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Sudoku for fun
Sudoku is a Japanese math puzzle that becomes more difficult the fewer numbers are given. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It's American, it's not about math - and the degree of difficulty is not determined by the number of numbers. But sudoku is both fun and good for the brain.
"If the seven ends up in that box, the five must be at the bottom - or wait, it is not possible, there must be a six in that box and then I have to move one…"
One summer five years ago, we Swedes suddenly went crazy. We were transformed into a nation of sudoku addicts, collectively crammed together over 81 small boxes that popped up in every single newspaper. Discussions about the difficulty of the puzzle quickly overwhelmed the talk about bathing weather and boxed wine.
But why 2005? And why a Japanese puzzle?
To begin with, it's not really Japanese; identical numerical exercises were found in French newspapers in the early 20th century. In modern form, the puzzle was created in 1979 by the 74-year-old architect Howard Garns for an American craft magazine, which called it Number Place.
In 1984, it reached Japan under the name suuji wa dokushin ni kaguru ("a number that must remain without pairs"), which was abbreviated to su doku ("lone number"). In 1992, sudoku changed the word crossword puzzle kakuro as the country's most popular craft.
It was not until 2004–05 that sudoku returned to Europe and the United States in full force. In Sweden, Svenska Dagbladet and Sydsvenska Dagbladet were the fastest, in June 2005.
Behind the boom was Wayne Gould, a retired New Zealand judge living in Hong Kong. He saw a sudoku in 1997 and became so delighted that he spent six years writing computer programs that construct
sudoku puzzles.
He gave these puzzles for free to newspapers in crossword-dependent England. Later, Gould sold his programs expensively and became disgustingly rich.
But even a Swede was out early - Paul Vaderlind, senior lecturer in mathematics at Stockholm University and author of a long line of books with mathematical intricacies and crafts.
- In Japan in 1992, I saw sudoku for the first time and thought it was a fantastic form of puzzle, he says. I quickly got tired of solving them, but became increasingly fascinated by constructing them. So I did it for friends and acquaintances, and in 1998 I included a sudoku in one of my books.
A well-programmed computer spits out a sudoku in a matter of minutes. By hand, it takes an afternoon to knit together four or five pieces (it is just as good to make several with the same basic model).
The designer determines the degree of difficulty. But it is a misconception that the level is determined by how few numbers are given from the beginning.
-No, that is not the case, Paul Vaderlind emphasizes. A sudoku with 35 given numbers can be very difficult, while at least 60 percent of those who only have 17 numbers are classified as easy.
What matters is the placement of the numbers. The emptier the boxes, the harder. Vaderlind has seen a sudoku with three completely empty boxes and two boxes, each with a single number. Then it's time to rub the genitals hard.
The worst
web sudoku hysteria may have deceived in Sweden, but there are still a large number of citizens, two thirds of whom are women, who can not manage a day without drunkenness.
Sudoku has - hand on heart - not much to do with math. Paul Vaderlind's students at the university and mathematics high school in Danderyd have no major benefit from the exercises. But part of the popularity of sudokun, he believes, is precisely because it is not about calculations.
- As soon as it comes to mathematics, the target group becomes significantly smaller. There are lots of fun math puzzles in Japan, but they can never be as big as
online sudoku.
Half an hour of pondering over a sudoku is still well spent time. Practicing logic is not a shame either.
- It is fantastic to solve sudoku, says Paul Vaderlind. Especially for everyone who is not faced with such great intellectual challenges on a daily basis. You keep the brain going - we often forget that the brain must be trained as much as the rest of the body!
And practice makes perfect. You learn methods, ways of thinking and increasingly sophisticated tricks to exclude numbers and fill in rows and boxes. But what to do when you have exhausted the most common checks of rows and boxes? Should one - blasphemous thought! - let go of logic and start guessing?
- Actually, you should never need it, says Paul Vaderlind. All real sudoku can be solved logically, but sometimes methods you do not know are required - and some of them are in the name of honesty so complicated that it is just as good to guess…
Useful Resources:
The amazing benefits of Sudoku for the brain
Sudoku puzzle for kids
6 simple tricks that are guaranteed to solve any Sudoku
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