What to watch
- Step four times and compare the translated shape.
- The object travels down and right from the default orientation.
- Glider streams can carry information in larger circuits.
Spaceships
Glider
The smallest spaceship and the standard signal in Life.
The glider returns to its shape every four generations, shifted one cell diagonally. That makes it a reusable moving signal.
- Category
- Spaceships
- Period
- 4
- Movement
- c/4 diagonal
- Population
- 5 cells
- Bounding box
- 3 x 3
- Known since
- 1970
How to use it
Use it to explain velocity notation and signal transport.
Open the pattern in the lab, reduce the speed, and use single-step mode when a phase change is hard to see. The green preview marks births in the next generation; red outlines mark live cells that will die.