Thursday, June 16, 2005

 

Sudoku is addicting

Sudoku is a puzzle from Japan that uses logic to solve. Japan couldn’t make crossword puzzles because their language and alphabet prevent it. The puzzles have the numbers 1 – 9 in them but it takes no mathematical skill what so ever to solve Sudoku puzzles. You can solve them by reasoning alone. It is that characteristic that makes them so interesting and so addictive.

They have become very popular in Great Britain and many daily newspapers run Sudoku puzzles. As far as I know, American papers don’t run them. Which means that I haven’t found them yet. But, I’ll bet they will soon.

A regular Sudoku puzzle is a grid, containing 9 rows and 9 columns. Within this grid are nine 3 X 3 boxes. Filling in the empty cells with the numbers 1 through 9 solves the puzzle by using the following rules:

1. Each row will have one instance of numbers 1 through 9.
2. Each column will have one instance of numbers 1 through 9.
3. Each 3 X 3 box will have one instance of numbers 1 through 9.

The puzzle will start with 28 or so numbers in the right place. The puzzles are ranked Easy, Medium, Hard, and Diabolical.

Again, Sudoku puzzles have one solution, which is found by a sequence of logical steps from the starting position. There is no need to guess. In fact, guessing will get you into trouble. You will know when you have solved the Sudoku puzzle because all the numbers will fall satisfyingly into place. The links contained here will get you started on your new addiction.
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