The Serious Whimsy of Recreational Mathematics at JMM 2024
Elaine Beebe · Notices of the American Mathematical Society · 2024
They swarm the Rubik's Cube booth, opening night at JMM 2024.All hands are on deck, swirling and swooping and spinning cubes in an organized frenzy.Once solved, each 3 × 3 × 3 cube is stacked purposefully in a large, square wooden frame, creating an elaborate mosaic of Ern ő Rubik's namesake in honor of its fiftieth birthday.More about that mosaic design later from event organizer Tomas Rokicki, who is too busy to talk now, running around, corralling "cubers."Scanning the buzzing scene is co-organizer Robert Hearn of H3 Labs and Gathering 4 Gardner, an educational nonprofit devoted to recreational math named for writer and polymath Martin Gardner.Hearn observes the speedy solve rates of the 384 cubes with mock consternation."I thought it would take longer, at least an hour or two," he said."Constructing that frame took me two days."In a mere 25 minutes, the mosaic is completed.Seemingly whimsical topics such as toys, games, and puzzles can lead to significant discoveries.Recreational mathematics has inspired findings in probability and graph theory, and the aperiodic monotile of 2023 known as "the Hat."This thinking underscored JMM 2024's Serious Recreational Mathematics special sessions, organized by Erik Demaine of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology