Glider-producing switch engine
| Glider-producing switch engine | |||||||
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| Pattern type | Puffer | ||||||
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| Number of cells | 123 | ||||||
| Bounding box | 67 × 60 | ||||||
| Direction | Diagonal | ||||||
| Period | 384 | ||||||
| Speed | c/12 | ||||||
| Discovered by | Charles Corderman | ||||||
| Year of discovery | Unknown | ||||||
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The glider-producing switch engine (or glider-making switch engine) is a puffer that was found by Charles Corderman in the early 1970s. It consists of a switch engine reacting with blocks to produce various still lifes, several blinkers, and a glider every 384 generations.
It is the second most common naturally-occurring pattern that exhibits infinite growth, and is one of only two patterns that exhibits infinite growth that has been known to occur naturally (the other being the block-laying switch engine).
Because of its easy construction (see its predecessors below), it has appeared in some superlinear growth patterns including mosquito 3.[1]
Time bomb
The time bomb (shown below) is a 17-cell pattern that was found by Doug Petrie that evolves into a glider-producing switch engine.[2]
Synthesis
Although clean synthesis of glider-producing switch engine requires 5 gliders, Michael Simkin has found very messy 3 gliders synthesis in 2014[3]. This is the only known three glider synthesis of any infinite growth pattern, and it has the minimal number of gliders possible for infinite growth.
Image gallery
 |
 RLE: here |
 Download RLE: click here |
References
- ↑ Stephen Silver. "Mosquito 3". The Life Lexicon. Retrieved on June 1, 2009.
- ↑ Stephen Silver. "Time bomb". The Life Lexicon. Retrieved on May 16, 2009.
- ↑ Michael Simkin. "3 gliders infinite growth".
External links
- Single switch engine puffer trains at the Life Objects Catalog