The Joy of SET

By Liz McMahon, Gary Gordon, Hannah Gordon, Rebecca Gordon

Mathematics Professors Liz McMahon and Gary Gordon co-wrote the book with their daughters, revealing the connections between the popular card game SET and mathematics. The game, invented in 1974 and officially released in 1991, consists of 81 cards that features symbols of different shapes, shadings, and colors. To win, players must identify sets of three cards for which each characteristic is the same or different. McMahon and Gordon explore how geometry, modular arithmetic, combinatorics, probability, linear algebra, and computer simulations come into play. No mathematical expertise is needed—just a sense of curiosity and a love of games.

Princeton University Press, 2017