The Magic Square - Tricking Your Way to Mental Superpowers

by Lewis Smile

TABLE OF CONTENTS

"The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

Hello. Welcome.

Learning our Magic Square will be as easy as learning a phone number. In less than 10 minutes from now you will have the ability to perform this classic demonstration of mental superpowers...

You will be able to produce a magic square instantly, based on ANY random number your friend tells you.

You may have already seen a magic square performed as a magician's Grand Finale. That's how good this is. It is often used to get the audible gasp and rousing round of applause.

A magic square is a grid containing a series of random numbers which add up to a single target number vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Wait until you see it in action, in just a moment. The square we will be learning today contains dozens of other impressive combinations, which makes it far more powerful and impressive than all those plain jane magic squares out there. Imposters, all. If magic squares were journalists, this one would be Clark Kent.

A magic square can be done with anyone, any time, requiring nothing but a pen and something to write on. This magic square will work every time, cannot fail, and requires no props or skills
or even maths ability.
It's the ninja blade hidden in your back pocket.

You're sat in a coffee shop with a friend, you grab the receipt, ask them to name a number, and start scribbling. It will be the most baffling thing they have seen outside of a TV show. It seems to show your brain working like a computer, calculating thousands of possibilities at once, in the blink of an eye. At worst, it seems to show your brain to have a fantastic memory and ability to juggle numbers. At best, it shows your brain to be a phenomenal
force of nature
.

In short, it is an absurdly casual reputation-maker.

You can wow people with this for the rest of your life, and you will learn it in under 10 minutes.

Let's get started...

"There is no science that teaches the harmonies of nature more clearly than mathematics" - Paul Carus

Be not afraid

Magic squares are entertaining oddities from the world of Recreational Mathematics. Loved by mathematicians, magicians, artists, and soon YOU, magic squares have been making people scratch their heads in confusion and laugh nervously for over three and a half thousand years.

In the following example, you can see how every vertical column, and every horizontal row, adds up to 35. It has other secrets... more will be revealed in a moment...

In practice, your friend or spectator will tell you a number (hereafter referred to as the target number), and you will produce a 4x4 magic square for them on the spot using nothing but your obviously-superior mind. The instant your friend names their random number, your pen hits the paper and you start scribbling numbers into the grid seemingly at random. There isn't even a 1 second delay; not even long enough to think about what you're writing. Scribble, scribble, scribble, then slam the pen down on the page and look smug. In less than 40 seconds you have done something that they will remember forever.

And now for the great reveal...

Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls...

A COMPLETE EXAMPLE

As in the example above, let's pretend you just asked a friend to name a number between 1 and 50, and let's pretend they went with 35. You grab your pen, hastily draw a 4x4 square and start filling it with numbers, and when you're finished it will look something like this:

There appears to be no pattern to it, and no obvious system, and your friend didn't glean any clues as to what was even happening from the way you filled it in, let alone crack the secret. The magic square is a mystery. Your friend could probably study the magic square for several hours without even noticing anything interesting about it.

This is where you point out...

All the horizontal rows add up to their chosen number...

11 + 8 + 14 + 2 = 35
15 + 1 + 12 + 7 = 35
4 + 16 + 6 + 9 = 35
5 + 10 + 3 + 17 = 35

As do all the vertical columns...

11 + 15 + 4 + 5 = 35
8 + 1 + 16 + 10 = 35
14 + 12 + 6 + 3 = 35
2 + 7 + 9 + 17 = 35

And of course you didn't leave out each quadrant...

11 + 8 + 15 + 1 = 35
14 + 2 + 12 + 7 = 35
4 + 16 + 5 + 10 = 35
6 + 9 + 3 + 17 = 35

Or both diagonals...

11 + 1 + 6 + 17 = 35
5 + 16 + 12 + 2 = 35

And just for fun, you even included the corners of each 3x3 square...

8 + 2 + 16 + 9 = 35

And just for fun, you even included the corners of each 3x3 square...