Mathematics Research Guide

This guide should help you start researching in Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics.

Use the tabs above to find different kinds of sources. Need more help? Use the chat window on this page to ask questions, or contact the Mathematics  Librarian for specialized assistance.

This guide is not comprehensive; it does not list all of the resources in Mathematics and related disciplines owned by the Library or available on the Internet. This guide serves merely as a starting point for research.

2011 Mathematical Art Exhibition

Archival inkjet print, 12.5" x 12.5", 2010

Magic squares are numerical arrays that have substructures with constant sums. This design is based on a magic square of order 25, containing the numbers from 0 to 624. Each row, column, and main diagonal sums to the “magic constant” of 7800. The numbers in the magic square are represented by a visual base-5 system: four concentric squares serve as the 1, 5, 25, and 125 places, while shades of grey stand for the numerals 0 to 4. Coding the numbers into their base-5 versions yields a pattern of 625 unique, nested-squares in shades of grey. This particular magic square also has a substructure of 25 mini-squares of size 5. Each of these mini-squares is “magic” (although the numbers are not consecutive), with rows, columns, and diagonals summing to 1560. In addition, certain other groups of 5 squares add up to 1560. Examples are the quincunx and the plus-sign shapes (when fully contained in a mini-square). The colored accents are used to indicate a few of these “magic” substructures. --- Margaret Kepner