeared on April 4, 2016 in a D2_+2 haul submitted to Catagolue by Apple Bottom.

Gallery

A simple copperhead eater found by Simon Ekström. View animated image

The phase the copperhead was first found in.

In other rules

DryLife's goldenhead.

In the cellular automaton DryLife, an extremely similar spaceship (dubbed the goldenhead) also travels at c/10 orthogonal. It differs from the normal copperhead by 2 cells in one phase. A normal copperhead at this phase will turn into a goldenhead in DryLife, and conversely this phase will return to a copperhead in normal Life.

See also

• Loafer

References

External links

• Copperhead at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
• Alexey Nigin: New Spaceship Speed in Conway’s Game of Life