Magic Square

A Maths Starter of The Day

Arrange the numbers in the green cells to make a magic square.
The totals of each row, column and diagonal should be the same.

Congratulations that is correct!

Are there any other ways to make a magic square using these numbers?

Sad

Your answer is not correct.

The totals of each row, column and diagonal should be the same. Try again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic

  • Transum,
  •  
  • Teachers can vary the difficulty of this starter. Classes requiring more support could be told the line total (15) and the teacher could drag some numbers into position to give the students a less difficult problem to solve. Answers can be found below and a self marking student version of this activity, for which the students can earn trophies, can also be found by following the link near the bottom of this page.
  • Mrs Boussouara's Maths Class S1, Holyrood Secondary School Gasgow
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  • Mrs Boussouara's first year class thought this was hard but Charelle got the corrct answer. Well done Charelle!!
  • Mrs Dumble, Shanghai United International School, China
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  • This was the first magic square for Mrs Dumble's class. We also talked about Lewis Carrol and his diagrams. Well done Lancelot!!

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
Click here to enter your comments.

Previous Day | This starter is for 14 May | Next Day

 

Answers

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Online Maths Shop
Laptops In Lessons

Teacher, do your students have access to computers such as tablets, iPads or Laptops?  This page was really designed for projection on a whiteboard but if you really want the students to have access to it here is a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments:

Transum.org/go/?Start=May14

However it would be better to assign one of the student interactive activities below.

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL which will take them to a multi-level version of this activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=Magic

Suggested

Magic Square

Magic Square

This is the pupil version of the Magic Square activity which has a number of levels to suit a range of abilities.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=magic
Suggested

Unmagic Square

Unmagic Square

This activity is similar to the Magic Square challenge but all of the totals should be different.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=unmagic
Suggested

Magic Square Puzzle

Magic Square Puzzle

Find all of the possible ways of making the magic total from the numbers in this four by four magic square.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=magicsquarepuzzle

 

Here are the oldest magic squares we know of:

Lo Shu Square

Lo Shu Square

The Lo Shu square on the back of a small turtle in the centre, surrounded by the signs of the Chinese Zodiac and the Eight trigrams, all carried by a large turtle

Durer's Magic Square

This famous 4 by 4 magic square above can be seen in the picture below. Melencolia I is an engraving by the German Renaissance master Albrecht Dürer.

Durer's Melancholia

Magic Square Bridging Units from Smile Mathematics

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