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The Mathematics Behind Tetris: Enumerating, Tiling, and More With Polyominoes! by Rishad Karim '21

Wed, December 9th, 2020
1:30 pm
- 2:15 pm

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The Mathematics Behind Tetris: Enumerating, Tiling, and More With Polyominoes! by Rishad Karim ’21, Mathematics Colloquium, Wednesday, December 9, 1:30 – 2:00 pm, talk can be accessed through the Mathematics Colloquium Glow page.

Abstract:  The addictive 1984 puzzle game invented by Russian software engineer Alexey Pajitnov has behind it a peculiar area of mathematics known as polyominoes. Polyominoes lie at the intersection of geometry and combinatorics and come in different shapes and sizes. The ones we are most familiar with are dominoes (2-squared polyominoes) and tetrominoes (4-squared polyominoes used in Tetris). This talk will delve into the world of polyominoes with an emphasis on algebraic enumeration (counting) and tiling. Among other derivations, we will explore Redelmeier’s algorithm and Conway’s criterion. By the end of this talk, we will have a better understanding of polyominoes and perhaps develop some skills to tackle one of the world’s most popular video games.

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