Thursday, December 31, 2020

Three thoughts on . . . Sudoku puzzles

Thought 1. 
In general, I prefer Crossword puzzles, mostly because crossword puzzles can go meta and have themes and be puzzles-within-puzzles.  And because, if I make a mistake in a crossword puzzle, I can figure it out from surrounding clues, but if I make a Sudoku mistake, I basically have to scrap the puzzle and start over, which seems . . . like bad management, I guess?

Thought 2. 
Which might explain why I'm fond of BrainFreeze puzzles (and am a huge Laura Taalman fan, in general) -- because she and other mathematicians create funky variations on Sudoku that make me think hard.  Like this puzzle by David Nacin I started yesterday.  The pink squares have no clues at all, and the white squares have clues between squares iff the sum of adjoining squares is prime.  Ouch, brain hurts in a good way.


Thought 3. 
That all being said, Sudoku is a lot easier to do communally on a chalkboard than a crossword puzzle, because it's so self-contained, so it's more fun to do with other people --- provided you happen to have a chalkboard in your dining room, of course..   I've been getting N-son hooked on the Monday & Tuesday newspaper Sudokus, and having them up on the board makes it easier for us all to work together.  I'll suggest hints, or warn him off of errors, or what-have-you.   It usually takes him a few days, but it's some good back-and-forth entertainment for us.  


2 comments:

  1. My daughter loves Sudoku! During her undergraduate studies she took a Math for Liberal Arts majors class and Sudoku was one of the things they did. Many of the other students struggled and couldn't get it (like me) but she shone brightly because she'd already learned how to do it and likes to relax with it.

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    1. That sounds like a cool class! When I see N-son working on the puzzle, I realize how much "flexible" logical reasoning there is involved. Like, there are all these rules, but figuring out which one to investigate at the moment is a real acquired skill. Do you just happen to notice that one row is missing only one number? Or are you still fixated on columns or meta-squares? Do you want to pursue the cascade of placing a particular number into subsequent slots? Or do you want to figure out which possible numbers might work in a particular square. I "see" all this so much more quickly than he does, that I hadn't appreciated how much switching I was doing between modes, to figure out how really tricky these puzzles can be.

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