Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/174 - Swastika Magic Square

Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $174$

Swastika Magic Square

A correspondent sent me this little curiosity.

It is a magic square, the rows, columns, and two diagonals all adding up to $65$,

and all prime numbers that occur between $1$ and $25$

(viz. $1$, $2$, $3$, $5$, $7$, $11$, $13$, $17$, $19$, $23$)

are to be found in the swastika except $11$.

"This number," he says, "in occult lore is ominous and is associated with the eleven Curses of Ebal,

so it is just as well it does not come into this potent charm of good fortune."

He is clearly under the impression that $11$ cannot be got into the swastika with the other primes.

But in this he is wrong, and the reader may like to try to reconstruct the square

so that the swastika contains all the prime numbers

and yet forms a correct magic square, for it is quite possible.

Sources

• 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Magic Square Problems: $174$. -- Swastika Magic Square
• 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Combinatorial & Topological Problems: Magic Square Puzzles: $387$. Swastika Magic Square