Talk:Fifteen

Very nice puzzle -- I've never seen it before. I think this would work well as a follow up to a discussion of magic squares. Oscarlevin 14:11, 18 November 2010 (EST)

I agree. Admittedly I don't know very much about magic squares, but I have some ideas on what we can add. First, something on how they form a Z-module (once we allow magic squares whose entries can be any integer and not just those in {1,...,n}. And actually, by considering magic squares with rational/real/complex/F_{p^n} entries a vector space. Second, how to construct odd-sized magic squares and specifically how the D4 action gives you all other 3x3 magic squares (i.e. action is transitive so that orbit=all eight 3x3 magic squares). Third, Wikipedia mentions a very interesting application of genetic algorithms to the construction of magic squares. This might be worth exploring. Vampire Library 19:03, 23 November 2010 (EST)