Find Alien Life

Congratulations, you figured out which TV was bigger and enjoyed some nature documentaries on the Captain's HDTV. The first mate was so happy you showed him how to do the math that he wasn't mad at all and joined you in watching TV.

But now you have work to do. A.A.K.V.O. has started a program to protect animals in outer space, but first they need to know which other planets have life. Fortunately, they have developed a computer program that can look for life on other planets, all 281 trillion 474 billion 976 million 710 thousand 656 of them! And you only need to find one with life. Just find a planet and put the planet number in the comments. An A.A.K.V.O. agent will double-check that the planet does indeed have life and will respond with the password in the comments.

Good Luck!

P.S. One way to find planets with life is to click Random Planet until you find one that goes down to some simple oscillating patterns and then click the < or > buttons at the bottom to flip boxes. Or you can randomly click boxes. Or you can randomly enter planet numbers. No one really knows the best way to find life on other planets!

Fourier Life Demonstration (click Run or scroll down for blog posts)

       Generation: 0  Rules: 1. Original Self Replicator (sp) checker-board mask

Cellular Automata System: A. 2-State: Alternating Rules B. 2-State: Edge & Corner Combinations C. 3-State: Sum of All Edge States D. 2-State: From Pattern (Conway-Like)

   Planet # 

Even generation rule: B3/S23  Odd generation rule: B2/S56

        

        

        

Flip boxes for planet #
xxx

Television Controversy

Congratulations, you rented the boat and made it to the A.A.K.V.O. freighter! You're finally free!

Once on the freighter, you decided to catch up on all the TV you missed. Unfortunately, you walked into a controversy between the captain of the ship and the first mate. The captain just got a new HDTV with a 42-inch diagonal and a 16:9 aspect ratio, and he wants you to watch TV with him. However, the first mate has an older 37-inch diagonal TV with a 4:3 aspect ratio and claims that his TV actually has a bigger area for the picture. He said because his TV is more square, it's bigger even though the diagonal is less. As evidence, he has pointed out that his TV is taller than the new one.

You want to watch the TV with the largest area. Which one should you watch?

P.S. The first mate is so confident he will win that he has offered to let you use his calculator.