Walter Trump

Walter Trump (born 1953 [1]) is a German mathematician and retired high school teacher. He is known for his work in recreational mathematics.

He has made contributions working on both the square packing problem and the magic tile problem. In 1979 he discovered the optimal known packing of 11 equal squares in a larger square,[2] and in 2003, along with Christian Boyer, developed the first known magic cube of order 5.[3] In 2012, Trump et al. described a model for retention of liquid on random surfaces.[4] In 2014, he and Francis Gaspalou were able to calculate all 8 × 8 bimagic squares.[5]

Until he retired in 2016, Trump worked as a teacher for mathematics and physics at the Gymnasium in Stein, Bavaria.

  1. ^ Andreas Stiller: Der Würfel ist gefallen. Kleinster perfekter magischer Würfel gefunden. heise.de, 1 December 2003 (German)
  2. ^ Konhauser, Joseph D. E.; Daniel J. Velleman; S. Wagon (1996). Which way did the bicycle go?: and other intriguing mathematical mysteries. Cambridge University Press. p. 105. ISBN 978-0-88385-325-2.
  3. ^ Niederman, Derrick (2009). Number freak: from 1 to 200— the hidden language of numbers revealed. Penguin. p. 63. ISBN 978-0-399-53459-1.
  4. ^ Knecht, Craig; Walter Trump; Daniel ben-Avraham; Robert M. Ziff (2012). "Retention capacity of random surfaces". Physical Review Letters. 108 (4): 045703. arXiv:1110.6166. Bibcode:2012PhRvL.108d5703K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.045703. PMID 22400865.
  5. ^ Notes on Magic Squares and Cubes by Walter Trump