Terry Trotter (1941 – 2004) was a math teacher. In 1972, he published his ideas about a type of math puzzle he called "Perimeter Magic Polygons." These are-- a regular polygon with a set of consecutive positive integers to be placed around the perimeter of the figure so the sums of the integers on each side are equivalent. There are twelve known solutions (with reflections and rotations) for the sums 9, 10, 11, and 12. There are no solutions discovered for sums less than 9 or greater than 12. Terry taught several years in the U.S. before moving to El Salvador (1981) to work at the Escuela Americana in San Salvador. His main focus and experience was in the upper elementary and middle school levels. “Trotter Math” were topics and ideas that interested Terry in particular, and proved to be interesting to students that appreciated and responded to his style of lessons and activities.
Concept: Idea based on original math puzzles created by Terry Trotter (1941-2004), 1972. http://www.trottermath.net/simpleops/pmp.html Solutions based on analysis by Harvey Heinz shared at http://recmath.org/Magic%20Squares/magicsquare.htm. Artwork: The Penrose triangle was first created by the Swedish artist Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934; psychiatrist Lionel Penrose and his mathematician son Roger Penrose independently devised and popularized it in the 1950s, describing it as "impossibility in its purest form." Font: Macula, the Impossible Typeface, by Netherlands designer Jacques Le Bailly, a.k.a. Baron von Fonthausen. Music arranged by Paul Haslinger for The Three Musketeers (2011), "Three is a Magic Number," Schoolhouse Rock!, 1996.
