Conway’s Game of Life

Start with these cells.

The next iteration would be the image below, because all cells survived and three new ones were born.

Can you draw the successive iterations?

You can check your patterns here: https://bitstorm.org/gameoflife/ .

Challenges:

Can you create a starting shape that stays the same?

Can you find a cycle of length 2,3,4 and 5?

You might like to read the article from Plus Maths or even try this question from the 1996 British Informatics Olympiad.