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Magic Square Puzzle

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A magic square is a square of numbers in which the numbers in the rows, columns and both diagonals have a common sum. A completed magic square should have a solution such that each entry is unique among a given range of numbers, and the sums of the rows and columns in the square are equal.

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The example presents a magic square where the numbers to be distributed in the square range from to 8, and the goal is to find a common sum for each row and column.

There is more than one solution for magic squares, since the puzzle is still valid if the rows are reversed horizontally or vertically.

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Contributed by: Ajay Kumar (August 2019)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA

Details

Snapshot 1: initial starting point for puzzle

Snapshot 2: shows answer key before attempting to complete the puzzle

Snapshot 3: shows answer key after incorrectly attempting to complete the puzzle

Diagonal sums are represented in blue.

Reference

[1] I. Moscovich, Fiendishly Difficult Math Puzzles, New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1991.

This was a project for Advanced Topics in Mathematics II, 2018–2019, Torrey Pines High School, San Diego, CA.

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