32 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
32 lines
1.5 KiB
Plaintext
[[wp:Langton's ant|Langton's ant]] is a cellular automaton that models an [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ant ant] sitting on a plane of cells, all of which are white initially, the ant facing in one of four directions.
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Each cell can either be black or white.
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The ant moves according to the color of the cell it is currently sitting in, with the following rules:
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::# If the cell is black, it changes to white and the ant turns left;
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::# If the cell is white, it changes to black and the ant turns right;
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::# The ant then moves forward to the next cell, and repeat from step 1.
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<br>This rather simple ruleset leads to an initially chaotic movement pattern, and after about 10000 steps, a cycle appears where the ant moves steadily away from the starting location in a diagonal corridor about 10 cells wide.
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Conceptually the ant can then walk infinitely far away.
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;Task:
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Start the ant near the center of a 100<small>x</small>100 field of cells, which is about big enough to contain the initial chaotic part of the movement.
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Follow the movement rules for the ant, terminate when it moves out of the region, and show the cell colors it leaves behind.
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The problem has received some analysis; for more details, please take a look at the Wikipedia article (a link is below)..
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;See also:
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* Wikipedia: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langton%27s_ant Langton's ant].
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;Related task:
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* [[Conway%27s_Game_of_Life|Conway's Game of Life]].
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* [[Elementary_cellular_automaton|Elementary cellular automaton]]
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<br><br>
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