WBU student recognized for work on Magic Squares

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - A senior student from Wayland Baptist University has been recognized for her research in the field of magic squares. She recently received the “Best Presentation” award at the Mathematics Association of America in Denton.

Emily Franklin presented her findings on research she has done on arithmagic squares. A magic square is a grid in which the sums of the numbers entered in each grid position are equal when added along each row, column, and diagonal. The arithmagic squares differ in that the sums show a progression, with each number in the sequence equally spaced apart.

“I love puzzles,” Franklin said of her research. “I love doing sudoku puzzles, but it wasn’t until I started my research at Wayland that I learned sudoku puzzles are actually part of an ancient field of mathematics.”

While Franklin’s research is advanced mathematics, it is grounded in ancient discoveries. It is said that a Chinese emperor discovered the first magic square on the back of a divine tortoise around 2100 BC. The research has come a long way since then.

Franklin has focused on trying to discover and classify arithmagic squares. She has been working with Levi Kasner, a computer science major, and together they have found a formula and written a computer program that will identify the squares. More importantly, it will locate base arithmagic squares which can be used to classify all other arithmagic squares. Together, they have identified 1,728 bases 3x3 arithmagic squares, narrowed down from an infinite number.

Franklin’s presentation is available here.

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