Evolution of a crystal (Topic n°2) - Lycée Val de Durance (Pertuis)

This research topic describes a type of cellular automaton operating on a hexagonal grid. The key rules dictate how freezing spreads: a non-frozen cell becomes frozen based on its adjacent frozen neighbors, while already frozen cells stay frozen.
In this article we present two approaches to solving the problem:
1. Sequential freezing: Only one cell is allowed to freeze per iteration, even when multiple cells fulfill the condition.
2. Simultaneous freezing: All cells that meet the specified condition freeze at the same time within a single iteration.
These distinct interpretations of the freezing mechanism result in different modeling methodologies and can lead to substantially different system behaviors and outcomes.