rule 110
Rule 110 is a cellular automaton, a grid of cells that generate other cells by following a simple set of rules.
On the left is a screenshot of an excel worksheet I created to generate iterations of Rule 110. You can play with this worksheet here by entering 1s at various points in the top row. Don't overwrite any of the other cells though, they contain the formula for generating the cells. (Can you work out how the formula works?)
From the initial row of cells, the rules for generating the next row of cells are given below.
On the left is a screenshot of an excel worksheet I created to generate iterations of Rule 110. You can play with this worksheet here by entering 1s at various points in the top row. Don't overwrite any of the other cells though, they contain the formula for generating the cells. (Can you work out how the formula works?)
From the initial row of cells, the rules for generating the next row of cells are given below.
You could ask students to investigate the patterns generated by this rule, or simply create a display. Perhaps you could create it with everyone in a year group, or the whole school!
Maybe you could create a rule similar to this of your own? Or investigate the effects of changing this rule slightly?
After this, have a look at the game of life. Some other cellular automata are described in this Plus magazine article.
Maybe you could create a rule similar to this of your own? Or investigate the effects of changing this rule slightly?
After this, have a look at the game of life. Some other cellular automata are described in this Plus magazine article.