Any other puzzles with deep deductive reasoning where one can get better at through playing. One comes to mind: hexcells, any others?
The Miracle Sudoku [video]
141–150 of 150 posts
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#142This video was just fabulous to watch.
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "exploration and backtracking" you mention originally is the brute force method of solving sudoku by computer: recursive backtracking. If you want an example of sticking points, I'd recommend the Robin Hood sudoku: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdtWTg4LrqQ It can be brute forced with enough patience, but the fun for me comes in developing intuition on where to look next. The hints of a sudoku have meaning: they…
I guess the bit I'm missing is why the miracle sudoku (the two I can find) are special. As far as I can tell, they don't require any intuition at all, you just sit down and work through the rules that are right in front of you. Surely they're much easier than normal sudoku because of the extra rules? Are they noteworthy because of the construction of the puzzle, rather than the solving of it?
It's mostly about the construction. The "miracle" part refers to just two clues (filled-in numbers) leading to a unique solution, which is a ridiculously low number.
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To me the video was boring because watching a human do machine work is frustrating (to me). I wouldn't think Sudoku is machine work. Yes, a machine can solve it, but it's not intended to be machine work.
It's intended as recreation, yeah, but to me watching that video was like watching someone carry large rocks without aid of a wheelbarrow. Or like digging a large ditch without aid of a backhoe. To me there is a clear hierarchy or graduation of puzzles. Metaphorically: 1. Ditch digging by hand. 2. Planning efficient ditch layouts to be dug by machines. 3. Designing new and better ditch digging machines. - - - - 1. So…
Futamura Projections
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#145Earlier quoted context omitted.
I guess the bit I'm missing is why the miracle sudoku (the two I can find) are special. As far as I can tell, they don't require any intuition at all, you just sit down and work through the rules that are right in front of you. Surely they're much easier than normal sudoku because of the extra rules? Are they noteworthy because of the construction of the puzzle, rather than the solving of it?
It's mostly about the construction. The "miracle" part refers to just two clues (filled-in numbers) leading to a unique solution, which is a ridiculously low number.
Understood, thanks very much for explaining.
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a whole world of chess composition/problems. You can even be a grandmaster chess composer or solver. Some composers are legendary in the chess world, e.g. Troitzky, Sam Loyd, Kubbel. Chess problems come in various kinds, and are a bit like cryptic crosswords - they seem impossible at first but there are customs, tricks, conventions which make them easier with experience. "The role of aesthetic evaluation in t…
What would be a good book to get into chess problems and the culture/aesthetics of them?
Sorry, I wouldn't know.
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#147I immediately saw what the full pattern was when he had half the 2s filled in and was wondering if he saw it and kept going through the solution for the purposes of the video, or didn't see it at all until the end. That never ended up becoming clear and now I'm just left wondering.
Unsure what you mean by "the full pattern." Do you mean you could work out what the entire grid was, from just half the twos alone?
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
I though that too at first but actually they seem well practiced too. Eg other sudoku-style puzzles also have knight move rules. The main trick I missed is the forking one (if I put a 3 here then it reaches here and here by knight’s move therefore it can’t go here). That said It is still impressive and I think practice is not sufficient to explain how fast he is at it.
> (if I put a 3 here then it reaches here and here by knight’s move therefore it can’t go here) A possibly-simpler way to look at it is the inverse. Putting a 3 here or here (where it must go) both block this other place, so we know this other place is blocked either way.
Yes, that’s something I tried thinking about but computing the intersection of two or more quite large regions turns out to be harder than using the symmetry to only look at one region. There are also tricks one can learn for eg dominos.
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#149I immediately saw what the full pattern was when he had half the 2s filled in and was wondering if he saw it and kept going through the solution for the purposes of the video, or didn't see it at all until the end. That never ended up becoming clear and now I'm just left wondering.
Unsure what you mean by "the full pattern." Do you mean you could work out what the entire grid was, from just half the twos alone?
The twos and the existing ones. I made a reasonable guess that proved to be correct.
All the twos had symmetry and can be plotted on the grid like a tile pattern...and every increasing number in a row is two positions to the left of the lower number. It was blatant at that point in the vid.
Right at around 12:14 and then confirmed by the 18 minute mark.
Re: The Miracle Sudoku [video]
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
> To me the video was boring because watching a human do machine work is frustrating (to me). I wouldn't think Sudoku is machine work. Yes, a machine can solve it, but it's not intended to be machine work.
It's intended as recreation, yeah, but to me watching that video was like watching someone carry large rocks without aid of a wheelbarrow. Or like digging a large ditch without aid of a backhoe. To me there is a clear hierarchy or graduation of puzzles. Metaphorically: 1. Ditch digging by hand. 2. Planning efficient ditch layouts to be dug by machines. 3. Designing new and better ditch digging machines. - - - - 1. So…
You can have fun at all those levels, jumping back and forth between them at your leisure. Just because you can program a computer to solve a sudoku doesn't mean that you can't enjoy solving one by hand from time to time. Digging a ditch can be fun too, as long as you don't have to do it all the time.