Select the 16 Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces from a pack of cards. Try to put them in a 4 by 4 square so that each rank (J, Q, K, A) and each suit (Clubs, Diamonds, Hearts, Spades) appears only once in each row and column.
This puzzle is an example of a Latin square. Latin squares are used in medical trials to ensure every participant is allocated to each treatment for the same time period to prove which is the best treatment. See these links for some more info – mathsisfun, wikipedia and nrich.
We are really missing having maths club in person, and we missed the maths camps in Africa in the summer … but we are so happy that circumstances have meant the launch of the Virtual Maths Camp. The puzzle above is going to appear on the 6 of spades in our card deck! Please check out the idea behind our maths club app which can be accessed online here. We are very keen to translate our activities into French so that they can be used in countries like Togo. If you would like to help with translation, please get in touch with Emily Fleming at [email protected].