Benjamin Franklin's Magic

Rebecca Garcia
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Sam Houston State University

Abstract: Circa 1752, Benjamin Franklin constructed several ultra-magic squares, but precisely one ultra-magic circle. In this talk, we will focus on Benjamin Franklin's unique ultra-magic circle and discuss its many fascinating properties and extensions related to enumeration, construction, and symmetry operations. These will be presented by some relatively modern techniques in computational algebraic combinatorics and enumerative geometry.