They are saying it's only basic math, but computer scientist and mathematician J. F. Crook of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C., in the current Notices of the American Mathematical Society. "The interesting fact about Sudoku is that it is a trivial puzzle to solve." according to USA Today. The solution of the Sudoku-busting formula appears in Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
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I'm not sure why this is news. We've known how to solve Sudoku with a backtracking algorithm (made more efficient by the use of a few heuristics) for years, and I've implemented solvers as a class exercise for intermediate programming students. I'll have to look at the article to see if there's anything new or unique, but I doubt there is.
Posted by: Tim McGuire | March 16, 2009 at 03:52 PM
The method reaches a point where a number is selected randomly from the set of possible numbers. This is called "guessing". Mephams D is used as an example, but it can be solved without guessing.
The way the method was described in USA Today did not indicate that guessing was a part of the method. My hope was that the method worked without guessing - oh well!
Posted by: Tom Luteran | March 22, 2009 at 01:41 PM
Yess. I too agree with Mr.Tim McGuire.
We are also solving Sudokus using various techniques. I have been solving very hard Sudokus by marking probable numbers in the empty squares, using logical applications to remove improbable numbers and to work out appropriate numbers for the squares.
Posted by: Upadrasta Suryanarayana Murthy | March 23, 2009 at 08:46 AM