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Math · Intermediate
Cellular Automata
A row of cells, each on or off, updating by a tiny rule. What could be simpler? Yet such systems produce fractals, chaos, moving creatures and even full-blown computers. Explore Stephen Wolfram's elementary rules and John Conway's Game of Life, model traffic jams with Rule 184, and follow Langton's ant from chaos to order, then watch a sandpile organise itself to the brink of avalanches and see how mild preferences can segregate a whole city.
7 lessons~40 min0/7 complete
Start courseHelpful background: Binary & Information
1
One Dimension
Rows of cells.
2
The Game of Life
Two dimensions and emergent creatures.
3
Automata in the World
Traffic jams and a wandering ant.
4
Self-Organisation
Sandpiles and segregation: big patterns from local rules.