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New Scientist puzzle #23: Circling the squares

25 September 2019

New Scientist. Science news and long reads from expert journalists, covering developments in science, technology, health and the environment on the website and the magazine.

#23: Circling the squares

Darts player Juan Andred has noticed that on a standard dartboard, there are some neighbouring pairs of numbers that add up to a square number. For example, 20 and 5 make 25, while 6 and 10 add up to 16. He has been wondering if he can come up with a new arrangement of the numbers 1 to 20 so that all neighbouring pairs add up to a square number. And he has nearly succeeded.

He has 20 at the top of the board, and every pair of neighbours adds to a square – with one…

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