^{By Dr. Inés Urdaneta / Physicist at Resonance Science Foundation}

What is this 240-year-old problem all about?

Leonhard Euler (1707 - 1783), Swiss mathematician and physicist, is most popularly known for his glorious equation called Euler's Identity: e^iφ + 1 = 0, depicted below.

^{Geometric interpretation of Euler's identity, where i represents the imaginary axis of the complex plane and φ is the angle.}

Euler’s contributions in mathematics have been indispensable for the development of physics, particularly in quantum mechanics. As if that were not enough, now the quantum solution to Euler’s puzzle will probably mark a milestone in quantum computation, and in information theory. The puzzle as such consists of the following: Euler had examined the problem of having six different regiments, each with six officers of different ranks,  and he wondered if these 36 officers can be arranged in a 6x6 square, so that each row and column contains one officer of...