The Rads arrive at the workshop to find Uncle Norm, surrounded by dominoes, dice, board games, chess pieces, random jigsaw puzzle pieces, and a “twister game” spinner. When the Rads ask “What’s up?” Uncle Norm explains that he has been chosen to host “Games Night” for his Hush-Hush Secret Co-workers and he wants to put a new twist on the get-together, so he was searching for new and interesting puzzles and games. The Rads will show him some grid games called magic squares, sure to make his party a success. Off to an elementary school teacher to learn all about how to make their own magic square game in time for Uncle Norm’s Games Night!

The Gist: The purpose of this episode is to demonstrate the concept of magic squares. The simplest Magic Squares are square grids with a special arrangement of the numbers 1 to 9 in them. These grids are special because every row, column and diagonal adds up to the same number. Not all Magic Squares are drawn on 3 X 3 grids. There are also 4 X 4 grids in which the sum of all rows, columns and diagonals is 34. There are 880 ways to put the digits from 1 to 16 in the squares so that the sum is 34. This Magic Square appeared in the famous painting Melancholia by Albrecht Durer.