Elementary Cellular Automaton

• 1 dimensional "grid" with cells holding 0 or 1

• Each cell has two neighbors

• To compute the next generation of a cell, we consider the cell + its two neighbors

  • This means our "algorithm" expects an binary string of length 3 --  how many possible inputs are there?

  • Our output is 0 or 1.

• How many possible algorithms (or "rules") are there?

  • __________

• Then we can describe an algorithm/rule in this model of computation using a single number:

Instructions can be found here!