The Lando Trick
Requirements
- Basic arithmetic in the level of the fourth grade in elementary school
Description
Lando trick is a novel way to surprise friends or an audience by generating a super magic square of a certain sum while an arbitrary numeral is placed in an arbitrary cell. After an introduction in the first section of the course, the second section outlines a recipe for performing the Lando trick in two steps. The square is divided into four corners, and in the first step, two opposite corners are filled. In the second step, the remaining two corners are filled. Finally, four placeholders are replaced by four respective calculated numbers to get the desired sum. This section concludes with several tips for performing the Lando trick in front of an audience. Also, an example is demonstrated. In the last section of the course, The third section of the course justifies the recipe by a discussion of a 4X4 diagonal mutually orthogonal Latin square or MOLS. It is shown that the super magic square implements a diagonal MOLS. Then, relocating an arbitrary entry of the diagonal MOLS to an arbitrary cell is performed in two steps, without recalculation of the entries. It is shown that in the second step, may necessitate flipping of opposite corners. That ability in diagonal MOLS justifies the recipe for Lando trick.
Who this course is for:
- A professional mathematical magician and/or a mentalist.
- An amateur recreational mathematician.
- A math student in high school, college or university who would like to impress colleagues.
Instructor
I was an evaluator for the Israeli innovation authority for ten years 2011-2020, evaluated 200 support applications, and filed dozens of applications. I have Ph.D. in Physics, I am a registered patent attorney since 2010 and drafted successfully about 50 patent applications that had been granted in Israel and the US. I am also an entrepreneur in the field of games, and invented the Lando Cubes game.