Log24

The three Solomons of the previous post (LeWitt,
Marcus, and Golomb) suggest the three figures
-1, 0, and 1 … symbols for the three elements
of the Galois field GF(3).  This in turn suggests a
Search for The Lost Theorem. Some cross-cultural
context:  The First of May, 2010.

Parallelograms and the structure of the 3×3 array —

Click to enlarge:

A different approach to parallelograms and arrays —

Click for original post:

(Continued from Nov. 16, 2013.)

The 48 actions of GL(2,3) on a 3×3 array include the 8-element
quaternion group as a subgroup. This was illustrated in a Log24 post,
Hamilton’s Whirligig, of Jan. 5, 2006, and in a webpage whose
earliest version in the Internet Archive is from June 14, 2006.

One of these quaternion actions is pictured, without any reference
to quaternions, in a 2013 book by a Netherlands author whose
background in pure mathematics is apparently minimal:

In context (click to enlarge):

Update of later the same day —

Lee Sallows, Sept. 2011 foreword to Geometric Magic Squares —

“I first hit on the idea of a geometric magic square* in October 2001,**
and I sensed at once that I had penetrated some previously hidden portal
and was now standing on the threshold of a great adventure. It was going
to be like exploring Aladdin’s Cave. That there were treasures in the cave,
I was convinced, but how they were to be found was far from clear. The
concept of a geometric magic square is so simple that a child will grasp it
in a single glance. Ask a mathematician to create an actual specimen and
you may have a long wait before getting a response; such are the formidable
difficulties confronting the would-be constructor.”

* Defined by Sallows later in the book:

“Geometric  or, less formally, geomagic  is the term I use for
a magic square in which higher dimensional geometrical shapes
(or tiles  or pieces ) may appear in the cells instead of numbers.”

** See some geometric  matrices by Cullinane in a March 2001 webpage.

Earlier actual specimens — see Diamond Theory  excerpts published in
February 1977 and a brief description of the original 1976 monograph:

“51 pp. on the symmetries & algebra of
matrices with geometric-figure entries.”

— Steven H. Cullinane, 1977 ad in
Notices of the American Mathematical Society

The recreational topic of “magic” squares is of little relevance
to my own interests— group actions on such matrices and the
matrices’ role as models of finite geometries.