Magic Square

 




I found this activity rather fun as it reminded me of Sodoku! I used to play Soduku all the time when I was younger to be able to train my brain to problem solve and expand my brain capacity. I was able to solve the problem above rather quickly using a trial and error method and I think this speaks to how memorization and muscle memory of my Sodoku hobby aided this. Again, this might be an example of how muscle memory from doing repetitive problems in school allows us as students to be able to fully execute problems without hesitation and therefore might be the reason that understanding where math ideas and theories came from and the history behind them is not incorporated into math cirriculums.  

When doing some additional research into the magic square, I also came across this musical violin piece from Šarūnas Nakas Ziqquratu (1998) that incorporated the magic square of 5. I think that it is interesting to see how rhythm and mathematics go hand in hand together. 

 



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