Magic Square, Math, Recreational, Luo Shu Square, Lo Shu, 洛书

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The Magic Grid has a rich Chinese heritage and has been utilized in both educational and recreational mathematics for centuries. It is straightforward yet captivating: Consider the numbers {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9}. How can we arrange them to form a grid so that the sum of the three numbers along each row, each column, and each diagonal are all identical? As a warm-up exercise, one can ask students to calculate the total: 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 =?. There are numerous methods for combining these numbers! Various magic grids exist in different sizes. As the grid expands, however, it rapidly becomes too complex for elementary students. While we can employ paper and pencil work to explore the magic grid, a tangible model changes the approach and may inspire kids' math discussions and pattern creation or refinement. Two available dimensions are 64mm x 64mm and 100mm x 100mm. References: Magic Grid. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_square Weisstein, Eric W. "Magic Grid." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2158244015585828