cellular automata A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...

, a methuselah is a small "seed" pattern of initial live cells that take a large number of generations in order to stabilize. More specifically,

Martin Gardner Martin Gardner (October 21, 1914May 22, 2010) was an American popular mathematics and popular science writer with interests also encompassing scientific skepticism, micromagic, philosophy, religion, and literatureespecially the writings of Lewis ...

defines them as patterns of fewer than ten live cells which take longer than 50 generations to stabilize, although some patterns that are larger than ten cells have also been called methuselahs. Patterns must eventually stabilize to be considered methuselahs. The term comes from the Biblical

Methuselah Methuselah () ( he, מְתוּשֶׁלַח ''Məṯūšélaḥ'', in pausa ''Məṯūšālaḥ'', "His death shall send" or "Man of the javelin" or "Death of Sword"; gr, Μαθουσάλας ''Mathousalas'') was a biblical patriarch and a ...

, who lived for 969 years.

In Conway's Game of Life

Conway's Game of Life The Game of Life, also known simply as Life, is a cellular automaton devised by the British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. It is a zero-player game, meaning that its evolution is determined by its initial state, requiring no further ...

, one of the smallest methuselahs is the R-

pentomino Derived from the Greek word for ' 5', and "domino", a pentomino (or 5-omino) is a polyomino of order 5, that is, a polygon in the plane made of 5 equal-sized squares connected edge-to-edge. When rotations and reflections are not considered to ...

, a pattern of five cells first considered by Conway himself, that takes 1103 generations before stabilizing with 116 cells. The acorn, a pattern of only seven live cells developed by Charles Corderman, takes 5206 generations to stabilize and produce a 633-cell pattern referred to as its "oak". Some other examples of methuselahs are called bunnies and rabbits.

References

External links

List of longest-lived methuselahs
at LifeWiki {{Conway's Game of Life Cellular automaton patterns