wiki. secretGeekOscillators
Oscillators are patterns in Game of Life that cycle through a repeating set of states. The number of states in the cycle is called the "periodicity", e.g. "Period 2" means two states that alternate.
Period 2
Blinker (period 2)
00000 00000 01110 00000 00000
Toad (Period 2)
000000 000000 001110 011100 000000 000000
Beacon (Period 2)
000000 011000 010000 000010 000110 000000
Period 3
Pulsar (Period 3)
00000000000000000 00000000000000000 00001110001110000 00000000000000000 00100001010000100 00100001010000100 00100001010000100 00001110001110000 00000000000000000 00001110001110000 00100001010000100 00100001010000100 00100001010000100 00000000000000000 00001110001110000 00000000000000000 00000000000000000
Period 25
Pentadecathlon (Period 25)
000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000011111111110000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000
Period 8
The Figure 8 (Period 8)
0000000000 0000000000 0011100000 0011100000 0011100000 0000011100 0000011100 0000011100 0000000000 0000000000
Background / history
John Conway referred to oscillators with period 2 as 'flip-flops'
000000000000000000 011110000000000000 011110000000000000 011110000000000000 011110000000000000 000001110000000000 000001110000000000 000001110000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000 000000000000000000