Before Sudoku: The World of Magic Squares

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Seymour S Block (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida) Santiago A Tavares (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida)

Before Sudoku

The World of Magic Squares

Seymour S Block (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida), Santiago A Tavares (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida)

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English

Oxford University Press
01 December 2009

Mathematics & Sciences; Sudoku & number puzzles

"Sudoku has become a vastly popular and even addictive game. But fans may not know that Sudoku is a recent offshoot of the venerable Magic Square, which dates back over 4,000 years to ancient China, where it was literally considered magical. Indeed, Magic Squares have fascinated centuries of mystics, astrologers, and some of the world's most brilliant thinkers, including Ben Franklin.

In Before Sudokus, Seymour Block and Santiago Tavares offer a crystal clear and engaging tour of Magic Squares, tracing their footsteps through through ancient and medieval history and illuminating their uses in art and design, statistics and electronics. The book provides a delightful account of a mind-boggling variety of magical squares, ranging from simple 3 x 3 and squares, to magic cubes, magic circles, magic pyramids, and even ""the Beastly Magical Square,"" whose magic sum is 666. Of course, the authors also cover Sudoku, describing how the game became a world-wide phenomenon and revealing various strategies for solving the puzzles. And along the way, the book offers readers many fascinating facts--for instance, Sudoku was invented in 1979 by an American architect living in Indianapolis and was originally called Number Place. Oddly enough, though the puzzle is known around the world by its Japanese name (which means ""single numbers""), many Japanese still call it Number Place. We also learn that in a 4 x 4 magic square, there are 880 different solutions that will yield the magic sum of 34--a surprisingly large number until you remember that there are over 2.6 trillion possible combinations.

Filled with lots of original puzzles for gamers to solve, Before Sudokus is an entertaining book that will delight anyone who loves a challenge, including all fans of Sudoku."

By: Seymour S Block (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering University of Florida), Santiago A Tavares (Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, Professor Emeritus of Chemical Engineering, University of Florida)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 209mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 16mm
Weight: 298g
ISBN: 9780195367904
ISBN 10: 0195367901
Pages: 254
Publication Date: 01 December 2009
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Reviews for Before Sudoku: The World of Magic Squares

"Listed in Mathematical Reviews ""The authors, both chemical engineers, have written a concise survey of a fascinating family of integer matrices. I will keep B&T in my library and I recommend it as a good starting point for newcomers to the field for the variety of magical squares introduced; however B&T contains no significant linear algebra."" -- The Bulletin of the International Linear Algebra Society"