Mark Spanier, NDSU

Math Club, April 10, 2015.

Title:  The Mathematics of the Card Game SET

Abstract:  SET is an extremely addictive and fast-paced card game invented by the population geneticist Marsha Jean Falco in 1974 and published in 1991. Since then, the game SET has become extremely popular and has attracted mathematical attention. In this talk, we will introduce the game SET (and play a couple games!) and explore SET from a mathematical perspective as well as describe some generalizations and interesting questions (many of which are still open!) related to SET. Lastly, we will highlight a connection to Fourier analysis (due to Davis and Maclagen) that was used to settle a basic question related to the game of SET. For this talk, no special background is required.  Though, if you have never played SET before, I encourage you to play this extremely fun and addictive game a couple of times (or many!).