Glider-producing switch engine

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Glider-producing switch engine
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Pattern type Puffer
Number of cells 123
Bounding box 67 × 60
Frequency class 21.0
Direction Diagonal
Period 384
Speed c/12
Discovered by Charles Corderman
Year of discovery 1971

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.

Because of its easy construction (see its predecessors below), it has appeared in some superlinear growth patterns including mosquito 3.[1]

Commonness

The glider-producing switch engine is the second most common naturally-occurring pattern that exhibits infinite growth, the most common being the block-laying switch engine. It is also the ninety-first most common object on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue.[2]

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.[3]

Synthesis

Although clean synthesis of the glider-producing switch engine requires 4 gliders, Michael Simkin found a 3-glider collision in October 2014 which includes the puffer in its ash.[4] This collision has the minimum number of gliders necessary to exhibit infinite growth, and is the only known 3-glider collision to do so.

The debris left behind by the glider-producing switch engine
The time bomb is a predecessor of the glider-producing switch engine
RLE: here
Another simple predecessor of the glider-producing switch engine
Download RLE: click here

References

  1. ↑ "Mosquito 3". The Life Lexicon. Stephen Silver. Retrieved on June 1, 2009.
  2. ↑ Adam P. Goucher. "Statistics". Catagolue. Retrieved on June 24, 2016.
  3. ↑ "Time bomb". The Life Lexicon. Stephen Silver. Retrieved on May 16, 2009.
  4. ↑ Michael Simkin (October 24, 2014). Re: Making switch-engines (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums