Sudoku - Addictive Number Puzzles

**amykhar** · #1 07-26-2005, 10:44 AM

http://www.miniclip.com/sudoku/sudoku.htm

Bob is really addicted to these now. I figured other number nuts out there might enjoy them as well.

Amy

**AuntieEmma**[$] · #2 07-26-2005, 12:43 PM

They just started running those in my newspaper last week, and I got hooked the first day!

sleeper54 · #3 08-19-2005, 12:50 AM

...
http://www.sudoku.org.uk/

...has a daily 'moderate' difficulty puzzle to solve in a contest there. As well as a 'gentle' level puzzle to solve for less mental effort.

The site also has a 'helper' page that has a solving engine that will help the newer player ( or a stuck experienced player ) get some assistance for any puzzle.

A reasonably active message board is also found there.

http://www.sudoku.com/

...has some similar features and is also worth checking out.

I too was addicted the first time I tried one. Just my 'cup of analytical tea'...

...tom...
.

**amykhar** · #4 08-19-2005, 12:50 AM

Thank you Tom

sleeper54 · #5 08-19-2005, 01:02 AM

Quote:

amykhar said

Thank you Tom

Ohhh . . .you are just giving me positive feedback, hoping I might stick around / come around more often..!!

At least, that is what my psychology class years ago would have taught me.

. . . ...thanksAmysmiliemoment:...

...tom...
.

**amykhar** · #6 08-19-2005, 01:21 AM

Quote:

sleeper54 said

Ohhh . . .you are just giving me positive feedback, hoping I might stick around / come around more often..!!

At least, that is what my psychology class years ago would have taught me.

. . . ...thanksAmysmiliemoment:...

...tom...
.

Isn't that what you do when friends come to visit?

sleeper54 · #7 08-19-2005, 01:42 AM

Quote:

amykhar said

Isn't that what you do when friends come to visit?

Indeed it is.

It is appreciated.

...tom...

**hymie**[$] · #8 08-19-2005, 11:40 AM

A couple of months ago I scribbled up a program to solve these. It applies a bunch of elimination rules to fill in what it can, and if it gets stuck it just finds a cell with the smallest number of possible answers and tries each one, applying itself recursively to the trials.

I also wrote a program to solve RushHour puzzles. That one doesn't do anything intelligent at all, just a breadth-first search of all possible moves. (Any move which leads to a previously seen position is dropped, so this isn't as bad as it sounds, and it leads to a solution with the shortest number of moves.)

For these kinds of puzzles, I always have more fun writing the solver than solving them by hand. But that's just me.

**thinkerlady**[$] · #9 08-19-2005, 11:51 AM

This is hard. I like it. I am doing the easy one.

**pippadaisy**[$] · #10 08-19-2005, 12:15 PM

I love logic puzzles and all other kinds of number puzzles, but these just don't do it for me, for some reason.

**pippadaisy**[$] · #11 10-24-2005, 10:05 PM

I was just reading an article in People magazine that mentioned that Geena Davis is a huge Sudoku fan. And I saw a book tonight in Target. And I STILL don't see the attraction.

**amykhar** · #12 10-24-2005, 10:07 PM

I like number puzzles - always have. There's something relaxing about these things because of their simple elegance.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #13 10-24-2005, 10:13 PM

I like the ones where the answers have to add up to the tiny numbers above/to the left of them - look like crosswords but they're math. The math is easy, it's getting the right numbers in the right place that's hard, and it's got a bit more OOMPH than the sudoku. (How did a game Dell Crosswords had for 30 years come to get a Japanese name, anyway???)

**pippadaisy**[$] · #14 10-24-2005, 10:17 PM

Quote:

mjfrombuffalo said

I like the ones where the answers have to add up to the tiny numbers above/to the left of them - look like crosswords but they're math. The math is easy, it's getting the right numbers in the right place that's hard, and it's got a bit more OOMPH than the sudoku. (How did a game Dell Crosswords had for 30 years come to get a Japanese name, anyway???)

I like those, too, MJ! And the trigon ones... LOVE them. Like you always have it in your head that 4-digit 10 is 1,2,3,4.

*emeleel* · #15 11-14-2005, 11:56 PM

I'm not usually a number puzzle fan, but thought I'd give one a try since so many of y'all seem to like them. I printed out one from here the other day

Okay, give me a hint. I got started, figured out what two of them had to be, then managed to snag a few more - I think - but all the rest of them I'm stuck. I figured out what numbers *could* go in each blank, but for most of them, there are too many choices. Do you just pick one in each of the blocks and hope they work?

**lynnzop**[$] · #16 11-15-2005, 01:09 AM

Okay, I did this a couple of times and fail to see the addiction. I know my mother is even addicted to them, but then again, she loves crossword puzzles, which I don't.

I could turn DH on to it, but then I'd probably NEVER get online. He's addicted to card games online already!!

erik_kosberg · #17 11-15-2005, 01:24 AM

Quote:

mjfrombuffalo said

(How did a game Dell Crosswords had for 30 years come to get a Japanese name, anyway???)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku

Quote:

Originally called simply Number Place, the first puzzle was created by Howard Garns, a freelance puzzle constructor, in 1979. The puzzle was first published in New York in the late 1970s by the specialist puzzle publisher Dell Magazines in its magazine Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games, under the title Number Place. The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984 as Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru, which can be translated as "the numbers must be single" or "the numbers must occur only once" (literally means "single; celibate; unmarried"). The puzzle was named by Kaji Maki, the president of Nikoli. At a later date, the name was abbreviated to Sudoku (pronounced sue-do-koo; s = number, doku = single); it is a common practice in Japanese to take only the first kanji of compound words to form a shorter version. In 1986, Nikoli introduced two innovations which guaranteed the popularity of the puzzle: the number of givens was restricted to no more than 30 and puzzles became "symmetrical" (meaning the givens were distributed in rotationally symmetric cells). It is now published in mainstream Japanese periodicals, such as the Asahi Shimbun. Within Japan, Nikoli still holds the trademark for the name Sudoku; other publications in Japan use alternative names.

**mjfrombuffalo**[$] · #18 11-15-2005, 07:10 AM

for those getting started - try it on paper first, it's much easier than doing on line. Usually there'll be a couple squares (after the first obvious ones) that have only two choices and you can narrow those choices down by looking at the rest of the row, square, or column.

eris esoteric · #19 11-15-2005, 09:15 AM

It's funny, how things catch on. The folks at work are way into this stuff as well, with no mention of it from me at all. I think my dyscalculia is going to help me avoid this addiction.

**lynnzop**[$] · #20 11-15-2005, 09:28 AM

Quote:

mjfrombuffalo said

Usually there'll be a couple squares (after the first obvious ones) that have only two choices and you can narrow those choices down by looking at the rest of the row, square, or column.

I must have missed something in the directions. I thought you just had to keep one per row or column.

Now I'm going to have to go back and look at it again.

*emeleel* · #21 11-15-2005, 09:40 AM

Yeah, Lynn, not only can you not repeat in a row or column, you can't repeat within the smaller squares.

**lynnzop**[$] · #22 11-15-2005, 09:42 AM

Aha. That's why they kept flashing at me.

Don't they make any games for Blondes?