To pursue and progress in any avenue in life. Be it education, profession, or hobbies. Skills and passion aside, one needs the aid of various commodities to get one going. Be it textbooks for education, a desktop, or likewise systems for work or otherwise. Magic boxes serve the same purpose for magicians. Whether minimal tricks or extravagant ones, magicians simply cannot pull it off with mere skills and practice they need, just like every other profession/hobby, proper equipment to help them perform their tricks to perfection.
Apart from being skilled at visual illusions, proper presentations, and more. A magician heavily relies on a ‘system.’ These systems can be simple mechanisms or may require tremendous skills to execute them. Nonetheless, they facilitate and make it easier for the magicians to create a memorable show.
One such a great magic trick is that of a ‘magic box’ or a ‘magic square,’ a mathematical trick that aims to arrange numbers in a square grid resulting in the sum of all rows, columns, and diagonals being one constant number, the ‘magic constant’ of the ‘magic box. Here, we decode and share the secrets of how you could ‘fix a magic box.’
CALCULATE THE CONSTANT
Depending on the grid you wish to use, for instance, 3X3 denotes a grid with 3 columns and 3 rows. You could find the magic constant using a simple mathematical formula,
m= n〖[n(n〗^2+1)/2]
where n stands for the number of rows/columns in the box you wish to use.
For example, if we wish to use the aforementioned 3 grid box, the calculations would stand as,
m = 3[(9+1)/2]
m = 15.
Hence, the magic number for a 3X3 box would be 15.
That is, all rows, columns and diagonals must add up to the number, 15.
PLACE THE FIRST NUMBER, IN THE CENTRE BOX OF THE TOP ROW
Whenever you are dealing with a magic box with odd numbered sides, this is where you must begin. So, if your box for instance, is that of a 3X3 pattern. Place it on the 2nd box of the first row. 3rd box for a 5X5 box and so on.
FILL IN THE REMAINING NUMBERS USING AN UP-ONE, RIGHT-ONE TECHNIQUE
Which simply means, you must fill the numbers sequentially by moving up one row, then one column to the right. Although a few exceptions and their solutions must be noted.
*If the technique leads you to a box above the top row, remain in the column and place the number in the row below that.
* If you reach a box that is pre occupied, trace back to the last box you filled and place the number under it.
