So anyone do these Sudoku things? You've got, like, a 9x9 grid, broken into 9 smaller 3x3 grids. Some of the boxes have digits in them, others are empty. The goal is to fill in the blanks using all digits 1-9 for each row, column, and sub-box. But the catch is that you can't use the same digit if it is used in a related column, row, or box. Anyway, I heard they are good for your brain. And because mine is the superior intellect, I decided I ought to start doing them. To date I have tried two of them. Both were labeled "Easy". I gave up after getting stumped about 3 times. The current one, I haven't fucked up yet, but it's still killing me. So does anyone else do them Sudoku things? What's the secret?
I've completed one or two hard ones myself. The medium ones are pretty easy for me to do now. Here's a web site that can explain it a bit easier than I could: http://www.wikihow.com/Solve-a-Sudoku It has pretty diagrams and everything ::
um, you gotta start thinking in terms of rows. If you can't play without writing numbers in the bottom of the box, you can't move on. You just gotta do a bunch. They've been a HUGE fad the past coupla years. You get the hang of it
Patterns start to pop out at you once you've done a few. I fucked up my first two and they were both labeled easy.
I do. Patience...it's a process of elimination. Because each line through all the grids also only contain 1-9 once, you can usually further narrow it down that way. Sometimes you can best figure out where something goes by ruling out what you know can't be there. Time, patience and persistance. Not surprisingly, I picked up doing those in the hospital.
I did Sudoku for a while, but you soon fall into a general algorithm that can't be beaten even by the "very hard" ones. (Two basic hints: Start by going through the digits from 1 to 9 once and see which ones you can fill in right away. And: If you see that only two squares in a box remain for a given digit, mark that fact too; if you get the same two digits for those two squares, those two digits and those two squares are dead for the rest of the box. Same would work with 3-9, of course, but only 2 are generally worth it.) However, the same Japanese puzzle craze has also given us a set of other puzzles that can get much harder. "Sliterinku", i.e. "Slitherlink" (sometimes called "Crazylink") is a personal favorite. The aim here is to link a large set of squared-off knots into one continuous line; given only sporadic hints as to how many of a 4x4-field's sides are filled in. Not limited to a 9x9 grid, the harder ones grow in complexity as well as size, which allows even greater complexity in turn, as you need to make several decisions at once. Highly recommended if this is the kind of thing you like.
I love Sudokus. I usually work box by box rather than row by row, but on the hard ones I might mix it up a bit. What I don't understand, and never will, is why I can usually beat the Guardian's hard puzzles, but if I get totally stuck, you can guarantee it's one that's been labelled 'medium'.
Yeah ive done thousands of them The annoying ones are those devised by computer, after a while you can spot which ones are which.
Yeah, I do them fairly often, though not as much as I once did. Like Packard said, once you figure it out, it's nothing more than a distraction, but no longer a challenge. Try websudoku.com -- it gives you different levels and times your performance. Then you can see how you compare against others. Once I started to consistently get times in the top 10%, I realized there wasn't much more point in it.
For me, they do seem rather repetitive once one figures out the trick(s) to solving them. I do one every once in a while, but I like other puzzles better. Not to knock the things, but IMHO half the reason for the level of their popularity is probably because computers can churn them out by the dozens in the blink of an eye, so they're much cheaper and easier to produce than, say, crossword puzzles. (I imagine that some of those "Quik-n-Ezee"-type crossword books might be partially by computer algorithm as well, but even then you still have to find a big fat list of words to be put in the grids.)
I checked it out when it was first becoming popular. Looked like one of those things that would be totally addicting for a few months, then totally boring after that, so I gave it a pass.
Same here. But I've heard it's a good way to stimulate your brain, so I thought I'd give it a shot. I got 95% of the way through the second one, but had to check the answer to finish (and I still didn't get it completely right in the end.)
There are 3 or 4 normal routines to solve sudoku, once you know them it kinda becomes automatic. Look for some simple ones on google
I"ve been doing a lot of them recently. Was awful at them at first--would get just SO FAR, and then realize I'd screwed something up. But lately I'm in a grove and can do them pretty easily. Good mental exercise.
I've gotten pretty good at them. Any of the ones published in magazines that claim to be "difficult" I usually buzz right through. I have "Sudoku for Dummies" (a little book with a lot of puzzles) and the hard ones in that ("Diabolical") are indeed very difficult. Some things that work pretty well: 1. Start with something you have a lot of. If you have a lot of 8's to begin with, see if you can determine where the remaining ones go. 2. Once you have a 3x3 cell with quite a few entries in it, try to find the remaining entries in it. Since many of the numbers are already there, you often pick up the remainder by looking at the row and column associated with an empty spot. 3. Sometimes you don't know what spot a number is in, but you know it has to be in a certain row/column. E.g., you have two spots in a row that are empty but you know that one of them MUST be an 8 and the other MUST be a 9; you then know that whole row already has an 8 and a 9. 4. When you have lots of spots along the outside edge filled in, the corners are often easily filled in. 5. Use logic! No guessing! (Well, speculation may be required on the harder ones, but when you finally write a number in, it should be because it can't be any other number.)
I've been doing one each night before I go to bed. I have a massive book of them that I've been trying to finish since Christmas.
Yep. I do. And I work on the diabolical level. Solve 'em too. Secret? work one grid at a time, fill in the numbers that you can and the suggested numbers in pencil. Then you go and look at patterns. Like if two squares have only two suggested numbers, both of them 4 and 5, and another square has three suggested numbers 4,5 and 6, the number for that square is probably 6. and then there's sheer dumb luck in guessing the right number
Any puzzle is worth its weight in mental aclarity. The folks who manage to keep dimentia at bay are the ones who do the New York Times' puzzles in ink. And don't make any mistakes.
Not good at crosswords, but I do use ink for sudoku. My system leaves no room for error, so why would I bother with pencil?
Because one really good thing about sudoku is non-rememberability. After you have done one in pencil, rub it out, then do a few others, then go back to it and do it again
I'm a big fan of su doku. It helps to get my brain working. Yesterday I bought a book of them and completed 22 last night. That's a personal record
If you have a PDA there are several that you can download. One has several hundred (probably around 1000) puzzles. I do them all using one "name" then I create a new name and start all over again.
