This is a demonstration of cellular automata on a hexagonal grid. You can find out about cellular automata by starting at Yahoo/Science/Artificial_Life/Cellular_Automata.

A cell is alive if it is colored red. A live cell is generated by the arrangement of live cells in the six cells around it, and itself (see the rules below).

The board shown wraps around--the top connects to the bottom and the sides are connected too.

A bigger and slower version of this page

The controls are:

• Run animates the automata--Stop ceases animation.
  When Stop is on, the mouse can draw or erase live cells
• Step shows the next generation of cells
• Clear empties the field of live cells
• Spray makes a random selection of the cells live
• Glider drops a glider onto the board.
  A Glider is an arrangement of live cells that reproduces itself in a different position after a few generations.
• Puffer drops a puffer onto the board.
  A Puffer is a glider that leaves a trail.
• Spinner drops a spinner onto the board.
  There are two kinds of Spinners.
  The big spinner rotates sixty degrees every twenty-one generations.
  The small spinner rotates sixty degrees every three generations.
  
  
• Thin Medium Thick Golay Preston are the choice of rules to create live cells.
  The images show what arrangement of cells generate a red cell at the center in the next generation. Rotations of these arrangements also generate a live cell.

  	Thin
  	Medium
  	Thick
  	Golay
  	Preston

The Thin, Medium, and Thick rules support one glider.
Thin tends to die out rapidly, Medium less rapidly, and Thick generally grows without limit.
Only thin supports the big spinner and puffer.
Thin, medium, and thick all support the small spinner.

Preston and Golay tend to grow without limit.

Preston supports two known gliders.

Golay has no known gliders, but grows wonderfully from three cells in a triangle. Try it.

The Golay and Preston rules are mentioned in the only extensive reference to hexagonal cellular automata:
Modern Cellular Automata Kendall Preston, Jr. and Michael J. B. Duff
Plenum Press, New York, 1984 (ISBN 0-306-41737-5)

Bulgarian translation of the page