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 Sudoku and Magic Squares, Seymour Block and Santiago Tavares offer a crystal clear and engaging tour 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.
1. Introduction; 2. Magic Squares and Sudoku; 3. History of Sudoku; 4. Some Techniques for Solving Sudoku Puzzles; 5. History of Magic Squares; 7. Magic Squares and Arithmetic; 8. Exotic Magic Squares; 9. Other Magic Squares; 10. Magic Squares in Art and Design; 11. The Fourth Dimension; 12. Practical Applications of Magic Squares; 13. Some Puzzles for You; 14