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Magic Square Puzzle

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-7
6
-5
4
-3
2
-1
0
0
1
-2
3
-4
5
-6
7
show answer
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.
The example presents a
44
magic square where the numbers to be distributed in the square range from
-7
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.

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.

References

[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.

External Links

Permanent Citation

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