How Do You Solve a Latin Square?

Is how Do You Solve a Latin Square something you want to understand? Discover key explanations in our feature story.

In combinatorics and in experimental design, a Latin square is an n × n array filled with n different symbols, each occurring exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column.

When was formula for number of Latin squares published?

A simple and explicit formula for the number of Latin squares was published in 1992, but it is still not easily computable due to the exponential increase in the number of terms. This formula for the number Ln of n × n Latin squares is

Can you make a Latin square with Greek letters?

You can see that Latin squares are not difficult to create, and the number of possible permutations increases with the size of the square. To create a Graeco-Latin square, we add a second dimension, superimposing a square with Greek letters over the Latin square.

Who was the first person to create a Latin square?

The Korean mathematician Choi Seok-jeong was the first to publish an example of Latin squares of order nine, in order to construct a magic square in 1700, predating Leonhard Euler by 67 years.