Sudoku

[BryNTP]

Thread created to discuss sudoku. I will start.

My favorite right now is brain games on the DS. The only thing I would like on it, would be for you to be able to write in your own puzzles.

Speaking of, does anyone know how sudoku games are created? And how are the difficulty levels determined?

[PinkPiranha]

No clue.

I've only ever solved a few. I tried them because I'm attempting to ramp back the dyslexia and give my mind a chance to work with numbers. I can't say what it is, but the very sight of numbers throws my cognitive processes into confusion. I know they're just symbols, like letters, but I can't stop trying to add them or subtract them, etc. My brain doesn't like them AT ALL. Even strings of numbers can be difficult.

If you really want to make yourself cry, you could attempt Kakuro. It's like Sudoku, only the matrix has to add up to something per every line.

[Xander]

Kakuro screwed with my head. Too many possibilities... no method of reduction...KABOOM!!

Sudoku though I love. It's the only game on my mobile and I play it lots. I've been trying to get my time down but so far I'm stuck at about three and a half minutes.

As for the difficulty level, I think it's just done by removing more numbers. Less numbers means you've got less to work with and fewer paths to the solution.

I've recently got a sudoku book which has double sudoku in it and jigsaw sudoku too. They should be fun when I've worked my way through the first 100 or so puzzles. It looks like double sudoku is two matrixes overlapped over one of the boxes of 9 and jigsaw sudoku is as normal except the boxes of 9 aren't 3x3, they're more like jigsaw pieces.

[BryNTP]

Kakuro screwed with my head. Too many possibilities... no method of reduction...KABOOM!!

Sudoku though I love. It's the only game on my mobile and I play it lots. I've been trying to get my time down but so far I'm stuck at about three and a half minutes.

As for the difficulty level, I think it's just done by removing more numbers. Less numbers means you've got less to work with and fewer paths to the solution.



Three and half minutes sounds pretty good. I have had games where I don't feel like I could have even written the numbers down randomly any faster. Yet the time still hovers around the 3 minute mark.

Just basing this on the DS, but the hard games sometimes dont relate to less numbers but rather where they are placed. Like the solution is actually not found until you rule out 3 other 9 box squares.

[BryNTP]

No clue.

I've only ever solved a few. I tried them because I'm attempting to ramp back the dyslexia and give my mind a chance to work with numbers. I can't say what it is, but the very sight of numbers throws my cognitive processes into confusion. I know they're just symbols, like letters, but I can't stop trying to add them or subtract them, etc. My brain doesn't like them AT ALL. Even strings of numbers can be difficult.


I have never heard you mention dyslexia before. I thought dyslexia actually helped in spatial reasoning (have no idea where I got that from, might have been a post in here!).

[PinkPiranha]

Kakuro screwed with my head. Too many possibilities... no method of reduction...KABOOM!!



Same here. I can do completely blank matrices using just numbers, but that's more of a pattern build, with long methods of reduction.Trying to fit a pattern while adding?? I'm sorry. Just NO.

[Xander]

Three and half minutes sounds pretty good. I have had games where I don't feel like I could have even written the numbers down randomly any faster. Yet the time still hovers around the 3 minute mark.
3 minutes!!!

HACKER!!!!


;)

My pride reasons you have superior controls. My brain reasons I'm being unreasonable :D
Just basing this on the DS, but the hard games sometimes dont relate to less numbers but rather where they are placed. Like the solution is actually not found until you rule out 3 other 9 box squares.
Sounds about right. Some I've seen give less numbers and some just seem to elude me for ages.

Sadly I find it relaxing to stare at the matrixes and think about what comes next... :doh:

[PinkPiranha]

I have never heard you mention dyslexia before. I thought dyslexia actually helped in spatial reasoning (have no idea where I got that from, might have been a post in here!).

This form concerns numbers only (I think Poriferan called it "dyscalculia" ??). I have an incredibly strong grasp on speech, language, words, pattern, etc, but a terrible time with numbers in most any capacity. I have trouble even adding basic sums. Anything I learn with numbers, like algebra, has to be ground into me, and used constantly and intensely (like when I was in robotics). Otherwise, it'll flicker out of my memory like it had never been there. Repeatedly. Very frustrating.

I think my mind has no trouble assigning loose and various meanings to words or letters, but numbers are a different story. They must stand for something fixed, according to my brain, and no amount of trying to pry it's boundary-setting fingers off works. The worst thing you can do to me is start talking about numbers that have changeable qualities.

[BryNTP]

3 minutes!!!

HACKER!!!!


;)

My pride reasons you have superior controls. My brain reasons I'm being unreasonable :D



Isn't 3:59 still around the 3 minute mark?:) *puts fingers in ears while singing "row, row, row your boat"*

[Ivy]

I'm the same way, Pink. I took Algebra a handful of times before grokking it well enough to move on. Now I'm sure I've forgotten 99% of it. By virtue of my unconventional education I managed to graduate from college without any higher math (I transferred, and a logic course counted as one of my required math classes--Math for Stupid People Non-Math Majors was the other).

That said, I love Sudoku. I'm not hot at them for the above reasons but they seem like good therapy.

[BryNTP]

This form concerns numbers only (I think Poriferan called it "dyscalculia" ??). I have an incredibly strong grasp on speech, language, words, pattern, etc, but a terrible time with numbers in most any capacity. I have trouble even adding basic sums. Anything I learn with numbers, like algebra, has to be ground into me, and used constantly and intensely (like when I was in robotics). Otherwise, it'll flicker out of my memory like it had never been there. Repeatedly. Very frustrating.

I think my mind has no trouble assigning loose and various meanings to words or letters, but numbers are a different story. They must stand for something fixed, according to my brain, and no amount of trying to pry it's boundary-setting fingers off works. The worst thing you can do to me is start talking about numbers that have changeable qualities.


Interesting. So what if you replaced the numbers with letters? What would happen then?

[Xander]

Same here. I can do completely blank matrices using just numbers, but that's more of a pattern build, with long methods of reduction.Trying to fit a pattern while adding?? I'm sorry. Just NO.
Count me in for the "trouble with numbers" crew. I was always good with maths but counting gave me trouble until Dom explained the whole "fence posts and fence panels" problem... cleared that up... mostly.

I've got a great reputation with giving people phone messages with phone numbers attached :D I'm afriad that a string of numbers means nothing to me without context and if it means nothing then it's like water through a sieve!
Isn't 3:59 still around the 3 minute mark?:) *puts fingers in ears while singing "row, row, row your boat"*
According to my prior "improvement" to the counting system, yes :D

1.1, 1.2, 1.3.... 1.9, 1.
2.1, 2.2, ......2.9, 2.

I forget why that made sense to me at the time. Something about keeping the parts of a number with the number they were preceeding. :shock:

[PinkPiranha]

Interesting. So what if you replaced the numbers with letters? What would happen then?

I've tried that with some success. Forming some exterior pattern of my own to untangle a number problem. Sometimes I attach a mental picture which grounds the immaterial numbers. For example, my math teacher in college once told us to create an algebraic word problem using statistics. I thought that was the end of me right there. What I decided to do was try to determine the average number of stray black and white tuxedo cats my father was bound to attract in the next 15 years based on the past and current flow of stray tuxedo cats. That helped tremendously. I saw the cats in my mind and the fixed passage of years. I needed something fixed to work from. (and the median number was 3.4 cats per year. LOL)

But things like algebra that include both numbers and letters will quite literally reduce me to tears. I couldn't do it if my life depended on it.

[PinkPiranha]

Count me in for the "trouble with numbers" crew. I was always good with maths but counting gave me trouble until Dom explained the whole "fence posts and fence panels" problem... cleared that up... mostly.

Share? :)

I've got a great reputation with giving people phone messages with phone numbers attached :D I'm afriad that a string of numbers means nothing to me without context and if it means nothing then it's like water through a sieve!


Same here. I still have to ask my sister for numbers to friends I've had for over a decade. Context is vital to my retention.

[alcea rosea]

This form concerns numbers only (I think Poriferan called it "dyscalculia" ??). I have an incredibly strong grasp on speech, language, words, pattern, etc, but a terrible time with numbers in most any capacity. I have trouble even adding basic sums. Anything I learn with numbers, like algebra, has to be ground into me, and used constantly and intensely (like when I was in robotics). Otherwise, it'll flicker out of my memory like it had never been there. Repeatedly. Very frustrating.

I think my mind has no trouble assigning loose and various meanings to words or letters, but numbers are a different story. They must stand for something fixed, according to my brain, and no amount of trying to pry it's boundary-setting fingers off works. The worst thing you can do to me is start talking about numbers that have changeable qualities.

I'm quite opposite to you, Pink. I'm good with numbers althought I would say if we go to university level abstract mathematics then I'm not so great. But basic counting, I'm pretty good as well as accounting and budgets and all sort of "calculator" stuff. I do lot of counting in my head, without a calculator or paper.

So it should be obvious that I just love to solve sudoku problems even if I'm just a starter with all that. So, I haven't really been solving difficult sudokus, at least yet.

[PinkPiranha]

I'm quite opposite to you, Pink. I'm good with numbers althought I would say if we go to university level abstract mathematics then I'm not so great. But basic counting, I'm pretty good as well as accounting and budgets and all sort of "calculator" stuff. I do lot of counting in my head, without a calculator or paper.

So it should be obvious that I just love to solve sudoku problems even if I'm just a starter with all that. So, I haven't really been solving difficult sudokus, at least yet.

I envy you!

[proteanmix]

No clue.

I've only ever solved a few. I tried them because I'm attempting to ramp back the dyslexia and give my mind a chance to work with numbers. I can't say what it is, but the very sight of numbers throws my cognitive processes into confusion. I know they're just symbols, like letters, but I can't stop trying to add them or subtract them, etc. My brain doesn't like them AT ALL. Even strings of numbers can be difficult.

If you really want to make yourself cry, you could attempt Kakuro. It's like Sudoku, only the matrix has to add up to something per every line.

I too hate Sudoku and don't understand the people who walk into poles on the subway because they're too busy doing a sudoku puzzle. People are doing Samurai Sudoku and all types of crazy number related stuff. I tried it once and felt lightheaded with mild nausea.

Math is hard. :(

[alcea rosea]

I envy you!

Don't envy me. You have great skill with words and you use it wisely. I envy you. :tongue10:

;)

I too hate Sudoku and don't understand the people who walk into poles on the subway because they're too busy doing a sudoku puzzle.


Lol, I might just do that! :smile:

[scantilyclad]

i love sudoku. I'm pretty sure the difficulty levels are determined by how many numbers are given when you begin, and what rows/columns they're in.

[nottaprettygal]

Sudoku Mega is where it's at. It's a 4x4 grid with numbers and letters.

As a Sudoku purist, I get sort of upset when people have to write the little numbers in the boxes.

[proteanmix]

Sudoku Mega is where it's at. It's a 4x4 grid with numbers and letters.

As a Sudoku purist, I get sort of upset when people have to write the little numbers in the boxes.

You're one of those people I want to stone on the Metro! Hissss!

Even though I don't play, I'm thinking to myself are people doing this in ink? Can you even see any empty spaces in your little number box?

[BryNTP]

Oh great Internet, share with me the hidden answers to all of the questions I might have:

creating puzzles (by hand) (http://www.sudokuessentials.com/create-sudoku.html)

grading puzzles (http://www.sudokuessentials.com/grading-sudoku-puzzles.html)

I thought the grading was pretty interesting with some of the terminology (hidden/naked singles, pairs, triples, quads & locked candidates). I was hoping for something more poetic on the creation other than what seemed like just brute force to me. I will keep asking the Internet for clarity.

[nottaprettygal]

Even though I don't play, I'm thinking to myself are people doing this in ink? Can you even see any empty spaces in your little number box?

Actually, I use a black Sharpie. Not to brag or anything.

[prplchknz]

I sometimes like sudoko, but I always end up bored half way through or I can never find a pencil and I do it in pen then it gets messy and I can't stand the sight of all the crossed out numbers (they make me feel stupid), I think if I actually owned pencils I'd like it better. But I hate pencils so...

[dnivera]

3 minutes? Impressive. I usually do one on my train ride home, 20 minutes.

[Mondo]

I rock at Sudoku- I love it!
It was a pastime of mine and some of my friends in Bio class during high school- we would steal our teacher's Sudoku puzzles and she would get pissed.

If I spend a lot of time on one puzzle- it usually means I made a crappy mistake somewhere :doh:
The one bad thing about Sudoku..

[Xander]

Share? :)
From Sunday to Sunday is seven days right? Well that made no sense as when you count it Sunday...Sunday it's bloomin 8!! Well I'm counting the fence posts and they're counting fence panels (the bits in between the posts). By counting the first Sunday as zero (ie not including it at all and making their question very imprecise as it should be "from the end of one Sunday to the beginning of the next) you get 7 days not 8.

Bloomin confusing :shock:

Oddly though I had no problem with Algebra and even Calculus (once they told me why it was useful).
Same here. I still have to ask my sister for numbers to friends I've had for over a decade. Context is vital to my retention.
If I have to remember a number then I play with it. The local sandwich shop is 431903. It's all 10s. 4+3+3=10 0=10 (on a die) 9+1=10

Strange but true.

Either that or for short term retention I add a beat or a tune. Those I can recall. I still remember the words to songs I first heard when I was a teen :)

[PinkPiranha]

Xander. My brain is smoking. lol :D

[substitute]

I've also become addicted to the brain training game on the DS. I got it for my kids but got sucked in. For years my math-enthusiast friend has been trying to get me into sudokus (and crosswords too) but has been met by supreme indifference. I've never had much patience for brain-teasers. Unless there's a point to it, I can't motivate myself.

That game however, with its graphs and rankings and stuff has given me a motive: competition! :D

I did my first ever sudoku last week, it was one of the basic ones and I did it in about 9 minutes. I've got it down to about 6 or 7 now and I'm getting bored of them.

[Xander]

Xander. My brain is smoking. lol :D
Ah but mine has lung cancer... PWND!

[Xander]

I've also become addicted to the brain training game on the DS. I got it for my kids but got sucked in. For years my math-enthusiast friend has been trying to get me into sudokus (and crosswords too) but has been met by supreme indifference. I've never had much patience for brain-teasers. Unless there's a point to it, I can't motivate myself.

That game however, with its graphs and rankings and stuff has given me a motive: competition! :D

I did my first ever sudoku last week, it was one of the basic ones and I did it in about 9 minutes. I've got it down to about 6 or 7 now and I'm getting bored of them.
Must be an ENT thing. My father took up sudoku, figured out how you played it and then put it down... objective achieved apparently. :doh: