My first step was figuring out how many ‘addition combinations’ each individual box in the square is associated with:
Middle square - involved with 4 different ‘addition combinations’ to get to 15
Top Left/ Top Right/ Bottom Left/ Bottom Right - all involved with 3 different ‘addition combinations’ to get to 15
Middle Top/ Middle Bottom/ Middle Left/ Middle Right - all involved with 2 different ‘addition combinations’ to get to 15
Once I figured this out I started listing different combinations of 3 numbers which add to 15. As I did this I noticed I had come up with 4 different combinations of 3 which added to 15 that all included 5. Thus I decided to put 5 in the middle square. I then placed the other number combinations in different sequences until I had used all of them in a way that resulted in all of the rules of the magic square being satisfied.
In the photo attached is the magic square and the ‘addition combinations’ I used in the magic square.
Very nice, Alexa! This is similar to the approach I took in figuring these out. Good work.
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