2 comments

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  fragiledestiny

  1 year ago

  Are Chinese Turtles the one who's shell is like a magic square in mathematics?
  
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• 

  mjschindler

  1 year ago

  Hi fragiledestiny,
  
  I'm not sure, but it's a definite possibility. Find out why I think so by reading the rest of this long comment. ;)
  
  I Googled ""Turtle shell" mathematics" and didn't find very much relevant information on the first page except for a link to page 85 of a book called "What Number is God?: Metaphors, Metaphysics, Metamathematics, and the Nature of Things" (written by Sarah Voss, publish Albany, N.Y. : State University of New York Press, 1995). Here's an excerpt:
  
  "According to an ancient Chinese legend, about 2,000 years before the birth of Jesus, a man name Wu of Hsia made improvements that stopped the disastrous floodings of the Yellow River. As a result, Wu became emperor. While he was making these improvements, he discovered a turtle with unusual markings on its shell. Since common belief then held that God resided in the shell of a turtle and the horns of the water buffalo, Wu took this encounter as a sign of blessing and a source of inspiration. On the basis of the markings on this turtle shell, he developed a system that incorporated the collective knowledge of the time with guidelines for living a happy prosperous life.
  
  "[...] Modern science depicts this same turtle shell in perfectly 'acceptable' college general mathematics text where it is used to introduce a discussion of magic squares and 'The Nature of Patterns and Inductive Reasoning.'
  
  "[...] The open and dark circular figures on the turtle shell (reflecting male and female energies or numbers, respectively) are translated into [a] numerical square pattern.
  
  "The unusual and mathematically intriguing characteristic about this pattern is that the sum of numbers in any row, column, or diagonal is always 'magically' fifteen."
  
  Since the turtle in this legend was found by a Chinese man (who was probably in China at the time), perhaps he found a Yangtze giant softshell turtle.
  
  Thanks for asking me this question. I feel like a learned a lot while researching the answer. :)
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