Summary
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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.)
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Careers
If you like this project, you might enjoy exploring these related careers:
Career Profile
Are you interested in developing cool video game software for computers? Would you like to learn how to make software run faster and more reliably on different kinds of computers and operating systems? Do you like to apply your computer science skills to solve problems? If so, then you might be interested in the career of a computer software engineer.
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Career Profile
Mathematicians are part of an ancient tradition of searching for patterns, conjecturing, and figuring out truths based on rigorous deduction. Some mathematicians focus on purely theoretical problems, with no obvious or immediate applications, except to advance our understanding of mathematics, while others focus on applied mathematics, where they try to solve problems in economics, business, science, physics, or engineering.
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General citation information is provided here. Be sure to check the formatting, including capitalization, for the method you are using and update your citation, as needed.MLA Style
Science Buddies Staff.
"Game of Life." Science Buddies,
20 Nov. 2020,
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/CompSci_p030/computer-science/game-of-life.
Accessed 6 June 2023.
APA Style
Science Buddies Staff.
(2020, November 20).
Game of Life.
Retrieved from
https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/project-ideas/CompSci_p030/computer-science/game-of-life
Last edit date: 2020-11-20
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