Wicktrailer

A wicktrailer is any extensible tagalong or component that can be attached to itself, as well as to the back of a spaceship. The number of generations that it takes for the component to occur again in the same place is often called the "period" of the wicktrailer (P), and is its period as a component (p) times the length (distance between copies, l) divided by the greatest common denominator of the length and displacement per period (s) (ie. P=p*l/gcd(l,s), or equivalently (using the least common multiple) P=p*lcm(l,s)/s).

See branching spaceship for an example of a wicktrailer that is part of a p2 spaceship, but repeats itself in the same location at period 20.

External links

• Wicktrailer at the Life Lexicon