Unmagic Square

A Maths Starter Of The Day

Arrange the numbers in the blue cells to make an unmagic square.
The totals of each row, column and diagonal should all be different.

Congratulations that is correct!

Are there any other ways to make an umagic square using these numbers?

Sad

Your answer is not correct.

Not all of your totals are different. Press the Clear button and try again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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9


Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Problem Solving

  • Ceri Thomas, Cardiff High School
  •  
  • After solving the problem with the digits 1 to 9 try with
    (1) any 9 consecutive digits
    (2) any 9 consecutive multiples
    (3) any 9 evenly spaced decimals
  • Transum,
  •  
  • You can adapt this starter for your particular class by choosing to put some of the numbers for a particular solution in place (see answers below) and the students simply have to complete the square with the remaining numbers. If you then decide to use this starter with the same class on a different day you could choose number placings for a different solution and as there are 24960 different solutions that should keep you going for a long time!
  • Coylton Primary, Twitter
  •  

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 24 September | 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=September24

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 the student version of this activity.

Transum.org/go/?Num=26

Student Activity

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This is the well-worn and time-honoured puzzle. Each row, column and diagonal have the same sum.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=magic

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Latin Square Puzzles

Arrange the given digits to make a Latin square with the given row and column calculation results.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=latinsqpuzz

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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/?Num=425

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