By Michael Hartley
If you are looking for printable magic square puzzles, you need look no further than this page! I've provided almost 30 magic square worksheets in pdf format - with forty magic square puzzles, all the way from a bunch of simple 3 by 3 puzzles, up to a whopping great eight by eight! While you're downloading them, you might also like to check out the Magic Hexagon Worksheet Generator elsewhere on this site.
How can you use them? Well, if you just like solving puzzles, then grab your pencil (and an eraser!) and solve away! Fill in the grids with numbers according to the instructions.
If you are a parent or a teacher, you could use the worksheets as follows.
- Start your child (or children) working on the three by three puzzle worksheets. If the kid solves enough 3 by 3 magic square puzzles in a short enough time, he or she may notice
- the "magic number" - the sum of each row, column or diagonal - is always 15
- the number 5 always seems to appear in the middle
- in fact, the solution is always the same, except maybe flipped or rotated.
- This is not surprising - there is, after all, basically only one three by three magic square.
- Then, let the kid work on the magic square worksheets with four by four puzzles. This time,
- although each puzzle still has the same "magic number",
- there's no particular place that any particular number should go
- each solution is basically a different magic square.
- This is not surprising - there are actually 880 different four by four magic squares, but they all have the same "magic number".
- When you give the child his or her first five by five magic square puzzle worksheet, the first thing they will want to know is the magic number. With the magic number, these magic square puzzles become not-very-tough arithmetic puzzles. Without it, they can be quite tough, as the kids try and try again with the wrong magic numbers...
- Then, let the enthusiastic loose on the 6 by 6, 7 by 7 and 8 by 8 puzzles!
Anyway, I hope this collection of magic square worksheets puzzles provides the kids in your care (or you!) many hours of magic square puzzle fun! Or, if these are not enough, elsewhere I explain the steps I used to create these magic square puzzles!
Yours, Dr Mike...