Mystic primary squares for pupils
Leland W. Moon, Sharon Pearl Moon · The Arithmetic Teacher · 1976
What is a mystic square? Mystic squares are similar to magic squares because both contain rows and columns of numbers that yield the same sum when added, but mystic squares differ from magic squares in two ways. First, all mystic squares contain four numbers while the smallest magic square contains nine. The second difference is that sums of numbers on each diagonal of a magic square must equal the sums of the numbers on each row and column; this need not be true for the diagonals of mystic squares. A mystic square and a magic square are shown in figure I. Notice that in the magic square the sum of the numbers in each row, column, and diagonal is 15. On the other hand, in the mystic square the sum of the numbers in each row and column is 5, while the sum of the numbers on one diagonal is 6 and on the other it is 4.