heavyweight spaceship

noun

A particular orthogonal spaceship in Conway's Game of Life, and the third smallest such example.

Meanings

nounheavyweight spaceship (plural heavyweight spaceships)

plural heavyweight spaceships

  1. cellular automataA particular orthogonal spaceship in Conway's Game of Life, and the third smallest such example.

    The usual non-glider suspects from Conway's Life (lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight spaceships) all fail here due to central 7-neighbor OFF cells.

    2008 May 31, Dave Greene, “Life: B37/S23 - A Chaotic Universe.”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
    1 more example

    To begin with and to be complete, I will list the original spaceships. These are the glider, the lightweight spaceship (LWSS), middleweight spaceship (MWSS), and the heavyweight spaceship (HWSS). These were all found very soon after Life was invented by Conway.

    1992 August 13, David Bell, “Spaceships in Conway's Life (Part 1)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
Cite this entry
APA

heavyweight spaceship. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heavyweight%20spaceship

MLA

“heavyweight spaceship.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heavyweight%20spaceship. Accessed November 5, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “heavyweight spaceship,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/heavyweight%20spaceship.

Source: heavyweight spaceship on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.