Problems
George is cutting a birthday cake into various numbers of pieces. If he cuts the cake or a piece of cake into only two parts, then those part must have equal weight. However, if he cuts the cake into more than two pieces, then those pieces can be of any weight, but they all must have different integer masses. After some operations he managed to cut the cake into \(N\) pieces. Is it true that for any \(N\geq 10\) it could be that all the pieces are of the same weight?
Show that the following pattern eventually dies completely:
A still life is a non-empty pattern (it starts with at least one alive cell) that never changes. Show that a pattern consisting of a \(2\times 2\) square of alive cells is a still life.
An oscillator is a pattern that returns to its original state after some number of evolutions. Its period is the smallest number of generations it needs to return to its initial state, so for example, a still life has period \(1\) because after \(1\) generation, it looks just like before. Show that a \(3\times 1\) rectangle of alive cells is an oscillator, and find its period.
What is the smallest number of alive cells that a pattern needs to start with in order for the pattern to never die off?
A connected still life is a still life where you can get from any alive cell to any other alive cell by moving through neighbouring alive cells (remember that cells may touch at corners and still count as connected), Find a connected still life of exactly \(10\) alive cells.
Show that for any given even number greater than or equal to \(4\), there is a connected still life with that number of alive cells.
Prove that \(6\) is the maximum possible number of living neighbours a dead cell can have in a still life, and show that this maximum can actually occur.
A spaceship is a pattern that, after a fixed number of generations, looks exactly the same as before, but in a different place. For example, the glider is the pattern shown below: it looks the same every \(4\) generations, and each time it has moved one square diagonally. It turns out this is a speed limit in the game! Show that no pattern can move \(2\) or more squares diagonally after \(4\) generations.
