Speaker: Dr. Steve Butler (Iowa State University)

 

Title: Parkordle – finding lucky parking spots pizza for this meeting.

 

Abstract: Start with n cars that are to enter a one-way street with n spots. Cars enter in order and park in the first available spot occurring at or after their preference, if possible. If all cars successfully park, then their set of preferences are parking functions.

 

We consider the problem of lucky cars and lucky spots (e.g., corresponding with cars parking in their preferred location). In particular, we show how to modify Pollak’s classic proof to determine the number of times that the i-th car is lucky. We also consider the problem of when the number of times that the i-th car is lucky and give counts for small cases.

 

 

Bio:

Steve Butler is a Morrill Professor and the Barbara J Janson Professor of Mathematics at Iowa State University. He also is currently serving as a Pólya lecturer for the MAA. He works in discrete mathematics and specializes in spectral graph theory, but also loves doing mathematics of fun things including shuffling, juggling, origami, .... More information can be found on his website (stevebutler.org). He also has a YouTube channel with his lectures (Beard Meets Calculus) where he has over 12 thousand subscribers.