Walter Trump
Walter Trump is a German mathematician. 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, and in 2003, along with Christian Boyer, developed the first known magic cube of order 5. In 2009, he pioneered work on water retention on mathematical surfaces.
Until he retired in 2016, Trump worked as a teacher for mathematics and physics at the Gymnasium in Stein, Bavaria.Magic squares
In 2010, Trump placed first in Al Zimmermann's programming contest which asked contestants to find the maximum water retention for magic squares orders 4–28. This specific work found a more general application in statistical physics with the resulting 2012 Physical Review Letters "Retention Capacity of Random Surfaces", which he coauthored.
In 2014, he and Francis Gaspalou were able to calculate all 8x8 bimagic squares.
In January 2017, building on ideas of William Walkington and Inder Taneja, Trump discovered the world's first linear area magic square.
