Snake

Snake
x = 4, y = 2, rule = B3/S23 ob2o$2obo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THUMBSIZE 3 ZOOM 21 HEIGHT 400 SUPPRESS ]] [[ ZOOM 63 ]]
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Pattern type	Strict still life
Number of cells	6
Bounding box	4 × 2
Frequency class	13.9
Static symmetry	.k (C2_4)
Discovered by	JHC group
Year of discovery	1970
Rules Outer-totalistic rules B/S23 – B35678/S012345678 # of rules 212 = 4096 Isotropic rules B/S2ae3n – B2-ac34-r5678/S012345678
Glider synthesis Fewest gliders 4 Catagolue-generated RLE synthesis Uploaded synthesis RLE snake_synth.rle
Pattern files Plaintext snake.cells RLE snake.rle
Identifiers apgcode xs6_bd Pentadecathlon ID 6.1

Snake is a 6-bit still life. It was discovered by the JHC group in 1970.

Use as a rock

Main article: Tutorials/Catalyses#Snake

The snake can act as a rock. An example is shown below in Conduit 1.

x = 24, y = 13, rule = B3/S23 b2o$2bo$bo$b2o6$o3b2o15bo$2o2b2o15bo$b2o18b3o$2o21bo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ HEIGHT 360 GPS 20 THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 16 THEME Book Y 2 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 59 PAUSE 1 LOOP 60 ]]

Conduit 1, showing the snake as a rock catalyst (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here

Its ability to act as a rock means that it can also be used as a memory cell, in the form of a boat-bit:

x = 25, y = 21, rule = B3/S23 bo$2bo$3o9$12bo$13bo$11b3o6$21bob2o$21b2obo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ HEIGHT 360 GPS 20 THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 16 THEME Book Y 2 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 23 GPS 20 PAUSE 3 T 26 GPS 5 PAUSE 4 T 58 GPS 20 PAUSE 5 T 72 GPS 5 PAUSE 1 LOOP 72 ]]

The snake acting as a boat-bit (click above to open LifeViewer)

It is the smallest still life by population that can do this, tied with aircraft carrier, but the snake has a smaller bounding box.

Use as an induction coil

A snake is the cheapest way in both population and bounding box to stabilize a line of three cells, such as in cauldron, and the cheapest in bounding box but not population for a line of five, such as in the eater 3. Snakes are also the most efficient way to stabilize certain non-flat regions such as those in 55P10 and 28P7.2, although aircraft carriers also work for this purpose.

Occurrence

See also: List of common still lifes, Most common objects on Catagolue

Snake is the twenty-first most common still life in Achim Flammenkamp's census, being less common than boat-tie but slightly more common than big S.

It is the 21st most common still life on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue, being less common than boat-tie but more common than big S. It is the rarest still life with 6 cells, being 3.6 times rarer than carrier.

The snake is about twice as common in C2_4 (the symmetry it has) compared to asymmetric soups.

Glider synthesis

Main article: Glider synthesis

There are known ways to construct a snake with four gliders. A number of different syntheses for the snake can be found in Mark Niemiec's glider synthesis database.

On February 20, 2022, a method was found to construct pseudo still lifes consisting of an arbitrarily large stack of snakes. These objects were previously notoriously difficult to synthesize – a stack of three snakes formerly cost 67 gliders to construct, making it by far the most expensive pseudo still life with 18 cells.

x = 98, y = 50, rule = B3/S23 bo$2bo$3o13$95bo$95bobo$95b2o27$63bo$64b2o$63b2o$68bo$67b2o$67bobo! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ HEIGHT 420 ZOOM 10 X 6 Y 27 THEME Book GPS 32 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 164 PAUSE 1 T 208 PAUSE 1 LOOP 209 ]] A two-stage four-glider synthesis for the snake (click above to open LifeViewer)

x = 34, y = 37, rule = B3/S23 15bo$16bo$14b3o18$32b2o$32bo$25b2o3bobo$24bo2bo2b2o$25bobo$26bo$8b2o$ 7bobo$7b2o3$2o$b2o$o$8bo$7bobo$7b2o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ HEIGHT 420 ZOOM 8 THEME Book GPS 32 AUTOSTART T 0 PAUSE 2 T 108 PAUSE 1 LOOP 109 ]] Two one-glider seed constellations for the snake from the octohash database (click above to open LifeViewer)

Extensibility

Snake can be infinitely extended, as illustrated below:

• 
  Long snake
• 
  Very long snake
• 
  Long³ snake
• 
  Long⁴ snake
• 
  Long⁵ snake
• 
  Long⁶ snake
• 
  Long⁷ snake
• 
  Long⁸ snake
• 
  Long⁹ snake

It can also be extended by repeatedly siamising it, this forms coiled snake. This family, together with block, are the only width-2 still lives in Conway's Life.

• 
  Snake
• 
  Snake siamese snake

See also

• Aircraft carrier
• Snake bridge snake
• Silver's p5, period 5 oscillator
• Rattlesnake, period 11 oscillator

External links

• Snake at the Life Lexicon
• Snake at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
• The 5 six-bit still-lifes at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page (download pattern file: 0/6sn.rle)
• Snake at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs