On 5/21/07, Yossef Mendelssohn <ymendel / pobox.com> wrote:
> Ahh, this reminds me of college.  Some other people may have had to
> look up the algorithm or figure it out by the supplied magic squares,
> but a decade later, I still remember.  Of course, back then we started
> at the bottom middle, not the top middle.  Doesn't make much of a
> difference in the end, though, and that's why it's for odd side
> lengths.

You're right that it doesn't mattter if you just want to generate an
odd-order magic square.

On the other hand, Conway's LUX algorithm for generating a magic
square of an order which has a single 2 in its prime factorization,
makes use of an odd order magic square which starts in the center cell
of the top row to seed the values for generating the larger square.

-- 
Rick DeNatale

My blog on Ruby
http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/