Question: Conway calls the speed a chess king moves in any direction the ‘speed of light', because it is the highest speed at which any kind of movement can occur on the board. No pattern in Life can replicate itself rapidly enough to move at such speed. Conway has proved that the maximum speed diagonally is a fourth the speed of light. A glider replicates itself in the same orientation after four moves and travels one cell diagonally after replicating itself. Thus, it glides across the field at a fourth the speed of light. Demonstrate that the movement of a finite figure horizontally or vertically into empty space in Life cannot exceed half the speed of light.