OFFSET
0,1
COMMENTS
Initialized with a single black (ON) cell at stage zero.
REFERENCES
S. Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, Wolfram Media, 2002; p. 170.
LINKS
Robert Price, Table of n, a(n) for n = 0..127
N. J. A. Sloane, On the Number of ON Cells in Cellular Automata, arXiv:1503.01168 [math.CO], 2015
Eric Weisstein's World of Mathematics, Elementary Cellular Automaton
S. Wolfram, A New Kind of Science
FORMULA
Conjectures from Colin Barker, May 21 2016: (Start)
a(n) = 8*(1+n) for n>2.
a(n) = 2*a(n-1)-a(n-2) for n>4.
G.f.: 4*(1+x+3*x^2-5*x^3+2*x^4) / (1-x)^2.
(End)
MATHEMATICA
CAStep[rule_, a_]:=Map[rule[[10-#]]&, ListConvolve[{{0, 2, 0}, {2, 1, 2}, {0, 2, 0}}, a, 2], {2}];
code=659; stages=128;
rule=IntegerDigits[code, 2, 10];
g=2*stages+1; (* Maximum size of grid *)
a=PadLeft[{{1}}, {g, g}, 0, Floor[{g, g}/2]]; (* Initial ON cell on grid *)
ca=a;
ca=Table[ca=CAStep[rule, ca], {n, 1, stages+1}];
PrependTo[ca, a];
(* Trim full grid to reflect growth by one cell at each stage *)
k=(Length[ca[[1]]]+1)/2;
ca=Table[Table[Part[ca[[n]][[j]], Range[k+1-n, k-1+n]], {j, k+1-n, k-1+n}], {n, 1, k}];
on=Map[Function[Apply[Plus, Flatten[#1]]], ca] (* Count ON cells at each stage *)
Table[on[[i+1]]-on[[i]], {i, 1, Length[on]-1}] (* Difference at each stage *)
CROSSREFS
KEYWORD
nonn,easy
AUTHOR
Robert Price, May 21 2016
STATUS
approved