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Project Summary
| Difficulty | 6 – 8 |
| Time required | Average (about one week) to Long (a couple of weeks) |
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Sponsor
| Sponsored by a generous grant from Symantec Corporation |
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| * Note: This is an abbreviated project idea, without notes to start your background research or a procedure for how to do the experiment. You can identify abbreviated project ideas by the asterisk at the end of the title. If you want a project idea with full instructions, please pick one without an asterisk. |
Abstract
The Game of Life is the invention of the mathematician John Conway. It is a cellular automaton, consisting of a grid of squares that turn "on" or "off" depending on simple mathematical rules that involve neighboring squares. Depending on how the grid is first set up (i.e., the initial conditions), various interesting patterns appear. Can you write a Game of Life program (in JavaScript or any other computer language of your choice)? Can you think of ways to alter the rules that result in different patterns forming? Can you predict how the change in rules will change the patterns? Was your prediction correct? For more information on the Game of Life, see: Martin, E., date unknown. "John Conway's Game of Life," [accessed March 30, 2006] http://www.bitstorm.org/gameoflife/. (Suggested by Adam Schepis, Symantec.)Variations
- For more science project ideas in this area of science, see Computer Science Project Ideas.
Last edit date: 2007-01-02 19:01:22
Career Focus
If you like this project, you might want to think about career opportunities in
Computer Science.
Computers are essential tools in the modern world, handling everything from traffic control, car welding, movie animation, shipping, aircraft design, and social networking to book publishing, business management, music mixing, health care, agriculture, and online shopping. Computer programmers are the people who write the instructions that tell computers what to do. Learn more about this career: Computer Programmer.
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