VOYAGER Ø
A Few Squares from
A KNIGHT'S TOUR
*
VOYAGER Ø
A Few Squares from
A KNIGHT'S TOUR
*
The 18th Century mathematician Leonhard Euler made a square where each horizontal or vertical row totals 260, stopping halfway on each gives 130. Even more intriguing is that a chess knight, starting its L-shaped moves from box 1, can hit all 64 boxes in numerical order.–DAVID BERGAMINI
Mathematics (1980)
*According to his own notes, Elton E. Whaley constructed the first voyager square in the winter of 1985. Thus far, eighteen squares have been discovered by HUD inspectors taking inventory of a condemned tenement in West Nashville. Each box is a hemi-cube, approximately 8 x 8 x 4 inches, constructed of plexiglass. Each box contains a chess knight unique in material and design, some polyhedral dice, and various trinkets common to the debris dispersed randomly throughout a typical thrift store. Each box, with a few exceptions, is backed by an acrylic painting depicting a planetary surface based on a Voyager II photo. A large scrapbook of notes and other clippings labelled PLANETARIUM was also discovered in the same closet. These notes contain quotes and references for a proposed master's thesis in metamathematics. Although records show that Mr. Whaley attended the local university, no copy of his completed thesis has as yet been located.
