Best
Franklin
Squares
Franklin's Construction Method
Franklin’s magic squares revisited
A novel approach to a possible construction technique he might have used
Benjamin Franklin was born January 17, 1706. We celebrate his 300th birthday January 17, 2006. (Happy birthday Ben)
In the middle 1700’s Benjamin Franklin produced several magic squares. Most were not true magic squares since they didn’t have proper diagonal totals. However they had other features that made them subjects of interest since then for both amateur and professional mathematicians. The main goal was twofold: determine Franklin’s method of construction; derive a general construction to produce magic squares that have Franklin square features and proper diagonal totals.
I feel I’ve accomplished both.
The examples in "My Squares" are squares that I have created with a 'little' tweaking using the "Franklin Construction Method".
Recommended Links
Professor Paul Pasles of Villanova University is an expert on Franklin Squares. His site has some background on Franklin Squares and a method that Franklin could have used to construct his original 8x8 and original 16x16 squares. http://pasles.com/Franklin/index.html
Harvey Heinz is an archivist for number patterns and number sequences. His site has more Franklin Square features and patterns than any other site I have visited on the internet. Surfing his site will be an interesting experience for you http://www.geocities.com/~harveyh/franklin.htm