Magic Squares

A magic square of order n is an n x n array containing n2 natural numbers with the following property: The sums of the entries in each row, each column and in the 2 diagonals are all the same. The common sum of rows, cols and diagonals in the 3 x 3 square on the right is 15. It is an example of a so-called normal magic square, in which the entries run from 1 up to n2.

2 7 6 9 5 1 4 3 8

First Challenge: What is the common sum in a normal magic square of order n?
Magic squares have a long history. They were known to Chinese mathematicians in the 7th century BC; legend has it that the 3 x 3 square above appeared on the shell of a turtle emerging from floodwaters and magically gave the King Lo Shu and his people control of the river thereafter. Magic squares came to Europe via Indian and Middle Eastern mathematical traditions around 1300 and became associated according to their size order (from 3 to 9) with the 7 planets known to 15thcentury Italian astonomers. Albrecht Drer included a magic square of order 4 in his 1514 allegorical engraving Melencolia I shown on the right, just above the angels wings. Drers square is very similar to one discovered by the Chinese mathematician Yang Hui about 250 years before Drer's time. Its common sum, 34, is not only of the sum of the entries in each row, column and diagonal, but also in

each of the four quadrants the four centre squares 5 10 the corners of (i) the main square and also (ii) the four 3x3 squares inside. four outer numbers clockwise from the corners (3+8+14+9) 9 6 likewise the four anti-clockwise numbers (5+15+12+2) the two sets of four symmetrical numbers (2+8+9+15) and (3+5+12+14) 4 15 the sum of the middle two entries of the two outer columns (5+9+8+12) and rows (3+2+15+14) four cross-shaped quartets (3+5+11+15), (2+10+8+14), (3+9+7+15) and (2+6+12+14).

16

2 11 7 14

13 8 12 1

The two numbers in the middle of the bottom row give the date of the engraving: 1514, while the letters in the bottom corners 1 = A and 4 = D indicate his initials.

12

14

Second Challenge: Complete the 4 x 4 magic square on the right so that all the broken
diagonals, that is to say the diagonals that wrap round at the edges of the square, also add up to the common sum. (There are 12 broken diagonals in addition to the 2 standard ones.)

Magic squares with the same sum in all the diagonals are called pandiagonal. Drer's square above is not pandiagonal because, for instance, the broken diagonal sum (5+6+14+13) is 38.

15

The number of distinct magic squares (excluding those obtained by rotation or reflection) of a given order n grow astronomically with n; for n = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 they are 1, 0, 1, 880, and 275,305,224 respectively. The number of 6 x 6 magic squares is close to 1.7 x 10 19, and for higher orders nothing is known. However, Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw and David Bre have enumerated a special class (mostperfect and pandiagonal) of magic squares for all values of n. Their beautiful proof is the subject of a 186-page book published by the IMA (see the reference below). There are many variations of magic squares. For example, addition can be replaced by multiplication as in the example to the right, in which the products of the entries of the rows, columns and diagonals are all equal to 216. Even Gaussian integers (complex numbers of the form a + ib, where a and b are ordinary integers) have been used instead of natural numbers for the entries.

2 9 12 36 6 1 3 4 18

Third and Final Challenge: Complete the adjacent (non-normal) magic square by adding
a further 12 prime numbers so that (i) all 16 entries are distinct and (ii) the sums of the rows, columns, diagonals and the middle four are the same.

53 11 37

Reference
Ollerenshaw, K. and Bre, D. Most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares: their construction and enumeration (Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, Southend-on-Sea, 1998), xiii +152 pp., 0 905091 06 X, 19.50. Trevor Hawkes, May 2013