To: sci.math (?)
From: ramsay@unixg.ubc.ca (Keith Ramsay)
Subj: Magick Squares and I Ching (0000.msqichg.kr)
Date: unknown
Quoting: |tyagi nagasiva
         |>James

|What does (a+b)^2 have to do with the I Ching
|
|>Should have been (a^2 + b^2)^3 which I believe has 64
|>terms in its expansion - I remember a diagram showing
|>a geometric representation of two squares moving in a cube.

Try (a+b)^6 = ((a+b)^2)^3, which can be expanded as aaaaaa+aaaaab+...
+bbbbbb with 64 terms in an obvious way (two ways of choosing each
factor). (Of course in commutative algebra one usually combines them
as a^6+6a^5b+15a^4b^2+20a^3b^3+15a^2b^4+6ab^5+b^6 to get just 7 terms,
but this is beside the point here.)

Keith Ramsay
ramsay@unixg.ubc.ca