Problem

Source: 2001 Estonia National Olympiad Final Round grade 12 p5

Tags: magic square, combinatorics, Difference, Sum, square table



A $3\times 3$ table is filled with real numbers in such a way that each number in the table is equal to the absolute value of the difference of the sum of numbers in its row and the sum of numbers in its column. (a) Show that any number in this table can be expressed as a sum or a difference of some two numbers in the table. (b) Show that there is such a table not all of whose entries are $0$.