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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by 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.

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]

Originally Posted by Xander

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]

Originally Posted by BryNTP

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

Originally Posted by BryNTP

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...

[PinkPiranha]

Originally Posted by BryNTP

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]

Originally Posted by Xander

3 minutes!!!

HACKER!!!!




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

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.