Metacatacryst

Metacatacryst is a 52-cell quadratic growth pattern found by Nick Gotts in December 2000. It is a modification of the catacryst (also found by Gotts) that contains six fewer cells but has a much larger bounding box. In terms of its 52 cells, it had been at one time the smallest known pattern that exhibits superlinear growth, but was superceded by 26-cell quadratic growth, which had been also found by Gotts.

Metacatacryst
View static image
Pattern type Breeder
Number of cells 52
Bounding box 59739×14663
Direction Unknown
Period Unknown
Speed Unknown
Discovered by Nick Gotts
Year of discovery 2000

Growth rate

Metacatacryst almost undoubtedly exhibits quadratic growth, but it is nowhere near as regular as other breeders. There is a form of expanding feedback loop, as switch engines deplete the gliders. An aperiodic sequence is generated by the resulting pattern of switch engines.

  • Generation 100,000,000 of metacatacryst
  • The bottom-left portion of the catacryst (an ark)
  • The top-left portion of the catacryst (another ark)
  • The top-middle portion of the catacryst (a glider-producing switch engine)
  • The top-right portion of the catacryst
  • Generation 10,000,000,000 of metacatacryst
gollark: I read a good 357k-word story centered around abuse of D&D mechanics, among other things.
gollark: I don't play it, I just know about some random bits of it.
gollark: Well, anarchowhatever *sounds* chaotic, but you just do all the "ah yes look at me I am edgy anarchist" things, so more lawful-leaning there.
gollark: I'll put you down as neutral evil.
gollark: Hmm.
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