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There are two types of magic squares – alphabetic squares, such as the famous Sator square, and numeric squares, also known as math squares.  They date back to 2,800BC, and have fascinated mathematicians ever since.

For example, there are over 20 million million ways to arrange the numbers from 1 to 16, but in a 4 x 4 Magic Square, only 880 of these permutations actually create a true magic square (i.e. where the number in each row, each column and each corner diagonal all sum to the same total).

Math squares are also especially useful for helping to teach children the relationship between numbers, and as such are an excellent educational tool.