A magic square is a square grid of numbers where the rows, columns, and diagonals sum to the same value. Here is an example of a magic square:
8 | 1 | 6 |
3 | 5 | 7 |
4 | 9 | 2 |
To embed a magic square in a magic circle, we also need a magic
circle. For this example, we will use the following simple
circle:
To embed an n x n magic square in a magic circle, we first
replicate each circle n times (in our example, n=3):
Now each node in the original magic circle corresponds to an
n x n grid of
nodes in the new set of circles. At each grid of nodes, we place
a copy of our n x n magic circle, except we add to each
cell of the magic square the value (k-1)n^2, where k
is the value in the original magic circle corresponding to the
grid in the new set of circles. In our example, we get:
A few notes are in order. First, the orientation of the magic
square on each grid can be arbitrary. Second, the new
magic circle will have a sum of SI+(C-I)n^3, where
S is the sum of the magic square, C is the
sum of the original magic circle, and I is the number
of intersections on each circle of the original magic circle.
In our example, the sum is 330.
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