Life Lexicon (Q)
Author: Stephen A. Silver
Description: Part of Stephen Silver's Life Lexicon.

Introduction | Bibliography

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:Q = Quetzal

:Q-pentomino Conway's name for the following pentomino, a traffic light predecessor.

    OOOO
    ...O

:quad (p2) Found by Robert Kraus, April 1971. Of all oscillators that fit in a 6x6 box this is the only flipper.

    OO..OO
    O..O.O
    .O....
    ....O.
    O.O..O
    OO..OO

:QuadLife A form of colorized Life in which there are four types of ON cell. A newly-born cell takes the type of the majority of its three parent cells, or the remaining type if its parent cells are all of different types. In areas where there are only two types of ON cell QuadLife reduces to Immigration.

:quadpole (p2) The barberpole of length 4.

    OO.....
    O.O....
    .......
    ..O.O..
    .......
    ....O.O
    .....OO

:quapole = quadpole

:quarter (c/4 diagonally, p4) The following 25-cell spaceship, found by Jason Summers in September 2000. See also tubstretcher.

    ........OO...
    .......OO....
    .........O...
    ...........OO
    ..........O..
    .............
    .........O..O
    .OO.....OO...
    OO.....O.....
    ..O....O.O...
    ....OO..O....
    ....OO.......

:quasar (p3) Found by Robert Wainwright, August 1971. See pulsar.

    ..........OOO...OOO..........
    .............................
    ........O....O.O....O........
    ........O....O.O....O........
    ........O....O.O....O........
    ..........OOO...OOO..........
    .............................
    ........OOO.......OOO........
    ..OOO..O....O...O....O..OOO..
    .......O....O...O....O.......
    O....O.O....O...O....O.O....O
    O....O.................O....O
    O....O..OOO.......OOO..O....O
    ..OOO...................OOO..
    .............................
    ..OOO...................OOO..
    O....O..OOO.......OOO..O....O
    O....O.................O....O
    O....O.O....O...O....O.O....O
    .......O....O...O....O.......
    ..OOO..O....O...O....O..OOO..
    ........OOO.......OOO........
    .............................
    ..........OOO...OOO..........
    ........O....O.O....O........
    ........O....O.O....O........
    ........O....O.O....O........
    .............................
    ..........OOO...OOO..........

:queen bee See queen bee shuttle.

:queen bee shuttle (p30) Found by Bill Gosper in 1970. There are a number of ways to stabilize the ends. Gosper originally stabilized shuttles against one another in a square of eight shuttles. Two simpler methods are shown here; for a third see buckaroo. The queen bee shuttle is the basis of all known true p30 guns (see Gosper glider gun).

    .........O............
    .......O.O............
    ......O.O.............
    OO...O..O.............
    OO....O.O.............
    .......O.O........OO..
    .........O........O.O.
    ....................O.
    ....................OO

:Quetzal Dieter Leithner's name for the true p54 glider gun he built in January 1998. (This is short for Quetzalcoatlus and expresses the fact that the gun was a very large Herschel loop that was not an emu.) Shortly afterwards Leithner also built a p56 Quetzal using a mechanism found by Noam Elkies for this purpose. In October 1998 Stephen Silver constructed a p55 Quetzal using Elkies' p5 reflector of the previous month.

Some of the more recent Quetzals are not Herschel loops, but are instead short Herschel tracks firing several glider streams all but one of which is reflected back to the beginning of the track to create a new Herschel. Noam Elkies first had the idea of doing this for the p55 case, and Stephen Silver constructed the resulting gun shortly after building the original (much larger) p55 Quetzal. Jason Summers later built a p54 version, which is more complicated because the evenness of the period makes the timing problems considerably more difficult.

:Quetzalcoatlus A giant flying dinosaur after which Dieter Leithner named his p54 gun. Usually abbreviated to Quetzal, or simply Q (as in Q54, Q55, Q56, Q-gun, etc.).

:quilt = squaredance

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