I know exactly one party trick based on mathematical group theory, which I have actually used to impress non-mathematicians at a party.
Clearly, we just need more group-based popular toys. I would definitely buy a monster group cube, and then probably get crushed by it falling over on me (how many generators does that thing need, anyway?).
Wow, that’s a lot less than I thought. I’m just noticing now there’s also a (giant, terrible) 2-generator representation mentioned in the wiki. It’s always cool how simple these huge structures can turn out to be.
Damn, that’s neat. I might have to practice that.
Clearly, we just need more group-based popular toys. I would definitely buy a monster group cube, and then probably get crushed by it falling over on me (how many generators does that thing need, anyway?).
https://mathoverflow.net/questions/142205/presentation-of-the-monster-group mentions a presentation of the monster with 12 generators.
Creating a physical rotation puzzle that implements the monster group would be quite a task!
Wow, that’s a lot less than I thought. I’m just noticing now there’s also a (giant, terrible) 2-generator representation mentioned in the wiki. It’s always cool how simple these huge structures can turn out to be.