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plural methuselahs or methuselae
A large wine bottle with the capacity of about 6 liters, equivalent to 8 standard bottles. examples
(cellular automata) A small pattern that takes many generations to stabilize. quotations examples
The first known methuselah was the r pentomino, but even longer lasting ones have been found by enumerating and testing small patterns. The following, called "rabbits," takes over 10000 generations to stabilize.
1996 December 16, Paul Callahan, “Need help in finding topic for research project”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
Is there somewhere a list of n-cell methuselah patterns in Conway's Life? (assuming some reasonable limits on the bounding box)
2003 February 24, Michael Hedera, “Methuselahs in Conway's Life”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
The pattern below seems to take about 30000 generations to stabilize. The initial population is 20. Is this methuselah a known one?
2008 June 29, Andrzej Megier, “Game of life methuselah?”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)