Lightweight spaceship
The lightweight spaceship (commonly abbreviated to LWSS) or (rarely) small fish[1] is the smallest orthogonal spaceship, and the second most common spaceship after the glider. It moves at speed c/2 and has period 4 (and is therefore often referred to as 2c/4). It was found by John Conway in 1970.
Lightweight spaceship | |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
View animated image | |||||||||||
View static image | |||||||||||
Pattern type | Spaceship | ||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Family | XWSS | ||||||||||
Number of cells | 9 | ||||||||||
Bounding box | 5×4 | ||||||||||
Frequency class | 11.2 | ||||||||||
Direction | Orthogonal | ||||||||||
Period | 4 | ||||||||||
Mod | 2 | ||||||||||
Speed | c/2 | ||||||||||
Speed (unsimplified) | 2c/4 | ||||||||||
Heat | 11 | ||||||||||
Discovered by | John Conway | ||||||||||
Year of discovery | 1970 | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
| |||||||||||
|
Commonness
Random soups investigated by Achim Flammenkamp emitted one LWSS for approximately every 615 gliders.[2] The LWSS is also the eighteenth most common object on Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue.[3]
Tagalong
In April 1992, David Bell found a tagalong for two lightweight spaceships (or two middleweight spaceships or two heavyweight spaceships). It can be extended indefinitely by attaching it to the back of itself. Interestingly, a hivenudger with symmetric rear (that is, both rear spaceships being of same "weight") can pull this tagalong.
See also
References
- "Small fish". The Life Lexicon. Stephen Silver. Retrieved on June 10, 2009.
- "Spontaneous appeared Spaceships out of Random Dust". Achim Flammenkamp (December 9, 1995). Retrieved on August 18, 2011.
- Adam P. Goucher. "Statistics". Catagolue. Retrieved on June 24, 2016.
External links
- LWSS at the Life Lexicon
- The Lightweight Spaceship (glider 1062) at David Eppstein's Glider Database
- LWSS on LWSS at Adam P. Goucher's Catagolue (pseudo-object)
- The 1 nine-bit spaceship at Mark D. Niemiec's Life Page
- 9P4H2V0.1 at Heinrich Koenig's Game of Life Object Catalogs