Gliders


A look into a category of life-forms, namely the gliders.

What are gliders?

Gliders belong to a larger class of life forms called spaceships. Spaceships are lifeforms that translate themselves exactly every certain number of ticks. In other words, the lifeform will seem to 'move' itself without changing its shape or size. The glider is shown below:

0  
0 0
00

Simple isn't it? Now lets take a look at how it moves:

 0        0     0                
 0 0 -->00  -->0   -->0 0 -->0   
 00      00    000    00     0 0 
                       0     00

Every four ticks it moves 1 square donwards and 1 square to the left. This process can thus continue indefinitely and so the glider never dies off, nor does it become an oscillating pattern. It commonlly is found amidst the 'debris' generated by other life forms and is seen drifting away from the 'reaction'.

Spaceships


Similar to gliders, spaceships also 'move along' after a certain number of ticks. Clearly gliders are spaceships. Other spaceships include:

   0 
    0
0   0
 0000

A 'lightweight' spaceship.


    0 
     0
0    0
 00000

A 'middleweight' spaceship.


     0 
      0
0     0
 000000

A 'heavyweight' spaceship.


Longer spaceships (overweight) will give off debris that block their passage, and so can only move normally if escorted by smaller spaceships to absorb the debris.

         0   
          0  
    0     0  
     000000  
             
             
             
 000000000000
0           0
            0
           0 
             
         0   
          0  
    0     0  
     000000

An overweight spaceship being escorted.


Glider production


Gliders and spaceships can be produced indefinitely by certain oscillating patterns known as guns. For a furthur discussion on these, click here.

Return to Life.