A collection of intriguing topics and fascinating stories

about the rare, the paranormal, and the strange

Volume 10




Discover whats intriguing about this most hated subject





Pablo C. Agsalud Jr.
Revision 6







Foreword

In the past, things like television, and words and
ideas like advertising, capitalism, microwave and
cancer all seemed too strange for the ordinary
man.

As man walks towards the future, overloaded with
information, more mysteries have been solved
through the wonders of science. Although some
things remained too odd for science to reproduce
or disprove, man had placed them in the gray
areas between truth and skepticism and labeled
them with terminologies fit for the modern age.

But the truth is, as long as the strange and
unexplainable cases keep piling up, the more likely
it would seem normal or natural. Answers are
always elusive and far too fewer than questions.
And yet, behind all the wonderful and frightening
phenomena around us, it is possible that what we
call mysterious today wont be too strange
tomorrow.

This book might encourage you to believe or refute
what lies beyond your own understanding.
Nonetheless, I hope it will keep you entertained
and astonished.

The content of this book remains believable for as
long as the sources and/or the references from the
specified sources exist and that the validity of the
information remains unchallenged.










Intriguing Numbers
Wikipedia.org




Explore the world of mathematics and discover the most baffling
number theories.

Fibonacci number
Wikipedia.org

In mathematics, the Fibonacci numbers are the numbers in the following integer sequence:

0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34,55,89,144,

By definition, the first two numbers in the Fibonacci sequence are 0 and 1, and each
subsequent number is the sum of the previous two.

In mathematical terms, the sequence Fn of Fibonacci numbers is defined by the recurrence
relation



with seed values


The Fibonacci sequence is named after Leonardo of Pisa, who was known as Fibonacci.
Fibonacci's 1202 book Liber Abaci introduced the sequence to Western European mathematics,
although the sequence had been described earlier in Indian mathematics. (By modern
convention, the sequence begins with F0 = 0. The Liber Abaci began the sequence with F1 =
1, omitting the initial 0, and the sequence is still written this way by some.)



A tiling with squares whose sides are successive Fibonacci numbers in length



A Fibonacci spiral created by drawing circular arcs connecting the opposite corners of squares
in the Fibonacci tiling; this one uses squares of sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, and 34.

Fibonacci numbers are closely related to Lucas numbers in that they are a complementary pair
of Lucas sequences. They are intimately connected with the golden ratio, for example the
closest rational approximations to the ratio are 2/1, 3/2, 5/3, 8/5, ... . Applications include
computer algorithms such as the Fibonacci search technique and the Fibonacci heap data
structure, and graphs called Fibonacci cubes used for interconnecting parallel and distributed
systems. They also appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, arrangement of
leaves on a stem, the fruit spouts of a pineapple, the flowering of artichoke, an uncurling
fern and the arrangement of a pine cone.

Origins

The Fibonacci sequence appears in Indian mathematics, in connection with Sanskrit prosody.
In the Sanskrit oral tradition, there was much emphasis on how long (L) syllables mix with the
short (S), and counting the different patterns of L and S within a given fixed length results in
the Fibonacci numbers; the number of patterns that are m short syllables long is the Fibonacci
number F
m + 1
.

Susantha Goonatilake writes that the development of the Fibonacci sequence "is attributed in
part to Pingala (200 BC), later being associated with Virahanka (c. 700 AD), Gopla (c.1135
AD), and Hemachandra (c.1150)". Parmanand Singh cites Pingala's cryptic formula misrau cha
("the two are mixed") and cites scholars who interpret it in context as saying that the cases
for m beats (Fm+1) is obtained by adding a [S] to F
m
cases and [L] to the F
m1
cases. He
dates Pingala before 450 BCE.

However, the clearest exposition of the series arises in the work of Virahanka (c. 700AD),
whose own work is lost, but is available in a quotation by Gopala (c.1135):

Variations of two earlier meters [is the variation]... For example, for [a meter of
length] four, variations of meters of two [and] three being mixed, five happens.
[works out examples 8, 13, 21]... In this way, the process should be followed in all
mAtrA-vr.ttas (prosodic combinations).

The series is also discussed by Gopala (before 1135AD) and by the Jain scholar Hemachandra
(c. 1150AD).

In the West, the Fibonacci sequence first appears in the book Liber Abaci (1202) by Leonardo
of Pisa, known as Fibonacci. Fibonacci considers the growth of an idealized (biologically
unrealistic) rabbit population, assuming that: a newly born pair of rabbits, one male, one
female, are put in a field; rabbits are able to mate at the age of one month so that at the end
of its second month a female can produce another pair of rabbits; rabbits never die and a
mating pair always produces one new pair (one male, one female) every month from the
second month on. The puzzle that Fibonacci posed was: how many pairs will there be in one
year?

At the end of the first month, they mate, but there is still only 1 pair.
At the end of the second month the female produces a new pair, so now there are 2
pairs of rabbits in the field.
At the end of the third month, the original female produces a second pair, making 3
pairs in all in the field.
At the end of the fourth month, the original female has produced yet another new pair,
the female born two months ago produces her first pair also, making 5 pairs.

At the end of the nth month, the number of pairs of rabbits is equal to the number of new
pairs (which is the number of pairs in month n 2) plus the number of pairs alive last month
(n 1). This is the nth Fibonacci number.

The name "Fibonacci sequence" was first used by the 19th-century number theorist douard
Lucas.

The first 21 Fibonacci numbers F
n
for n = 0, 1, 2, ..., 20 are:

In nature

Fibonacci sequences appear in biological
settings, in two consecutive Fibonacci
numbers, such as branching in trees,
arrangement of leaves on a stem, the
fruitlets of a pineapple, the flowering of
artichoke, an uncurling fern and the
arrangement of a pine cone. In addition,
numerous poorly substantiated claims of
Fibonacci numbers or golden sections in
nature are found in popular sources,
e.g., relating to the breeding of rabbits,
the spirals of shells, and the curve of
waves. The Fibonacci numbers are also
found in the family tree of honeybees.

Przemysaw Prusinkiewicz advanced the
idea that real instances can in part be
understood as the expression of certain
algebraic constraints on free groups,
specifically as certain Lindenmayer
grammars.

A model for the pattern of florets in the
head of a sunflower was proposed by H.
Vogel in 1979. This has the form



where n is the index number of the
floret and c is a constant scaling factor;
the florets thus lie on Fermat's spiral.
The divergence angle, approximately
137.51, is the golden angle, dividing
the circle in the golden ratio. Because
this ratio is irrational, no floret has a
neighbor at exactly the same angle from
the center, so the florets pack efficiently.
Because the rational approximations to
the golden ratio are of the form F(j):F(j
+ 1), the nearest neighbors of floret
number n are those at n F(j) for some
index j which depends on r, the distance
from the center. It is often said that
sunflowers and similar arrangements
have 55 spirals in one direction and 89
in the other (or some other pair of adjacent Fibonacci numbers), but this is true only of one
range of radii, typically the outermost and thus most conspicuous.



Yellow Chamomile head showing the arrangement
in 21 (blue) and 13 (aqua) spirals. Such
arrangements involving consecutive Fibonacci
numbers appear in a wide variety of plants.



Illustration of Vogel's model for n=1 ... 500


The bee ancestry code

Fibonacci numbers also appear in the description of the reproduction of a population of
idealized honeybees, according to the following rules:

If an egg is laid by an unmated female, it hatches a male or drone bee.
If, however, an egg was fertilized by a male, it hatches a female.

Thus, a male bee will always have one parent, and a female bee will have two.

If one traces the ancestry of any male bee (1 bee), he has 1 parent (1 bee), 2 grandparents, 3
great-grandparents, 5 great-great-grandparents, and so on. This sequence of numbers of
parents is the Fibonacci sequence. The number of ancestors at each level, F
n
, is the number of
female ancestors, which is F
n1
, plus the number of male ancestors, which is F
n2
. (This is
under the unrealistic assumption that the ancestors at each level are otherwise unrelated.)



Fermat's Last Theorem
Wikipedia.org

In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c
can satisfy the equation a
n
+ b
n
= c
n
for any integer value of n greater than two.

This theorem was first conjectured by Pierre de
Fermat in 1637, famously in the margin of a copy of
Arithmetica where he claimed he had a proof that
was too large to fit in the margin. No successful
proof was published until 1995 despite the efforts of
countless mathematicians during the 358
intervening years. The unsolved problem stimulated
the development of algebraic number theory in the
19th century and the proof of the modularity
theorem in the 20th. It is among the most famous
theorems in the history of mathematics and prior to
its 1995 proof was in the Guinness Book of World
Records for "most difficult math problems".

Fermat's conjecture (History)

Fermat left no proof of the conjecture for all n, but
he did prove the special case n = 4. This reduced
the problem to proving the theorem for exponents n
that are prime numbers. Over the next two centuries
(16371839), the conjecture was proven for only
the primes 3, 5, and 7, although Sophie Germain
proved a special case for all primes less than 100. In
the mid-19th century, Ernst Kummer proved the
theorem for regular primes. Building on Kummer's
work and using sophisticated computer studies,
other mathematicians were able to prove the conjecture for all odd primes up to four million.

The final proof of the conjecture for all n came in the late 20th century. In 1984, Gerhard Frey
suggested the approach of proving the conjecture through a proof of the modularity theorem
for elliptic curves. Building on work of Ken Ribet, Andrew Wiles succeeded in proving enough
of the modularity theorem to prove Fermat's Last Theorem, with the assistance of Richard
Taylor. Wiles's achievement was reported widely in the popular press, and has been
popularized in books and television programs.

Mathematical context
Pythagorean triples

Pythagorean triples are a set of three integers (a, b, c) that satisfy a special case of Fermat's
equation (n = 2)



Examples of Pythagorean triples include (3, 4, 5) and (5, 12, 13). There are infinitely many
such triples, and methods for generating such triples have been studied in many cultures,
beginning with the Babylonians and later ancient Greek, Chinese and Indian mathematicians.
The traditional interest in Pythagorean triples connects with the Pythagorean theorem; in its
converse form, it states that a triangle with sides of lengths a, b and c has a right angle
between the a and b legs when the numbers are a Pythagorean triple. Right angles have
various practical applications, such as surveying, carpentry, masonry and construction.
Fermat's Last Theorem is an extension of this problem to higher powers, stating that no
solution exists when the exponent 2 is replaced by any larger integer.

Diophantine equations

Fermat's equation x
n
+ y
n
= z
n
is an example of a Diophantine equation. A Diophantine
equation is a polynomial equation in which the solutions must be integers. Their name derives
from the 3rd-century Alexandrian mathematician, Diophantus, who developed methods for
their solution. A typical Diophantine problem is to find two integers x and y such that their
sum, and the sum of their squares, equal two given numbers A and B, respectively:



Diophantus's major work is the Arithmetica, of which only a portion has survived. Fermat's
conjecture of his Last Theorem was inspired while reading a new edition of the Arithmetica,
which was translated into Latin and published in 1621 by Claude Bachet.

Diophantine equations have been studied for thousands of years. For example, the solutions to
the quadratic Diophantine equation x
2
+ y
2
= z
2
are given by the Pythagorean triples,
originally solved by the Babylonians (c. 1800 BC). Solutions to linear Diophantine equations,
such as 26x + 65y = 13, may be found using the Euclidean algorithm (c. 5th century BC).
Many Diophantine equations have a form similar to the equation of Fermat's Last Theorem
from the point of view of algebra, in that they have no cross terms mixing two letters, without
sharing its particular properties. For example, it is known that there are infinitely many
positive integers x, y, and z such that x
n
+ y
n
= z
m
where n and m are relatively prime natural
numbers.

Fermat's conjecture

Problem II.8 in the 1621 edition of the Arithmetica of Diophantus. On the right is the famous
margin which was too small to contain Fermat's alleged proof of his "last theorem".

Problem II.8 of the Arithmetica asks how a given square number is split into two other
squares; in other words, for a given rational number k, find rational numbers u and v such
that k
2
= u
2
+ v
2
. Diophantus shows how to solve this sum-of-squares problem for k = 4 (the
solutions being u = 16/5 and v = 12/5).

Around 1637, Fermat wrote his Last Theorem in the margin of his copy of the Arithmetica next
to Diophantus' sum-of-squares problem:

Cubum autem in duos cubos, aut quadratoquadratum in duos quadratoquadratos, et
generaliter nullam in infinitum ultra quadratum potestatem in duos eiusdem nominis
fas est dividere cuius rei demonstrationem mirabilem sane detexi. Hanc marginis
exiguitas non caperet.

it is impossible to separate a cube into two cubes, or a fourth power into two fourth
powers, or in general, any power higher than the second, into two like powers. I have
discovered a truly marvelous proof of this, which this margin is too narrow to contain.

Although Fermat's general proof is unknown, his proof of one case (n = 4) by infinite descent
has survived. Fermat posed the cases of n = 4 and of n = 3 as challenges to his mathematical
correspondents, such as Marin Mersenne, Blaise Pascal, and John Wallis. However, in the last
thirty years of his life, Fermat never again wrote of his "truly marvellous proof" of the general
case.

After Fermat's death in 1665, his son Clment-Samuel Fermat produced a new edition of the
book (1670) augmented with his father's comments. The margin note became known as
Fermat's Last Theorem, as it was the last of Fermat's asserted theorems to remain unproven.


Proofs for specific exponents

Only one mathematical proof by Fermat has survived, in which Fermat uses the technique of
infinite descent to show that the area of a right triangle with integer sides can never equal the
square of an integer. His proof is equivalent to demonstrating that the equation


has no primitive solutions in integers (no pairwise coprime solutions). In turn, this proves
Fermat's Last Theorem for the case n=4, since the equation a
4
+ b
4
= c
4
can be written as c
4

b
4
= (a
2
)
2
. For a version of Fermat's proof by infinite descent, see Infinite descent#Non-
solvability of r2 + s4 = t4. For various proofs by infinite descent, see Grant and Perella
(1999), Barbara (2007), and Dolan (2011).

Alternative proofs of the case n = 4 were developed later by Frnicle de Bessy (1676),
Leonhard Euler (1738), Kausler (1802), Peter Barlow (1811), Adrien-Marie Legendre (1830),
Schopis (1825), Terquem (1846), Joseph Bertrand (1851), Victor Lebesgue (1853, 1859,
1862), Theophile Pepin (1883), Tafelmacher (1893), David Hilbert (1897), Bendz (1901),
Gambioli (1901), Leopold Kronecker (1901), Bang (1905), Sommer (1907), Bottari (1908),
Karel Rychlk (1910), Nutzhorn (1912), Robert Carmichael (1913), Hancock (1931), and
Vrnceanu (1966).

After Fermat proved the special case n = 4, the general proof for all n required only that the
theorem be established for all odd prime exponents. In other words, it was necessary to prove
only that the equation a
n
+ b
n
= c
n
has no integer solutions (a, b, c) when n is an odd prime
number. This follows because a solution (a, b, c) for a given n is equivalent to a solution for all
the factors of n. For illustration, let n be factored into d and e, n = de. The general equation



implies that (a
d
, b
d
, c
d
) is a solution for the exponent e



Thus, to prove that Fermat's equation has no solutions for n > 2, it suffices to prove that it
has no solutions for at least one prime factor of every n. All integers n > 2 contain a factor of
4, or an odd prime number, or both. Therefore, Fermat's Last Theorem can be proven for all n
if it can be proven for n = 4 and for all odd primes (the only even prime number is the number
2) p.

In the two centuries following its conjecture (16371839), Fermat's Last Theorem was proven
for three odd prime exponents p = 3, 5 and 7. The case p = 3 was first stated by Abu-
Mahmud Khojandi (10th century), but his attempted proof of the theorem was incorrect. In
1770, Leonhard Euler gave a proof of p = 3, but his proof by infinite descent contained a
major gap. However, since Euler himself had proven the lemma necessary to complete the
proof in other work, he is generally credited with the first proof. Independent proofs were
published by Kausler (1802), Legendre (1823, 1830), Calzolari (1855), Gabriel Lam (1865),
Peter Guthrie Tait (1872), Gnther (1878), Gambioli (1901), Krey (1909), Rychlk (1910),
Stockhaus (1910), Carmichael (1915), Johannes van der Corput (1915), Axel Thue (1917),
and Duarte (1944). The case p = 5 was proven independently by Legendre and Peter Dirichlet
around 1825. Alternative proofs were developed by Carl Friedrich Gauss (1875, posthumous),
Lebesgue (1843), Lam (1847), Gambioli (1901), Werebrusow (1905), Rychlk (1910),van der
Corput (1915), and Guy Terjanian (1987). The case p = 7 was proven by Lam in 1839. His
rather complicated proof was simplified in 1840 by Lebesgue, and still simpler proofs were
published by Angelo Genocchi in 1864, 1874 and 1876. Alternative proofs were developed by
Thophile Ppin (1876) and Edmond Maillet (1897).

Fermat's Last Theorem has also been proven for the exponents n = 6, 10, and 14. Proofs for n
= 6 have been published by Kausler, Thue, Tafelmacher, Lind, Kapferer, Swift, and Breusch.
Similarly, Dirichlet and Terjanian each proved the case n = 14, while Kapferer and Breusch
each proved the case n = 10. Strictly speaking, these proofs are unnecessary, since these
cases follow from the proofs for n = 3, 5, and 7, respectively. Nevertheless, the reasoning of
these even-exponent proofs differs from their odd-exponent counterparts. Dirichlet's proof for
n = 14 was published in 1832, before Lam's 1839 proof for n = 7.

Many proofs for specific exponents use Fermat's technique of infinite descent, which Fermat
used to prove the case n = 4, but many do not. However, the details and auxiliary arguments
are often ad hoc and tied to the individual exponent under consideration. Since they became
ever more complicated as p increased, it seemed unlikely that the general case of Fermat's
Last Theorem could be proven by building upon the proofs for individual exponents. Although
some general results on Fermat's Last Theorem were published in the early 19th century by
Niels Henrik Abel and Peter Barlow, the first significant work on the general theorem was done
by Sophie Germain.

Sophie Germain

In the early 19th century, Sophie Germain developed several novel approaches to prove
Fermat's last theorem for all exponents. First, she defined a set of auxiliary primes
constructed from the prime exponent p by the equation = 2hp+1, where h is any integer not
divisible by three. She showed that if no integers raised to the pth power were adjacent
modulo (the non-consecutivity condition), then must divide the product xyz. Her goal was
to use mathematical induction to prove that, for any given p, infinitely many auxiliary primes
satisfied the non-consecutivity condition and thus divided xyz; since the product xyz can have
at most a finite number of prime factors, such a proof would have established Fermat's Last
Theorem. Although she developed many techniques for establishing the non-consecutivity
condition, she did not succeed in her strategic goal. She also worked to set lower limits on the
size of solutions to Fermat's equation for a given exponent p, a modified version of which was
published by Adrien-Marie Legendre. As a byproduct of this latter work, she proved Sophie
Germain's theorem, which verified the first case of Fermat's Last Theorem for every odd prime
exponent less than 100. Germain tried unsuccessfully to prove the first case of Fermat's Last
Theorem for all even exponents, specifically for n = 2p, which was proven by Guy Terjanian in
1977. In 1985, Leonard Adleman, Roger Heath-Brown and tienne Fouvry proved that the first
case of Fermat's Last Theorem holds for infinitely many odd primes p.


Ernst Kummer and the theory of ideals

In 1847, Gabriel Lam outlined a proof of Fermat's Last Theorem based on factoring the
equation x
p
+ y
p
= z
p
in complex numbers, specifically the cyclotomic field based on the roots
of the number 1. His proof failed, however, because it assumed incorrectly that such complex
numbers can be factored uniquely into primes, similar to integers. This gap was pointed out
immediately by Joseph Liouville, who later read a paper that demonstrated this failure of
unique factorisation, written by Ernst Kummer.

Kummer set himself the task of determining whether the cyclotomic field could be generalized
to include new prime numbers such that unique factorisation was restored. He succeeded in
that task by developing the ideal numbers. Using the general approach outlined by Lam,
Kummer proved both cases of Fermat's Last Theorem for all regular prime numbers. However,
he could not prove the theorem for the exceptional primes (irregular primes) which
conjecturally occur approximately 39% of the time; the only irregular primes below 100 are
37, 59 and 67.

Mordell conjecture

In the 1920s, Louis Mordell posed a conjecture that implied that Fermat's equation has at
most a finite number of nontrivial primitive integer solutions if the exponent n is greater than
two. This conjecture was proven in 1983 by Gerd Faltings, and is now known as Faltings'
theorem.

Computational studies

In the latter half of the 20th century, computational methods were used to extend Kummer's
approach to the irregular primes. In 1954, Harry Vandiver used a SWAC computer to prove
Fermat's Last Theorem for all primes up to 2521. By 1978, Samuel Wagstaff had extended this
to all primes less than 125,000. By 1993, Fermat's Last Theorem had been proven for all
primes less than four million.

Connection with elliptic curves

The ultimately successful strategy for proving Fermat's Last Theorem was by proving the
modularity theorem. The strategy was first described by Gerhard Frey in 1984. Frey noted that
if Fermat's equation had a solution (a, b, c) for exponent p > 2, the corresponding elliptic
curve



would have such unusual properties that the curve would likely violate the modularity
theorem. This theorem, first conjectured in the mid-1950s and gradually refined through the
1960s, states that every elliptic curve is modular, meaning that it can be associated with a
unique modular form.

Following this strategy, the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem required two steps. First, it was
necessary to show that Frey's intuition was correct, that the above elliptic curve is always non-
modular. Frey did not succeed in proving this rigorously; the missing piece was identified by
Jean-Pierre Serre. This missing piece, the so-called "epsilon conjecture", was proven by Ken
Ribet in 1986. Second, it was necessary to prove a special case of the modularity theorem.
This special case (for semistable elliptic curves) was proven by Andrew Wiles in 1995.

Thus, the epsilon conjecture showed that any solution to Fermat's equation could be used to
generate a non-modular semistable elliptic curve, whereas Wiles' proof showed that all such
elliptic curves must be modular. This contradiction implies that there can be no solutions to
Fermat's equation, thus proving Fermat's Last Theorem.

Wiles' general proof

Ribet's proof of the epsilon conjecture in 1986 accomplished the first half of Frey's strategy for
proving Fermat's Last Theorem. Upon hearing of Ribet's proof, Andrew Wiles decided to
commit himself to accomplishing the second half: proving a special case of the modularity
theorem (then known as the TaniyamaShimura conjecture) for semistable elliptic curves.
Wiles worked on that task for six years in almost complete secrecy. He based his initial
approach on his area of expertise, Horizontal Iwasawa theory, but by the summer of 1991,
this approach seemed inadequate to the task. In response, he exploited an Euler system
recently developed by Victor Kolyvagin and Matthias Flach. Since Wiles was unfamiliar with
such methods, he asked his Princeton colleague, Nick Katz, to check his reasoning over the
spring semester of 1993.

By mid-1993, Wiles was sufficiently confident of his results that he presented them in three
lectures delivered on June 2123, 1993 at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical
Sciences. Specifically, Wiles presented his proof of the TaniyamaShimura conjecture for
semistable elliptic curves; together with Ribet's proof of the epsilon conjecture, this implied
Fermat's Last Theorem. However, it soon became apparent that Wiles' initial proof was
incorrect. A critical portion of the proof contained an error in a bound on the order of a
particular group. The error was caught by several mathematicians refereeing Wiles'
manuscript, including Katz, who alerted Wiles on 23 August 1993.

Wiles and his former student Richard Taylor spent almost a year trying to repair the proof,
without success. On 19 September 1994, Wiles had a flash of insight that the proof could be
saved by returning to his original Horizontal Iwasawa theory approach, which he had
abandoned in favour of the KolyvaginFlach approach. On 24 October 1994, Wiles submitted
two manuscripts, "Modular elliptic curves and Fermat's Last Theorem" and "Ring theoretic
properties of certain Hecke algebras", the second of which was co-authored with Taylor. The
two papers were vetted and published as the entirety of the May 1995 issue of the Annals of
Mathematics. These papers established the modularity theorem for semistable elliptic curves,
the last step in proving Fermat's Last Theorem, 358 years after it was conjectured.

Exponents other than positive integers
Rational exponents

All solutions of the Diophantine equation when n=1 were computed by
Lenstra in 1992. In the case in which the mth roots are required to be real and positive, all
solutions are given by



for positive integers r, s, t with s and t coprime.

In 2004, for n>2, Bennett, Glass, and Szekely proved that if gcd(n,m)=1, then there are
integer solutions if and only if 6 divides m, and a
1 / m
, b
1 / m
, and c
-1 / m
are different complex
6th roots of the same real number.

Negative exponents

n = 1

All primitive (pairwise coprime) integer solutions to can be written as



for positive, coprime integers m, n.

n = 2

The case n = 2 also has an infinitude of solutions, and these have a geometric
interpretation in terms of right triangles with integer sides and an integer altitude to
the hypotenuse. All primitive solutions to are given by




for coprime integers u, v with v > u. The geometric interpretation is that a and b are
the integer legs of a right triangle and d is the integer altitude to the hypotenuse.
Then the hypotenuse itself is the integer



so (a, b, c) is a Pythagorean triple.

Integer n < 2

There are no solutions in integers for for integer n < 2. If there were,
the equation could be multiplied through by to obtain
, which is impossible by Fermat's Last Theorem.


Did Fermat possess a general proof?

The mathematical techniques used in Fermat's "marvelous" proof are unknown. Only one
detailed proof of Fermat has survived, the above proof that no three coprime integers (x, y, z)
satisfy the equation x4 y4 = z4.

Taylor and Wiles's proof relies on mathematical techniques developed in the twentieth century,
which would be alien to mathematicians who had worked on Fermat's Last Theorem even a
century earlier. Fermat's alleged "marvellous proof", by comparison, would have had to be
elementary, given mathematical knowledge of the time, and so could not have been the same
as Wiles' proof. Most mathematicians and science historians doubt that Fermat had a valid
proof of his theorem for all exponents n.

Harvey Friedman's grand conjecture implies that Fermat's last theorem can be proved in
elementary arithmetic, a rather weak form of arithmetic with addition, multiplication,
exponentiation, and a limited form of induction for formulas with bounded quantifiers. Any
such proof would be elementary but possibly too long to write down.

Monetary prizes

In 1816 and again in 1850, the French Academy of Sciences offered a prize for a general proof
of Fermat's Last Theorem. In 1857, the Academy awarded 3000 francs and a gold medal to
Kummer for his research on ideal numbers, although he had not submitted an entry for the
prize. Another prize was offered in 1883 by the Academy of Brussels.

In 1908, the German industrialist and amateur mathematician Paul Wolfskehl bequeathed
100,000 marks to the Gttingen Academy of Sciences to be offered as a prize for a complete
proof of Fermat's Last Theorem. On 27 June 1908, the Academy published nine rules for
awarding the prize. Among other things, these rules required that the proof be published in a
peer-reviewed journal; the prize would not be awarded until two years after the publication;
and that no prize would be given after 13 September 2007, roughly a century after the
competition was begun. Wiles collected the Wolfskehl prize money, then worth $50,000, on 27
June 1997.

Prior to Wiles' proof, thousands of incorrect proofs were submitted to the Wolfskehl
committee, amounting to roughly 10 feet (3 meters) of correspondence. In the first year alone
(19071908), 621 attempted proofs were submitted, although by the 1970s, the rate of
submission had decreased to roughly 34 attempted proofs per month. According to F.
Schlichting, a Wolfskehl reviewer, most of the proofs were based on elementary methods
taught in schools, and often submitted by "people with a technical education but a failed
career". In the words of mathematical historian Howard Eves, "Fermat's Last Theorem has the
peculiar distinction of being the mathematical problem for which the greatest number of
incorrect proofs have been published."

The 23 Enigma
Wikipedia.org

The 23 enigma refers to the belief that most incidents and events are
directly connected to the number 23, some modification of the
number 23, or a number related to the number 23.

Origins

Robert Anton Wilson cites William S. Burroughs as being the first
person to believe in the 23 enigma. Wilson, in an article in Fortean
Times, related the following story:

I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova
Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in
Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very
day, Clarks ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore,
while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening,
a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was
another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.

Burroughs wrote a short story in 1967 called "23 Skidoo." The term "23 skidoo" was
popularized in the early 1920s and means "it's time to leave while the getting is good." It
appeared in newspapers as early as 1906.

Discordianism

The Principia Discordia states that "All things happen in fives, or are divisible by or are
multiples of five, or are somehow directly or indirectly appropriate to 5"this is referred to as
the Law of Fives. The 23 Enigma is regarded as a corollary of this law. It can be seen in
Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea's The Illuminatus! Trilogy (therein called the "23/17
phenomenon"), Wilson's Cosmic Trigger I: The Final Secret of the Illuminati (therein called
"The Law of fives" and "The 23 Enigma"), Arthur Koestler's Challenge of Chance, as well as the
Principia Discordia. In these works, 23 is considered lucky, unlucky, sinister, strange, or
sacred to the goddess Eris or to the unholy gods of the Cthulhu Mythos.

As with most numerological claims, the enigma can be viewed as an example of apophenia,
selection bias, and confirmation bias. In interviews, Wilson acknowledged the self-fulfilling
nature of the enigma, implying that the real value of the Laws of Fives and Twenty-threes lies
in their demonstration of the mind's power to perceive "truth" in nearly anything.

When you start looking for something you tend to find it. This wouldn't be like Simon
Newcomb, the great astronomer, who wrote a mathematical proof that heavier than air flight
was impossible and published it a day before the Wright brothers took off. I'm talking about
people who found a pattern in nature and wrote several scientific articles and got it accepted
by a large part of the scientific community before it was generally agreed that there was no
such pattern, it was all just selective perception."

In the Illuminatus! Trilogy, he expresses the same view: that one can find a numerological
significance to anything, provided "sufficient cleverness."


13
Wikipedia.org

13 (thirteen) is a natural number after 12 and before 14. It is the
smallest number with eight letters in its name spelled out in English.

Strikingly similar folkloric aspects of the number 13 have been noted
in various cultures around the world: one theory is that this is due to
the cultures employing lunar-solar calendars (there are approximately
12.41 lunations per solar year, and hence 12 "true months" plus a
smaller, and often portentous, thirteenth month). This can be
witnessed, for example, in the "Twelve Days of Christmas" of Western
European tradition.
In languages
Grammar

In all Germanic languages (such as English and German), 13 is the first compound number
(in German dreizehn); the numbers 11 and 12 have their own names (in German elf and
zwlf).

The Romance languages use different systems: In Italian, 11 is the first compound number
(ndici), while in Spanish und Portuguese, the numbers up to and including 15 (Spanish
quince, Portuguese quinze), in French up to and including 16 (seize) and in Romanian up to
and including 19 have their own names.

Like in Italian, in many other languages, 11 is the first compound number, e.g. in Arabic,
Chinese, Hungarian, Japanese, Swahili.

Like in Romanian, in Lithuanian and Slavic languages, the numbers from 11-19 have their
own names.

In Hindi-Urdu, nearly every number from 199 is irregular and needs to be memorized as a
separate numeral.
Spelling

In Germany, according to an old rule, 13 as the first compound number was the first number
to be written in digits; the numbers 0 through 12 were to be spelled out. The Duden (the
German standard dictionary) now calls this rule outdated and no longer valid, but many
writers still follow it.

For the English language, different systems are used: Sometimes it is recommended to spell
out numbers up to and including nine or ten or twelve, like formerly in German, or even
ninety-nine or one hundred. Another system spells out all numbers written in one or two
words (sixteen, twenty-seven, fifteen thousand, but 372 or 15,001 ).

In religion
Roman Catholicism

The apparitions of the Virgin of Ftima in 1917 were claimed to occur on the 13th day of six
consecutive months.

In Catholic devotional practice, the number thirteen is also associated with Saint Anthony of
Padua, since his feast day falls on June 13. A traditional devotion called the Thirteen Tuesdays
of St. Anthony involves praying to the saint every Tuesday over a period of thirteen weeks.
Another devotion, St. Anthony's Chaplet, consists of thirteen decades of three beads each.
Sikhism

According to famous Sakhi (Evidence) or story of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, when he was an
accountant at a town of Sultanpur Lodhi, he was distributing grocery to people and when he
gave groceries to the 13th person he stopped there because in Gurmukhi and Hindi the word
13 is called Terah, which means yours. And Guru Nanak Dev Ji kept on saying, "Yours, yours,
yours..." remembering God. People reported to the emperor that Guru Nanak Dev Ji was
giving out free food to the people. When treasures were checked, there was more money than
before.

The Vaisakhi which commemorates the creation of "Khalsa" or pure Sikh was celebrated on
April 13 for many years.
Judaism

In Judaism, 13 signifies the age at which a boy matures and becomes a Bar Mitzvah,
i.e., a full member of the Jewish faith (is qualified to be counted as a member of
Minyan).
The number of principles of Jewish faith according to Maimonides.
According to Rabbinic commentary on the Torah, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy.
The number of circles, or "nodes", that make up Metatron's Cube in Kaballistic
teachings.
Zoroastrianism

Evidently the number 13 had been considered sinister and wicked in ancient Iranian civilization
and Zoroastrianism; Since beginning of Nourooz tradition, the 13th day of each new Iranian
year is called Sizdah Be-dar and this tradition is still alive among Iranian people both inside
modern Iran and abroad. Since Sizdah Be-dar is the 13th day of the year, it is considered a
day which evil's power might cause difficulties for people; Therefore people desert the cities
and urban areas for one day and camp in the countryside. Even in the current era after 1979
Revolution and despite the wishes of Islamic government this day is officially holiday all over
Iran and its traditions are practiced by the majority of people.
Islam

In Shia Islam 13 signifies the 13th day of the month of Rajab (Lunar calendar) which is the
birth of Imam Ali. 13 also is a total of 1 Prophet and 12 Imams in the Shia school of thought.

Other

In Mesoamerican divination, 13 is the number of important cycles of
fortune/misfortune (see Trecena).
13 is the age that adepts usually start to learn Witchcraft.
Traditionally, there are 13 witches in a coven.
In a Pentagram with a circle ratio of 13, each arm of the star will equal 12.36, the
number of lunar months,days and hours in a solar year. Add the arms together and
you get the number of full moons in 5 years.
Many religions have 1 Messiah or Prophet and 12 followers for a total of 13.

Unlucky 13

The number 13 is considered an unlucky number in some countries. Charles Stewart Parnell
had an irrational fear of the number thirteen The end of the Mayan calendar's 13th Baktun was
superstitiously feared as a harbinger of the apocalyptic 2012 phenomenon. Fear of the number
13 has a specifically recognized phobia, Triskaidekaphobia, a word which was coined in 1911.
The superstitious sufferers of triskaidekaphobia try to avoid bad luck by keeping away from
anything numbered or labelled thirteen. As a result, companies and manufacturers use
another way of numbering or labeling to avoid the number, with hotels and tall buildings being
conspicuous examples (Thirteenth floor). It's also considered to be unlucky to have thirteen
guests at a table. Friday the 13th has been considered the unluckiest day of the month.

There are a number of theories behind the cause of the association between thirteen and bad
luck, but none of them have been accepted as likely.
The Last Supper

At Jesus Christ's last supper, there were thirteen people around the table, counting Christ and
the twelve apostles. The reason this is believed to be unlucky is because one of those thirteen,
Judas Iscariot, was the betrayer of Jesus Christ.
Knights Templar

On Friday 13 October 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrest of the Knights Templar.
Full moons

A year which contained 13 full moons instead of 12 posed problems for the monks who were
in charge of the calendars. "This was considered a very unfortunate circumstance, especially
by the monks who had charge of the calendar of thirteen months for that year, and it upset
the regular arrangement of church festivals. For this reason thirteen came to be considered an
unlucky number."

However, in a typical century, there will be about 37 years which have 13 full moons
compared with 63 years with 12 full moons, and typically every third or fourth year would
have 13 full moons.

The moon moves 13 degrees around the earth every day. It Takes 13 days to change from
Full Moon to New Moon and 13 days to change back with 1 day Full and 1 day New to equal 28
days of the Lunar Cycle.

A repressed lunar cult

In ancient cultures, the number 13 represented femininity, because it corresponded to the
number of lunar (menstrual) cycles in a year (13 x 28 = 364 days). The theory is that, as the
solar calendar triumphed over the lunar, the number thirteen became anathema.

Lucky 13

Several successful sports figures have worn the number 13. Park Ji-Sung, South-Korean
footballer and midfielder for Queens Park Rangers wears number 13. Ozzie Guilln, manager
of the 2005 World Series Champion Chicago White Sox, has worn the number throughout his
baseball career. Alex Rodriguez began wearing it upon joining the New York Yankees (three,
the number he had previously worn, is retired by the Bronx Bombers to honor Babe Ruth).
Dan Marino, an American football player known for passing the 3rd most yards in NFL history,
wore the number 13. Basketball great Wilt Chamberlain wore the number 13 on his jersey
throughout his NBA career. Also, FIBA rules require a player to wear the number in
international competitions (only numbers from 4 to 15 could be worn, and as there are 12
players, one must wear 13); Chris Mullin, who wore No. 20 in college and No. 17 in the NBA,
wore No. 13 for both (1984 and 1992) of his Olympic appearances. Shaquille O'Neal wore No.
13 in 1996; Tim Duncan wore No. 13 in 2004. Steve Nash wore it for most of his basketball
career. Yao Ming wore it in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Chris Paul wore the number 13 for
both the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. Mats Sundin, Pavel Datsyuk, Bill Guerin, and Michael
Cammalleri wear 13 in the NHL. One of Iceland's all time best handball players, Sigurur
Sveinsson, wore the number 13 when he played for the national team. In association football,
both Gerd Mller and Michael Ballack have favoured the number 13, among others.

In Italy, 13 is also considered to be a lucky number, although in Campania the expression
'tredici' (meaning 13) is said when one considers their luck to have turned for the worse.

Some people even have 13 tattooed onto them to represent the lucky number.

Music

American born Horror-Punk singer and musician Joseph Poole (Murderdolls) uses the name
Wednesday 13 as his stage name, taking "Wednesday" from the girl Wednesday from the
Addams Family and 13 from Friday the 13th.

American country-pop singer-songwriter Taylor Swift was born on December 13. She
considers 13 her lucky number due to lucky events happening to her when the number
appears (her first album going gold in 13 weeks, being seated at awards shows in the 13th
seat, row or section). She also wears the number written on her hand at her concerts so she
has it with her everywhere she goes.

There are 13 notes, by inclusive counting, in a full chromatic musical octave.


Other

Colgate University also considers 13 to be a lucky number. They were founded in 1819 by 13
men with 13 dollars, 13 prayers and 13 articles. (To this day, members of the Colgate
community consider the number 13 a good omen.) In fact, the campus address is 13 Oak
Drive in Hamilton, New York, and the male a cappella group is called the Colgate 13.

In the Mayan Tzolk'in calendar, trecenas mark cycles of 13 day periods. The pyramids are also
set up in 9 steps divided into 7 days and 6 nights, 13 days total.

In a tarot card deck, XIII is the card of Death, usually picturing the Pale horse with its rider.
Coperos

The number 13 in the Coperos religion (small culture in Brazil) is like a God number. All
coperos must know that this number can save humankind.
History

The American flag has 13 stripes in honor of the first 13 colonies.

Apollo 13 was a NASA Moon mission famous for being a "successful failure" in that while the
crew were unable to land on the Moon as planned due to a technical malfunction, they were
returned safely home.
Age 13

In Judaism, 13 signifies the age at which a boy matures and becomes a Bar Mitzvah, i.e., a full
member of the Jewish faith (is qualified to be counted as a member of Minyan).


Googol
Wikipedia.org

A googol is the large number 10
100
, that is, the digit 1 followed by 100 zeros:

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,0
00,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

The term was coined in 1938 by 9-year-old Milton Sirotta (19291981), nephew of American
mathematician Edward Kasner. Kasner popularized the concept in his book Mathematics and
the Imagination (1940).

Other names for googol include ten duotrigintillion on the short scale, ten thousand
sexdecillion on the long scale, or ten sexdecilliard on the Peletier long scale.

A googol has no particular significance in mathematics, but is useful when comparing with
other very large quantities such as the number of subatomic particles in the visible universe or
the number of hypothetically possible chess moves. Edward Kasner used it to illustrate the
difference between an unimaginably large number and infinity, and in this role it is sometimes
used in teaching mathematics.
Magic Square
Wikipedia.org

In recreational mathematics, a magic square of order n is
an arrangement of n2 numbers, usually distinct integers,
in a square, such that the n numbers in all rows, all
columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant.
A normal magic square contains the integers from 1 to
n2. The term "magic square" is also sometimes used to
refer to any of various types of word square.

Normal magic squares exist for all orders n 1 except n
= 2, although the case n = 1 is trivial, consisting of a
single cell containing the number 1. The smallest
nontrivial case, shown below, is of order 3.



The constant sum in every row, column and diagonal is called the magic constant or magic
sum, M. The magic constant of a normal magic square depends only on n and has the value



For normal magic squares of order n = 3, 4, 5, ..., the magic constants are:

15, 34, 65, 111, 175, 260, ... (sequence A006003 in OEIS).

History

Left: Iron plate with an order 6 magic square in Arabic
numbers from China, dating to the Yuan Dynasty
(1206-1368).

Magic squares were known to Chinese mathematicians,
as early as 650 BCE and Arab mathematicians, possibly
as early as the 7th century, when the Arabs conquered
northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent and
learned Indian mathematics and astronomy, including
other aspects of combinatorial mathematics. The first
magic squares of order 5 and 6 appear in an
encyclopedia from Baghdad circa 983 CE, the
Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasa'il Ihkwan
al-Safa); simpler magic squares were known to several
earlier Arab mathematicians. Some of these squares were later used in conjunction with magic
letters as in (Shams Al-ma'arif) to assist Arab illusionists and magicians.

Lo Shu square (33 magic square)

Chinese literature dating from as early as 650 BC tells the legend of Lo Shu
or "scroll of the river Lo". In ancient China there was a huge flood. The great
king Yu () tried to channel the water out to sea where then emerged from
the water a turtle with a curious figure/pattern on its shell; circular dots of
numbers which were arranged in a three by three grid pattern such that the
sum of the numbers in each row, column and diagonal was the same: 15,
which is also the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese
solar year. This pattern, in a certain way, was used by the people in controlling the river.


The Lo Shu Square, as the magic square on the turtle shell is called, is the unique normal
magic square of order three in which 1 is at the bottom and 2 is in the upper right corner.
Every normal magic square of order three is obtained from the Lo Shu by rotation or
reflection.

The Square of Lo Shu is also referred to as the Magic Square of Saturn or Chronos.

Cultural significance

Magic squares have fascinated humanity throughout the ages, and have
been around for over 4,120 years. They are found in a number of cultures,
including Egypt and India, engraved on stone or metal and worn as
talismans, the belief being that magic squares had astrological and
divinatory qualities, their usage ensuring longevity and prevention of
diseases.

The Kubera-Kolam is a floor painting used in India which is in the form of a magic square of
order three. It is essentially the same as the Lo Shu Square, but with 19 added to each
number, giving a magic constant of 72.

Persia


Left: Printed version of the previous manuscript.
Eastern Arabic numerals were used.

Although a definitive judgement of early history of
magic squares is not available, it has been suggested
that magic squares are probably of pre-Islamic Persian
origin. The study of magic squares in medieval Islam in
Persia is however common, and supposedly, came after
the introduction of Chess in Persia. For instance in the
tenth century, the Persian mathematician Buzjani has
left a manuscript on page 33 of which there is a series of magic squares, which are filled by
numbers in arithmetic progression in such a way that the sums on each line, column and
diagonal are equal.

Arabia

Left: Original script from Shams Al-ma'arif.

Magic squares were known to Islamic mathematicians,
possibly as early as the 7th century, when the Arabs
came into contact with Indian culture, and learned Indian
mathematics and astronomy, including other aspects of
combinatorial mathematics. It has also been suggested
that the idea came via China. The first magic squares of
order 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia from Baghdad
circa 983 AD, the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa (the
Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity); simpler magic
squares were known to several earlier Arab
mathematicians.

The Arab mathematician Ahmad al-Buni, who worked on
magic squares around 1250 A.D., attributed mystical properties to them, although no details
of these supposed properties are known. There are also references to the use of magic
squares in astrological calculations, a practice that seems to have originated with the Arabs.

India

The 3x3 magic square was used as part of rituals in India from vedic
times, and continues to be used to date.The Ganesh yantra is a 3x3
magic square. A well known early 4x4 magic square in India can be
seen in Khajuraho in the Parshvanath Jain temple. It dates from the
10th century.


This is referred to as the Chautisa Yantra, since each row, column,
diagonal, 2x2 sub-square, the corners of each 3x3 and 4x4 square, the
two sets of four symmetrical numbers (1+11+16+6 and 2+12+15+5), and the sum of the
middle two entries of the two outer columns and rows (12+1+6+15 and 2+16+11+5), sums
to 34.

Europe


Left: This page from Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus
Aegyptiacus (1653) belongs to a treatise on magic
squares and shows the Sigillum Iovis associated with
Jupiter

In 1300, building on the work of the Arab Al-Buni,
Greek Byzantine scholar Manuel Moschopoulos wrote a
mathematical treatise on the subject of magic squares,
leaving out the mysticism of his predecessors.
Moschopoulos is thought to be the first Westerner to
have written on the subject. In the 1450s the Italian
Luca Pacioli studied magic squares and collected a large
number of examples.

In about 1510 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa wrote De
Occulta Philosophia, drawing on the Hermetic and
magical works of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della
Mirandola, and in it he expounded on the magical
virtues of seven magical squares of orders 3 to 9, each
associated with one of the astrological planets. This
book was very influential throughout Europe until the
counter-reformation, and Agrippa's magic squares, sometimes called Kameas, continue to be
used within modern ceremonial magic in much the same way as he first prescribed.









Left: The derivation of the sigil of
Hagiel, the planetary intelligence
of Venus, drawn on the magic
square of Venus. Each Hebrew
letter provides a numerical value,
giving the vertices of the sigil.




The most common use for these Kameas is to provide a pattern upon which to construct the
sigils of spirits, angels or demons; the letters of the entity's name are converted into numbers,
and lines are traced through the pattern that these successive numbers make on the kamea.
In a magical context, the term magic square is also applied to a variety of word squares or
number squares found in magical grimoires, including some that do not follow any obvious
pattern, and even those with differing numbers of rows and columns. They are generally
intended for use as talismans. For instance the following squares are: The Sator square, one
of the most famous magic squares found in a number of grimoires including the Key of
Solomon; a square "to overcome envy", from The Book of Power; and two squares from The
Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, the first to cause the illusion of a superb
palace to appear, and the second to be worn on the head of a child during an angelic
invocation:




Albrecht Drer's magic square

The order-4 magic square in Albrecht Drer's engraving
Melencolia I is believed to be the first seen in European
art. It is very similar to Yang Hui's square, which was
created in China about 250 years before Drer's time.
The sum 34 can be found in the rows, columns,
diagonals, each of the quadrants, the center four
squares, and the corner squares(of the 4x4 as well as
the four contained 3x3 grids). This sum can also be
found in the four outer numbers clockwise from the
corners (3+8+14+9) and likewise the four counter-
clockwise (the locations of four queens in the two
solutions of the 4 queens puzzle), the two sets of four
symmetrical numbers (2+8+9+15 and 3+5+12+14),
the sum of the middle two entries of the two outer
columns and rows (5+9+8+12 and 3+2+15+14), and
in four kite or cross shaped quartets(3+5+11+15,
2+10+8+14, 3+9+7+15, and 2+6+12+14). The two numbers in the middle of the bottom
row give the date of the engraving: 1514. The numbers 1 and 4 at either side of the date
correspond to, in English, the letters 'A' and 'D' which are the initials of the artist.

Drer's magic square can also be extended to a magic cube.

Drer's magic square and his Melencolia I both also played large roles in Dan Brown's 2009
novel, The Lost Symbol.

Sagrada Famlia magic square

Left: A magic square on the Sagrada Famlia
church faade

The Passion faade of the Sagrada Famlia
church in Barcelona, designed by sculptor
Josep Subirachs, features a 44 magic
square:

The magic constant of the square is 33, the
age of Jesus at the time of the Passion.
Structurally, it is very similar to the
Melancholia magic square, but it has had the
numbers in four of the cells reduced by 1.



While having the same pattern of summation, this is not a normal magic
square as above, as two numbers (10 and 14) are duplicated and two
(12 and 16) are absent, failing the 1n2 rule.

Similarly to Drer's magic square, the Sagrada Familia's magic square
can also be extended to a magic cube.
Types and construction

There are many ways to construct magic squares, but the standard (and most simple) way is
to follow certain configurations/formulas which generate regular patterns. Magic squares exist
for all values of n, with only one exception: it is impossible to construct a magic square of
order 2. Magic squares can be classified into three types: odd, doubly even (n divisible by
four) and singly even (n even, but not divisible by four). Odd and doubly even magic squares
are easy to generate; the construction of singly even magic squares is more difficult but
several methods exist, including the LUX method for magic squares (due to John Horton
Conway) and the Strachey method for magic squares.

Group theory was also used for constructing new magic squares of a given order from one of
them, please see.

The number of different nn magic squares for n from 1 to 5, not counting rotations and
reflections:

1, 0, 1, 880, 275305224 (sequence A006052 in OEIS).

The number for n = 6 has been estimated to 1.77451019.

Method for constructing a magic square of odd order

Yang Hui's construction methodA method for constructing magic squares of odd order was
published by the French diplomat de la Loubre in his book A new historical relation of the
kingdom of Siam (Du Royaume de Siam, 1693), under the chapter entitled The problem of the
magical square according to the Indians. The method operates as follows:

Starting from the central column of the first row with the number 1, the fundamental
movement for filling the squares is diagonally up and right, one step at a time. If a filled
square is encountered, one moves vertically down one square instead, then continuing as
before. When a move would leave the square, it is wrapped around to the last row or first
column, respectively.



Starting from other squares rather than the central column of the first row is possible, but
then only the row and column sums will be identical and result in a magic sum, whereas the
diagonal sums will differ. The result will thus be a semimagic square and not a true magic
square. Moving in directions other than north east can also result in magic squares.



The following formulae help construct magic squares of odd order



Example:



The "Middle Number" is always in the diagonal bottom left to top right.
The "Last Number" is always opposite the number 1 in an outside column or row.


A method of constructing a magic square of doubly even order

Doubly even means that n is an even multiple of an even integer; or 4p (e.g. 4, 8, 12), where
p is an integer.

Generic pattern All the numbers are written in order from left to right across each row in
turn, starting from the top left hand corner. The resulting square is also known as a mystic
square. Numbers are then either retained in the same place or interchanged with their
diametrically opposite numbers in a certain regular pattern. In the magic square of order four,
the numbers in the four central squares and one square at each corner are retained in the
same place and the others are interchanged with their diametrically opposite numbers.

A construction of a magic square of order 4 Go left to right through the square filling
counting and filling in on the diagonals only. Then continue by going left to right from the top
left of the table and fill in counting down from 16 to 1. As shown below.



An extension of the above example for Orders 8 and 12 First generate a "truth" table,
where a '1' indicates selecting from the square where the numbers are written in order 1 to n2
(left-to-right, top-to-bottom), and a '0' indicates selecting from the square where the numbers
are written in reverse order n2 to 1. For M = 4, the "truth" table is as shown below, (third
matrix from left.)



Note that a) there are equal number of '1's and '0's; b) each row and each column are
"palindromic"; c) the left- and right-halves are mirror images; and d) the top- and bottom-
halves are mirror images (c & d imply b.) The truth table can be denoted as (9, 6, 6, 9) for
simplicity (1-nibble per row, 4 rows.) Similarly, for M=8, two choices for the truth table are
(A5, 5A, A5, 5A, 5A, A5, 5A, A5) or (99, 66, 66, 99, 99, 66, 66, 99) (2-nibbles per row, 8
rows.) For M=12, the truth table (E07, E07, E07, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, E07, E07,
E07) yields a magic square (3-nibbles per row, 12 rows.) It is possible to count the number of
choices one has based on the truth table, taking rotational symmetries into account.


Medjig-method of constructing magic squares of even number of rows

This method is based on a 2006 published mathematical game called medjig (author: Willem
Barink, editor: Philos-Spiele). The pieces of the medjig puzzle are squares divided in four
quadrants on which the numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3 are dotted in all sequences. There are 18
squares, with each sequence occurring 3 times. The aim of the puzzle is to take 9 squares out
of the collection and arrange them in a 3 x 3 "medjig-square" in such a way that each row and
column formed by the quadrants sums to 9, along with the two long diagonals.

The medjig method of constructing a magic square of order 6 is as follows:

Construct any 3 x 3 medjig-square (ignoring the original game's limit on the number of times
that a given sequence is used).
Take the 3 x 3 magic square and divide each of its squares into four quadrants.
Fill these quadrants with the four numbers from 1 to 36 that equal the original number modulo
9, i.e. x+9y where x is the original number and y is a number from 0 to 3, following the
pattern of the medjig-square.

Example:



Similarly, for any larger integer N, a magic square of order 2N can be constructed from any N
x N medjig-square with each row, column, and long diagonal summing to 3N, and any N x N
magic square (using the four numbers from 1 to 4N^2 that equal the original number modulo
N^2).

Construction of panmagic squares

Any number p in the order-n square can be uniquely written in the form p = an + r, with r
chosen from {1,...,n}. Note that due to this restriction, a and r are not the usual quotient and
remainder of dividing p by n. Consequently the problem of constructing can be split in two
problems easier to solve. So, construct two matching square grids of order n satisfying
panmagic properties, one for the a-numbers (0,..., n1), and one for the r-numbers (1,...,n).
This requires a lot of puzzling, but can be done. When successful, combine them into one
panmagic square. Van den Essen and many others supposed this was also the way Benjamin
Franklin (17061790) constructed his famous Franklin squares. Three panmagic squares are
shown below. The first two squares have been constructed April 2007 by Barink, the third one
is some years older, and comes from Donald Morris, who used, as he supposes, the Franklin
way of construction.



The order 8 square satisfies all panmagic properties, including the Franklin ones. It consists of
4 perfectly panmagic 4x4 units. Note that both order 12 squares show the property that any
row or column can be divided in three parts having a sum of 290 (= 1/3 of the total sum of a
row or column). This property compensates the absence of the more standard panmagic
Franklin property that any 1/2 row or column shows the sum of 1/2 of the total. For the rest
the order 12 squares differ a lot.The Barink 12x12 square is composed of 9 perfectly panmagic
4x4 units, moreover any 4 consecutive numbers starting on any odd place in a row or column
show a sum of 290. The Morris 12x12 square lacks these properties, but on the contrary
shows constant Franklin diagonals. For a better understanding of the constructing decompose
the squares as described above, and see how it was done. And note the difference between
the Barink constructions on the one hand, and the Morris/Franklin construction on the other
hand.

In the book Mathematics in the Time-Life Science Library Series, magic squares by Euler and
Franklin are shown. Franklin designed this one so that any four-square subset (any four
contiguous squares that form a larger square, or any four squares equidistant from the center)
total 130. In Euler's square, the rows and columns each total 260, and halfway they total
130and a chess knight, making its L-shaped moves on the square, can touch all 64 boxes in
consecutive numerical order.

Construction similar to the Kronecker Product

There is a method reminiscent of the Kronecker product of two matrices, that builds an nm x
nm magic square from an n x n magic square and an m x m magic square.


The construction of a magic square using genetic algorithms

A magic square can be constructed using genetic algorithms. In this process an initial
population of magic squares with random values are generated. The fitness scores of these
individual magic squares are calculated based on the degree of deviation in the sums of the
rows, columns, and diagonals. The population of magic squares reproduce by exchanging
values, together with some random mutations. Those squares with a higher fitness score are
more likely to reproduce. The next generation of the magic square population is again
calculated for their fitness, and this process continues until a solution has been found or a
time limit has been reached.

Generalizations

Extra constraints

Certain extra restrictions can be imposed on magic squares. If not only the main diagonals but
also the broken diagonals sum to the magic constant, the result is a panmagic square. If
raising each number to certain powers yields another magic square, the result is a bimagic, a
trimagic, or, in general, a multimagic square.

Different constraints

Sometimes the rules for magic squares are relaxed, so that only the rows and columns but not
necessarily the diagonals sum to the magic constant (this is usually called a semimagic
square).

In heterosquares and antimagic squares, the 2n + 2 sums must all be different.


Multiplicative magic squares

Instead of adding the numbers in each row, column and diagonal, one can apply some other
operation. For example, a multiplicative magic square has a constant product of numbers. A
multiplicative magic square can be derived from an additive magic square by raising 2 (or any
other integer) to the power of each element. For example, the original Lo-Shu magic square
becomes:


Other examples of multiplicative magic squares include:



Ali Skalli's non iterative method of construction is also applicable to multiplicative magic
squares. On the 7x7 example below, the products of each line, each column and each diagonal
is 6,227,020,800.




Multiplicative magic squares of complex numbers

Still using Ali Skalli's non iterative method, it is possible to produce an infinity of multiplicative
magic squares of complex numbers belonging to set. On the example below, the real and
imaginary parts are integer numbers, but they can also belong to the entire set of real
numbers . The product is: 352,507,340,640 400,599,719,520 i.


Other magic shapes

Other shapes than squares can be considered. The general case is to consider a design with N
parts to be magic if the N parts are labeled with the numbers 1 through N and a number of
identical sub-designs give the same sum. Examples include magic dodecahedrons, magic
triangles magic stars, and magic hexagons. Going up in dimension results in magic cubes,
magic tesseracts and other magic hypercubes.

Edward Shineman has developed yet another design in the shape of magic diamonds.

Possible magic shapes are constrained by the number of equal-sized, equal-sum subsets of the
chosen set of labels. For example, if one proposes to form a magic shape labeling the parts
with {1, 2, 3, 4}, the sub-designs will have to be labeled with {1,4} and {2,3}.

Other component elements

Magic squares may be constructed which contain geometric shapes rather than numbers, as in
the "geomagic squares" introduced by Lee Sallows.

Combined extensions

One can combine two or more of the above extensions, resulting in such objects as
multiplicative multimagic hypercubes. Little seems to be known about this subject.

Related problems

Over the years, many mathematicians, including Euler, Cayley and Benjamin Franklin have
worked on magic squares, and discovered fascinating relations.

Magic square of primes

Rudolf Ondrejka (19282001) discovered the following 3x3 magic square of primes, in this
case nine Chen primes:



The GreenTao theorem implies that there are arbitrarily large magic squares consisting of
primes.

Using Ali Skalli's non-iterative method of magic squares construction, it is easy to create
magic squares of primes of any dimension. In the example below, many symmetries appear
(including all sorts of crosses), as well as the horizontal and vertical translations of all those.
The magic constant is 13665.



It is believed that an infinite number of Skalli's magic squares of prime exist, but no
demonstration exists to date. However, it is possible to easily produce a considerable number
of them, not calculable in the absence of demonstration.

n-Queens problem

In 1992, Demirrs, Rafraf, and Tanik published a method for converting some magic squares
into n-queens solutions, and vice versa.


*Square Root of -1
Wikipedia.org

[text ]



*Infinity
Wikipedia.org

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Mbius Strip
Wikipedia.org

A Mbius strip made with a piece of paper and
tape. If an ant were to crawl along the length
of this strip, it would return to its starting
point having traversed every part of the strip
(on both sides of the original paper) without
ever crossing an edge.



The Mbius strip or Mbius band (pronounced UK: /m:bis/ or US: /mobis/ in English,
[m:bis] in German) (alternatively written Mobius or Moebius in English) is a surface with
only one side and only one boundary component. The Mbius strip has the mathematical
property of being non-orientable. It can be realized as a ruled surface. It was discovered
independently by the German mathematicians August Ferdinand Mbius and Johann Benedict
Listing in 1858.

A model can easily be created by taking a paper strip and giving it a half-twist, and then
joining the ends of the strip together to form a loop. In Euclidean space there are in fact two
types of Mbius strips depending on the direction of the half-twist: clockwise and
counterclockwise. That is to say, it is a chiral object with "handedness" (right-handed or left-
handed).

It is straightforward to find algebraic equations the solutions of which have the topology of a
Mbius strip, but in general these equations do not describe the same geometric shape that
one gets from the twisted paper model described above. In particular, the twisted paper model
is a developable surface (it has zero Gaussian curvature). A system of differential-algebraic
equations that describes models of this type was published in 2007 together with its numerical
solution.

The Euler characteristic of the Mbius strip is zero.

Properties

The Mbius strip has several curious properties. A line drawn starting from the seam down the
middle will meet back at the seam but at the "other side". If continued the line will meet the
starting point and will be double the length of the original strip. This single continuous curve
demonstrates that the Mbius strip has only one boundary.

Cutting a Mbius strip along the center line yields one long strip with two full twists in it,
rather than two separate strips; the result is not a Mbius strip. This happens because the
original strip only has one edge which is twice as long as the original strip. Cutting creates a
second independent edge, half of which was on each side of the scissors. Cutting this new,
longer, strip down the middle creates two strips wound around each other, each with two full
twists.

If the strip is cut along about a third of the way in from the edge, it creates two strips: One is
a thinner Mbius strip it is the center third of the original strip, comprising 1/3 of the width
and the same length as the original strip. The other is a longer but thin strip with two full
twists in it this is a neighborhood of the edge of the original strip, and it comprises 1/3 of
the width and twice the length of the original strip.

Left: To turn a rectangle into a Mbius strip, join the
edges labelled A so that the directions of the arrows
match.

Other analogous strips can be obtained by similarly
joining strips with two or more half-twists in them
instead of one. For example, a strip with three half-
twists, when divided lengthwise, becomes a strip tied in
a trefoil knot. (If this knot is unravelled, the strip is
made with eight half-twists in addition to an overhand
knot.) The equation for the number of half-twists after
cutting a Mobius strip is 2N+2=M, where N is the
number of half-twists before and M, the number after
cutting a Mbius strip, giving it extra twists, and
reconnecting the ends produces figures called
paradromic rings.

A strip with an odd-number of half-twists, such as the Mbius strip, will have only one surface
and one boundary. A strip twisted an even number of times will have two surfaces and two
boundaries.

If a strip with an odd number of half-twists is cut in half along its length, it will result in a
longer strip, with the same number of loops as there are half-twists in the original.
Alternatively, if a strip with an even number of half-twists is cut in half along its length, it will
result in two conjoined strips, each with the same number of twists as the original.

Geometry and topology

Left: A parametric plot of a Mbius strip

One way to represent the Mbius strip as a subset of R3
is using the parametrization:




where 0 u < 2 and 1 v 1. This creates a Mbius strip of width 1 whose center circle
has radius 1, lies in the xy plane and is centered at (0, 0, 0). The parameter u runs around the
strip while v moves from one edge to the other.

In cylindrical polar coordinates (r, , z), an unbounded version of the Mbius strip can be
represented by the equation:



Topologically, the Mbius strip can be defined as the square [0,1] [0,1] with its top and
bottom sides identified by the relation (x, 0) ~ (1 x, 1) for 0 x 1, as in the diagram on
the right.

A less used presentation of the Mbius strip is as the orbifold quotient of a torus. A torus can
be constructed as the square [0,1] [0,1] with the edges identified as (0,y) ~ (1,y) (glue left
to right) and (x,0) ~ (x,1) (glue bottom to top). If one then also identified (x,y) ~ (y,x), then
one obtains the Mbius strip. The diagonal of the square (the points (x,x) where both
coordinates agree) becomes the boundary of the Mbius strip, and carries an orbifold
structure, which geometrically corresponds to "reflection" geodesics (straight lines) in the
Mbius strip reflect off the edge back into the strip. Notationally, this is written as T2/S2 the
2-torus quotiented by the group action of the symmetric group on two letters (switching
coordinates), and it can be thought of as the configuration space of two unordered points on
the circle, possibly the same (the edge corresponds to the points being the same), with the
torus corresponding to two ordered points on the circle.

The Mbius strip is a two-dimensional compact manifold (i.e. a surface) with boundary. It is a
standard example of a surface which is not orientable. The Mbius strip is also a standard
example used to illustrate the mathematical concept of a fiber bundle. Specifically, it is a
nontrivial bundle over the circle S1 with a fiber the unit interval, I = [0,1]. Looking only at the
edge of the Mbius strip gives a nontrivial two point (or Z2) bundle over S1.

A simple construction of the Mbius strip which can be used to portray it in computer graphics
or modeling packages is as follows :

Take a rectangular strip. Rotate it around a fixed point not in its plane. At every step
also rotate the strip along a line in its plane (the line which divides the strip in two)
and perpendicular to the main orbital radius. The surface generated on one complete
revolution is the Mbius strip.
Take a Mbius strip and cut it along the middle of the strip. This will form a new strip,
which is a rectangle joined by rotating one end a whole turn. By cutting it down the
middle again, this forms two interlocking whole-turn strips.

The open Mbius band

The open Mbius band is formed by deleting the boundary of the standard Mbius band. It is
constructed from the set S = { (x,y) R2 : 0 x 1 and 0 < y < 1} by identifying (glueing)
the points (0,y) and (1,1y) for all 0 < y < 1.

Occurrence and use in mathematics

The space of unoriented lines in the plane is diffeomorphic to the open Mbius band.

To see why, notice that each line in the plane has an equation ax + by + c = 0 for fixed
constants a, b and c. We can identify the equation ax + by + c = 0 with the point (a,b,c).
However, the line given by ax + by + c = 0 is also given by (ax + by + c) = (a)x + (b)y +
(c) = 0 for all 0.

These equations, which give the same line, are identified with the points (a,b,c). Thus, the
space of lines in the plane is a (proper) subset of the real projective plane; where the equation
ax + by + c = 0 corresponds to the point (a:b:c) in homogeneous coordinates. It is only a
subset because some equations of the form ax + by + c = 0 do not give lines. We need to
disallow a = b = 0 to be sure that the equation ax + by + c = 0 does indeed give a line. The
space of unoriented lines in the plane is given by deleting the point (0:0:c) = (0:0:1) from the
real projective plane. This space is exactly the open Mbius band.

Mbius band with flat edge

The edge of a Mbius strip is topologically equivalent to the circle. Under the usual
embeddings of the strip in Euclidean space, as above, this edge is not an ordinary (flat) circle.
It is possible to embed a Mbius strip in three dimensions so that the edge is a circle. One way
to think of this is to begin with a minimal Klein bottle immersed in the 3-sphere and take half
of it, which is an embedded Mbius band in 4-space; this figure M has been called the
"Sudanese Mbius Band". (The name comes from a combination of the names of two
topologists, Sue Goodman and Daniel Asimov). Applying stereographic projection to M puts it
in 3-dimensional space, as can be seen here as well as in the pictures below. (Some have
incorrectly labeled the stereographic image in 3-space "Sudanese", but this is rather an image
of the actual Sudanese one, which has a high degree of symmetry as a Riemannian surface:
its isometry group contains SO(2). A well-known parametrization of it follows.)

To see this, first consider such an embedding into the 3-sphere S3 regarded as a subset of R4.
A parametrization for this embedding is given by {(z1(,), z2(,))}, where



Here we have used complex notation and regarded R4 as C2. The parameter runs from 0 to
and runs from 0 to 2. Since | z1 |2 + | z2 |2 = 1 the embedded surface lies entirely on
S3. The boundary of the strip is given by | z2 | = 1 (corresponding to = 0, ), which is
clearly a circle on the 3-sphere.

To obtain an embedding of the Mbius strip in R3 one maps S3 to R3 via a stereographic
projection. The projection point can be any point on S3 which does not lie on the embedded
Mbius strip (this rules out all the usual projection points). Stereographic projections map
circles to circles and will preserve the circular boundary of the strip. The result is a smooth
embedding of the Mbius strip into R3 with a circular edge and no self-intersections.




Related objects

A closely related 'strange' geometrical object is the Klein bottle. A Klein bottle can be produced
by gluing two Mbius strips together along their edges; this cannot be done in ordinary three-
dimensional Euclidean space without creating self-intersections.

Another closely related manifold is the real projective plane. If a circular disk is cut out of the
real projective plane, what is left is a Mbius strip. Going in the other direction, if one glues a
disk to a Mbius strip by identifying their boundaries, the result is the projective plane. In
order to visualize this, it is helpful to deform the Mbius strip so that its boundary is an
ordinary circle (see above). The real projective plane, like the Klein bottle, cannot be
embedded in three-dimensions without self-intersections.

In graph theory, the Mbius ladder is a cubic graph closely related to the Mbius strip.

Applications

There have been several technical applications for the Mbius strip. Giant Mbius strips have
been used as conveyor belts that last longer because the entire surface area of the belt gets
the same amount of wear, and as continuous-loop recording tapes (to double the playing
time). Mbius strips are common in the manufacture of fabric computer printer and typewriter
ribbons, as they allow the ribbon to be twice as wide as the print head while using both half-
edges evenly.

A device called a Mbius resistor is an electronic circuit element that has the property of
canceling its own inductive reactance. Nikola Tesla patented similar technology in the early
1900s: "Coil for Electro Magnets" was intended for use with his system of global transmission
of electricity without wires.

The Mbius strip is the configuration space of two unordered points on a circle. Consequently,
in music theory, the space of all two note chords, known as dyads, takes the shape of a
Mbius strip; this and generalizations to more points is a significant application of orbifolds to
music theory.

In physics/electro-technology:

as compact resonator with the resonance frequency which is half that of identically
constructed linear coils
as inductionless resistance
as superconductors with high transition temperature

In chemistry/nano-technology:

as molecular knots with special characteristics (Knotane , Chirality)
as molecular engines
as graphene volume (nano-graphite) with new electronic characteristics, like helical
magnetism
in a special type of aromaticity: Mbius aromaticity
charged particles, which were caught in the magnetic field of the earth, can move on a
Mbius band
the cyclotide (cyclic protein) Kalata B1, active substance of the plant Oldenlandia
affinis, contains Mbius topology for the peptide backbone.