8-Ball
A whole billiard ball with the "8" marking in 38 tokens ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ
| Grid | Code Size | Leaderboard | Cycles | Leaderboard | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 15x15x15 | 38 | #14 | 10.397 | #787 | 2026-02-24 |
Solution
return x*x+y*y+z*z<64 and(y==7 and max(abs(z),abs(abs(x)-1))~=1 or 3)How it works
A BLACK sphere with a WHITE “8” on top.
The sphere is just x*x+y*y+z*z<64 (radius squared). Everything inside defaults to BLACK via or 3 at the end.
The magic is in how ~=1 or 3 flips colors at y=7. The “8” shape is drawn with Chebyshev distance: max(abs(z), abs(abs(x)-1)). That nested abs(abs(x)-1) is the key trick. It measures distance to the nearest of x=-1 and x=1 (the two circle centers of the “8”). Combined with abs(z) in a max, it traces two overlapping square rings. Where that equals 1, the ~=1 fails, falling through to or 3 for BLACK strokes. Everywhere else on y=7, ~=1 succeeds as bare true = WHITE.