Melancholia" by Durer; an additive magic square is on the wall

You can create:

• Magic squares and circles

How?
A multiplicative magic square is filled with numbers in such a clever way that their products along any row or columns are the same. The obvious activity is to try and create such an object. A more advanced math activity is to find the smallest possible numbers for which it will work.

Wolfram's math world has some information: magic squares, magic circles.

This is another interesting article on the subject, from MAA (The Mathematical Association of America)

Why?
Because... (reasons the activity is valuable to people)

As you go

• Things to notice
• Ideas to explore

Higher and deeper

• Connections to other topics, math and general culture included
• Deeper explorations within topics