The Fans of Life — How to Interact

To start a fan, spin it with your finger.

To stop a fan, stop it with your finger.

Watch the fans change as they play out the Game of Life.

Demonstration of spinning and stopping fans

Each fan has two states: alive or dead (on or off).

Every 2 seconds, the fans change state based on the following rules:

  • A live fan survives if it has 2–3 living neighbors and dies otherwise.
  • A dead fan comes to life if it has 3 living neighbors.

Changing a fan with your finger will reset the 2 second timer, allowing you to edit multiple fans before the next change.

These simple rules can create extremely complex patterns.

Life is unpredictable, so once in a while a random fan will turn on!

Example Patterns
Still Lifes (Never Change)
Block Block
Beehive Beehive
Loaf Loaf
Boat Boat
Tub Tub
Oscillators
Blinker Blinker (period 2)
Toad Toad (period 2)
Beacon Beacon (period 2)
Pulsar Pulsar (period 3)
Pentadecathlon Pentadecathlon (period 15)
Spaceships (Moving)
Glider Glider
Lightweight Spaceship Lightweight spaceship
Middleweight Spaceship Middleweight spaceship
Heavyweight Spaceship Heavyweight spaceship
← The Fans of Life