Faculty Mentor
Don Vestal
Abstract
Spot It™ is a fun, fast paced game for people of all ages. The game appears to have a rich mathematical structure, which we investigated, using combinatorial analysis. We constructed some similar Spot It type games with a different number of cards, and displayed that some games are impossible to complete. In particular, the original Spot It game has eight objects on each card; however, it is impossible to construct a complete game (a game in which every object appears with every other object) in which every card has seven objects. We have investigated the mathematics behind the game.
Recommended Citation
Heemstra, Marcus
(2014)
"The Mathematics of Spot It,"
The Journal of Undergraduate Research: Vol. 12, Article 7.
Available at:
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/jur/vol12/iss1/7