Weekender
| Weekender | |||||||||||
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| Pattern type | Spaceship | ||||||||||
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| Number of cells | 36 | ||||||||||
| Bounding box | 18 × 12 | ||||||||||
| Direction | Orthogonal | ||||||||||
| Period | 7 (mod: 7) | ||||||||||
| Speed | 2c/7 | 2c/7 | ||||||||||
| Heat | 45.1 | ||||||||||
| Kinetic symmetry | -e | ||||||||||
| Discovered by | David Eppstein | ||||||||||
| Year of discovery | 2000 | ||||||||||
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Weekender is a 2c/7 orthogonal spaceship that was found by David Eppstein on January 12, 2000.[1] Before the discovery of scholar in 2019, n weekenders pulling n − 1 tagalongs constituted the only known spaceships with speed 2c/7, besides self-sustaining loops of weekender conduits. These were the only known period-7 spaceships until the discovery of lobster in 2011, loafer in 2013 and spaghetti monster in 2016.
Despite the relative simplicity of its components, a glider synthesis for the weekender had been elusive since its discovery. A weekender synthesis was completed on January 25, 2015, 15 years after its discovery (and coincidentally, on a weekend).[2] On September 26, 2015, Chris Cain announced a p444 weekender gun based on a 79-glider synthesis, as well as a p451/p457+ glider-to-weekender converter.[3] On September 6, 2021, iNoMed produced a 33-glider recipe[4] based on 35- and 34-glider recipes from a week earlier. A 32-glider synthesis was found in November 2023.[5] On February 9, 2024, iNoMed reduced the synthesis to 29 gliders,[6][7] followed by a reduction to 28 gliders by KtT the same day.[8][9]
On March 5, 2026, Entity Valkyrie constructed a p690 weekender gun, using a synthesis of 27 gliders (with a G-to-beehive catalyst) and an LWSS.[10] Notably, it fits in a 294 × 292 bounding box, and has less than a third the population of Cain's first gun.
Tagalongs
On April 27, 2000, Stephen Silver found a tagalong for a pair of weekenders, as shown below.
| Two weekenders followed by a tagalong (click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here Catagolue: here |
On December 6, 2020, John Winston Garth found doo-dah, a small period-21 tagalong for a single weekender, which in its simplest phase consists entirely of two R-pentomino descendants.[11][12] The spaceship was found using a combination of ikpx2 and apgsearch, with partial results from the former being inputted into the latter via ikpx2's "standard input" feature, with the goal of searching higher-period spaceships and puffers. Garth chose the name "doo-dah" for the tagalong.[13]
Soon after, Matthias Merzenich discovered that a component from the side of 186P7H2V0 can attach to a weekender.[14] On March 19, 2021, Merzenich discovered a width-22 symmetric tagalong for a single weekender[15] and proved that this is the only such period-7 symmetric tagalong at that width.[16]
In 2024, Caleb R. Hilton found a scholar with the traffic light in front removed can act as a tagalong for a pair of scholars or weekenders.[17]
| Weekender tagalong by Matthias Merzenich (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here |
| Scholar as weekender tagalong (click above to open LifeViewer) Catagolue: here |
See also
References
- ↑ Jason Summers' jslife pattern collection.
- ↑ Martin Grant (January 25, 2015). Re: Small Spaceship Syntheses (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Chris Cain (September 26, 2015). Re: Small Spaceship Syntheses (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ 33-glider recipe
- ↑ shinjuku (#5443374497) (November 2, 2023). Job triggered by Adam P. Goucher at GitLab Catagolue project.
- ↑ iNoMed (February 9, 2024). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ shinjuku (#6136674566) (February 9, 2024). Job triggered by Adam P. Goucher at GitLab Catagolue project.
- ↑ KtT (February 9, 2024). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ shinjuku (#6139137922) (February 9, 2024). Job triggered by Adam P. Goucher at GitLab Catagolue project.
- ↑ Entity Valkyrie 2 (March 5, 2026). Re: Thread For Synthesisable Spaceship Guns (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Jiahao Yu (December 6, 2020). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ praosylen (December 6, 2020). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ John Winston Garth (December 6, 2020). Message in #cgol on the Conwaylife Lounge Discord server
- ↑ Matthias Merzenich (December 8, 2020). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Matthias Merzenich (March 19, 2021). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Matthias Merzenich (March 21, 2021). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
- ↑ Caleb R. Hilton (February 28, 2024). Re: Spaceship Discussion Thread (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums
External links
- Searching for Spaceships - Eppstein's paper describing the discovery of the weekender
- Weekender at the Life Lexicon
- Life (B3/S23) at David Eppstein's Glider Database
- Weekender at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue
- 36P7H2V0.1 at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs
- Patterns
- Spaceships with 36 cells
- Periodic objects with minimum population 36
- Patterns with 36 cells
- Patterns found by David Eppstein
- Patterns found in 2000
- Patterns that can be constructed with 28 gliders
- Spaceships
- Spaceships with period 7
- Orthogonal spaceships
- Spaceships with speed 2c/7
- Spaceships with unsimplified speed 2c/7
- Spaceships with heat 45
- Spaceships with mod 7
- Spaceships with -e symmetry
- Non-monotonic spaceships