Sudoku

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: Sudoku

Someone should put Sudoko in the school math curricullum and get the kids hooked on paper games instead of video games.

I think our man Scrivener has been doing just that, for some time now, in his teachings at ASSETS. Sudoku would fit in as well in those elementary logic 101 classes ( the ones where one has to master the common flaws of logic ) that everybody seems to have to take in undergrad college courses.

[pzarquon]

Re: Sudoku

Sudoku is definitely a logic puzzle, but I think one of the things that scares some people away is the impression that it's a math puzzle. I know I did, before someone explained it to me. Despite the numbers, there's no math involved, and the sequence could just as easily be the letters from A through I, or a series of nine different shapes or symbols.

[scrivener]

Re: Sudoku

It's true; I've been doing logic puzzles in my classes since my first year as a math teacher. When I was the only one in the world (it seemed) who knew what a Number Place puzzle was, I was cool. Now that the world is doing sudoku, I'm not as cool, but my students seem a little more eager to work on them than they used to.

There are a million other logic puzzles completely different from sudoku, some numbers-oriented and some language-oriented. I subscribe to two Japanese puzzle magazines and use these puzzles, too, in my classroom.

As for sudoku being not a math puzzle, what do you think logic is? Logical reasoning is the foundation upon which all mathematics is based. Yes, we start with the a priori 1+1=2, but then we ask ourselves, what does that imply? And what does that imply? And then what does that imply?

Logic is math. Decision-making is math. Gordian knots are math. Music is math. And all of math is poetry.

[scrivener]

Re: Sudoku

I suspect I should post this in a new thread so its intended audience might see it, but at my sudoku site, I have posted the beginnings of a tutorial for TOTAL beginners. I basically hold their hands from beginning to end. I think just about everyone will find that it's too slow an explanation, and will be zooming off on their own to finish the puzzle before I'm even done with the lesson.

That's what happens in my classroom, anyway.

[dick]

Re: Sudoku

Ahhh... logic.... Back in my youth at UH, I took math 101 my first semester, thinking it'd be "easy." Once we got into "if you roll a die 7 times, what are the chances you'll get a 3?" I got lost and failed. The only class in my life I failed. Logic, math, whatever, makes me (and this is no joke) physically ill. I can't calculate my mileage for work without a calculator.

Sure, I can read and play music, but dotted eighth-sixteenths don't seem so obtuse as opposed to weird fractions (which essentially music is...).

[Cameron]

Re: Sudoku

just found this cool sudoku site check it out http://www.sudokucraving.com/game.php

[zztype]

Re: Sudoku

In case you missed it, Scriv had another puzzle this past Sunday:

http://starbulletin.com/2006/04/30/features/sudoku.html

[davidecullen]

Re: Sudoku

Hi,

Got the whole family here addicted!
Have a look on
http://www.sudokuoftheday.co.uk
for some absurdly difficult puzzles as well as the easier ones to get
you started.

[scrivener]

Re: Sudoku

hi davidecullen, and welcome to ht:

i don't think anyone has a problem with your promoting your website, but it seems kind of dishonest to pretend it's not yours. rather than mislead us, why don't you tell us about yourself: what do you do, what's the site about, and would you rather perspire fluorescent green sweat, or fart blue smoke? Come on! You could be the tie-breaker!

[NoCal Boy]

Re: Sudoku

Sudoku is definitely a logic puzzle, but I think one of the things that scares some people away is the impression that it's a math puzzle. I know I did, before someone explained it to me. Despite the numbers, there's no math involved, and the sequence could just as easily be the letters from A through I, or a series of nine different shapes or symbols.

I was under the same mistaken impression until yesterday, when I happened upon a baseball version of Sudoku in a recent issue of ESPN Magazine. It's a natural fit, with nine players on a baseball field. They've even published a book of this variation: ESPN Baseball Sudoku

One day and I was hooked. Look forward to following this thread with all of you as I feed my new addiction.

[Cameron]

Multiplayer sudoku

sudoku with a fun twist, the ability to challenge others!

http://www.sudokucombat.com/

[Kelly0040]

Re: Sudoku

Anyone try Kakuro? It's like Sudoku, but not really. Has to do with the sum of numbers going horizantally and vertically. I picked up a book at the supermarket and ahhhh can't stop.

Both wrack my brains tho. Love 'em.

[scrivener]

Re: Sudoku

I've done the kakuro puzzles. I liked that they added a little bit of math to the logic soup, and I bought my father a couple of kakuro books for fathers' day. The books I gave him explain the puzzles well. Too well, I think. Both books provided tables of all the legal combinations for each sum in each possible number of given squares. Having these tables essentially turns the puzzle into pure logic, which is fine, but it takes the mathiness out of it.

[scrivener]

Re: Sudoku

The trivia question appearing with Scrivener's Sudoku in the SB on Sunday the 2nd of July was inspired by Surfingfarmboy. It is my favorite of the trivia I've used so far!

[Surfingfarmboy]

Re: Sudoku

The trivia question appearing with Scrivener's Sudoku in the SB on Sunday the 2nd of July was inspired by Surfingfarmboy. It is my favorite of the trivia I've used so far!

Eyyy...'fo real? If it's the trivia question I suspect, (the one I casually mentioned to you way back when you were soliciting suggestions during the beginning stage of your column), I do have proof to support the answer in case there are those who might dispute the answer.