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Article: What's so magical about magic squares?
- Article from:
- The Evening Standard (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 Carus Publishing Co. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A magic square is a square array of numbers in which the values of each row--horizontal, vertical, and diagonal--add up to the same sum. Read on to see what makes them special.
Orders and Magic Constants
A magic square's order is the number of cells in each row. For example, a 3-by-3 (or 3x3) magic square is order-3. Mathematicians trace an order-3 magic square back to ancient China (see "Animal Angles," p. 49), Babylonia, and Mayan culture. Some cultures have even treated magic squares as having mystical or religious powers.
The magic constant is the sum of each row's values. For a magic square of consecutive natural numbers (counting numbers) ...