What to watch
- The first few generations look compact, then the reaction spreads.
- A large board is needed to avoid boundary effects.
- The final ash contains still lifes, oscillators, and escaping gliders.
Methuselahs
R-pentomino
A five-cell seed that takes over one thousand generations to stabilize.
The R-pentomino is the classic proof that small initial conditions can create unexpectedly long histories.
- Category
- Methuselahs
- Period
- Long-lived seed
- Movement
- bounded
- Population
- 5 cells
- Bounding box
- 3 x 3
- Known since
- 1970
How to use it
Use it to teach emergent complexity from very small seeds.
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.