A Pedestrian Approach to a Method of Conway, or, A Tale of Two Cities by Vera Cao ’24

A Pedestrian Approach to a Method of Conway, or, A Tale of Two Cities by Vera Cao ’24, Monday November 6, 1:00 – 1:50p, North Science Building 113, Wachenheim

Abstract: A challenging question to answer in tiling theory is whether a region of some finite area can be tiled with a given set of tiles. Conway’s method uses the language of combinatorial group theory to solve some tileability problems, but the approach is not accessible to everyone. This presentation will look at a simple “pedestrian” method that produces some necessary geometric criteria for recognizing when a region is tillable by a specific set of tiles.