Short Summaries of Articles about Mathematics in the Popular
Press "Quadramagicology," by Dana Mackenzie. New Scientist,
20/27 December 2003,pages 50-53. This article discusses magic
squares, which are square arrays of numbers inwhich the rows,
columns, and diagonals add up to the same number. Althoughmagic
squares have been looke upon as fun puzzles rather than real
mathematics,Mackenzie says that this has now changed.
"[M]athematicians have begun asystematic exploration of the rich
vein of magic squares that lies beneaththose found by amateurs,"
he writes. "Using powerful tools from algebra andgeometry, they
can now predict exactly how many magic squares of a given
typeare out there." --- Allyn Jackson