Meatball

Meatball
x = 11, y = 11, rule = B3/S23 8bo$3b2o4b2o$b3ob2o2b2o$o8bo$bob2o$bobo3bobo$6b2obo$bo8bo$2o2b2ob3o$2o 4b2o$2bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ AUTOSTART ]] #C [[ ZOOM 27 GPS 3 LOOP 7 HEIGHT 480 WIDTH 480 ]]
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Pattern type	Oscillator
Number of cells	38
Bounding box	11 × 13
Period	7 (mod: 7)
Heat	32.6
Volatility	0.90 | 0.90
Kinetic symmetry	.c
Discovered by	Charity Engine
Year of discovery	2022
Rules Outer-totalistic rules B3/S23 – B3/S2378 # of rules 22 = 4 Isotropic rules B3/S23-c – B34eq5j6cn7c/S234cew5ceikq6-c78
Glider synthesis Fewest gliders 42† Catagolue-generated RLE synthesis †Can be constructed with 15 gliders using the reverse caber tosser universal constructor.
Pattern files Plaintext meatball.cells RLE meatball.rle
Identifiers apgcode xp7_ok4miewm9azk4q11sjr8a6z01

Meatball is a period-7 oscillator found by Charity Engine on May 28, 2022. It bears similarity to 38P7.2 in terms of its ability to produce sparks, while having a slightly smaller bounding box. It has been used to reduce multiple glider guns, specifically p21 gun and p49 gun.

Its discovery led to the creation of multiple new LCM oscillators which were the smallest oscillators known for their respective periods. However, it has since been beaten out in this regard by 34P7.

Meatball and 34P7 have different profiles; while they are mostly interchangeable, there are some situations where one gets hit later on but the other doesn't. When either could be used, 34P7 has a smaller population, but meatball has a smaller bounding box.

On January 23, 2026, Chris857 constructed a 56-glider synthesis based on a promising soup identified by PK22. Over the next two days, efforts from KtT, Elijah Ken, and Chris857 lowered the cost to 42 gliders.

External links

• Meatball at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
• Meatball at Wikipedia (name origin)