In combinatorics and in experimental design, a Latin square is an n × n array filled with n different symbols, each occurring exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. Here is an example:
A | B | C |
C | A | B |
B | C | A |
The name "Latin square" was inspired by mathematical papers by Leonhard Euler, who used Latin characters as symbols. Of course, other symbols can be used instead of Latin letters: in the above example, the alphabetic sequence A, B, C can be replaced by the integer sequence 1, 2, 3.
Read more about Latin Square: Reduced Form, Applications, Heraldry
Famous quotes containing the words latin and/or square:
“OUR Latin books in motly row,
Invite us to our task
Gay Horace, stately Cicero:
Yet theres one verb, when once we know,
No higher skill we ask:
This ranks all other lore above
Weve learned Amare means to love!”
—Lewis Carroll [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson] (18321898)
“I would say it was the coffin of a midget
Or a square baby
Were there not such a din in it.”
—Sylvia Plath (19321963)