69 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
69 lines
3.7 KiB
Markdown
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# 2021 Day 06: Lanternfish
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Copyright (c) Eric Wastl
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#### [Direct Link](https://adventofcode.com/2021/day/06)
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## Part 1
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The sea floor is getting steeper. Maybe the sleigh keys got carried this way?
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A massive school of glowing [lanternfish](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanternfish) swims past. They must spawn quickly to reach such large numbers - maybe **exponentially** quickly? You should model their growth rate to be sure.
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Although you know nothing about this specific species of lanternfish, you make some guesses about their attributes. Surely, each lanternfish creates a new lanternfish once every **7** days.
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However, this process isn't necessarily synchronized between every lanternfish - one lanternfish might have 2 days left until it creates another lanternfish, while another might have 4. So, you can model each fish as a single number that represents **the number of days until it creates a new lanternfish.**
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Furthermore, you reason, a **new** lanternfish would surely need slightly longer before it's capable of producing more lanternfish: two more days for its first cycle.
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So, suppose you have a lanternfish with an internal timer value of `3`:
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- After one day, its internal timer would become `2`.
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- After another day, its internal timer would become `1`.
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- After another day, its internal timer would become `0`.
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- After another day, its internal timer would reset to `6`, and it would create a **new** lanternfish with an internal timer of `8`.
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- After another day, the first lanternfish would have an internal timer of `5`, and the second lanternfish would have an internal timer of `7`.
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A lanternfish that creates a new fish resets its timer to `6`, **not `7`** (because `0` is included as a valid timer value). The new lanternfish starts with an internal timer of `8` and does not start counting down until the next day.
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Realizing what you're trying to do, the submarine automatically produces a list of the ages of several hundred nearby lanternfish (your puzzle input). For example, suppose you were given the following list:
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```
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3,4,3,1,2
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```
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This list means that the first fish has an internal timer of `3`, the second fish has an internal timer of `4`, and so on until the fifth fish, which has an internal timer of `2`. Simulating these fish over several days would proceed as follows:
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```
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Initial state: 3,4,3,1,2
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After 1 day: 2,3,2,0,1
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After 2 days: 1,2,1,6,0,8
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After 3 days: 0,1,0,5,6,7,8
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After 4 days: 6,0,6,4,5,6,7,8,8
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After 5 days: 5,6,5,3,4,5,6,7,7,8
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After 6 days: 4,5,4,2,3,4,5,6,6,7
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After 7 days: 3,4,3,1,2,3,4,5,5,6
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After 8 days: 2,3,2,0,1,2,3,4,4,5
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After 9 days: 1,2,1,6,0,1,2,3,3,4,8
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After 10 days: 0,1,0,5,6,0,1,2,2,3,7,8
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After 11 days: 6,0,6,4,5,6,0,1,1,2,6,7,8,8,8
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After 12 days: 5,6,5,3,4,5,6,0,0,1,5,6,7,7,7,8,8
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After 13 days: 4,5,4,2,3,4,5,6,6,0,4,5,6,6,6,7,7,8,8
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After 14 days: 3,4,3,1,2,3,4,5,5,6,3,4,5,5,5,6,6,7,7,8
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After 15 days: 2,3,2,0,1,2,3,4,4,5,2,3,4,4,4,5,5,6,6,7
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After 16 days: 1,2,1,6,0,1,2,3,3,4,1,2,3,3,3,4,4,5,5,6,8
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After 17 days: 0,1,0,5,6,0,1,2,2,3,0,1,2,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,7,8
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After 18 days: 6,0,6,4,5,6,0,1,1,2,6,0,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,6,7,8,8,8,8
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```
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Each day, a `0` becomes a `6` and adds a new `8` to the end of the list, while each other number decreases by 1 if it was present at the start of the day.
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In this example, after 18 days, there are a total of `26` fish. After 80 days, there would be a total of **`5934`**.
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Find a way to simulate lanternfish. **How many lanternfish would there be after 80 days?**
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## Part 2
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Suppose the lanternfish live forever and have unlimited food and space. Would they take over the entire ocean?
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After 256 days in the example above, there would be a total of **`26984457539`** lanternfish!
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**How many lanternfish would there be after 256 days?**
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