February 2012′s Alchemist Cafe, The Science of Sudoku, Time: 7:30pm (sharp)
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Alchemist Cafe
Feb 22, 2012, 3:06:45 PM2/22/12
to Alchemist Cafe
The Science of Sudoku
In less than a decade, Sudoku has gone from obscure logic puzzle to
global phenomenon. Even if you don’t do them, you can understand the
attraction. Along with the popularity has come increased scrutiny and
competition between people to see if certain properties of the puzzle
can be found. Apart from actually solving Sudoku puzzles, there are a
large number of interesting questions that can be asked about Sudoku
that are easily stated, but require some pretty nifty mathematics to
come to terms with.
So what kinds of questions might we ask about Sudoku puzzles?
A Sudoku player might want to know if a particular puzzle can be
solved at all, and, if so, if there is more than one solution.
Assuming that a puzzle has a solution, the player may want to know if
there is an algorithm that can be used to solve the puzzle in an
efficient manner. A puzzle author would probably be interested in
knowing how many clues he or she is required to include in order to
guarantee that the puzzle has a unique solution.
A puzzle author might even want to know what is the toughest possible
puzzle that’s actually solvable, and how to rate the difficulty of the
puzzles that he/she is setting. For Sudoku, solvable means the puzzle
only has one unique solution. So far, nobody has been able to find a
solvable puzzle with fewer than 17 clues. For years the search has
been on around the world for a puzzle with 16 clues. Now, the search
is over.
Gary McGuire will discuss the science and maths involved in our proof
that there are no Sudoku puzzles with 16 clues, along with other
aspects of Sudoku science. Got to http://www.math.ie/checker.html for
more information.
Date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
Location: The Mercantile, Dame St, Dublin 2
Time: 7:30pm (sharp)
Admission: Free – All Welcome!
Complimentary finger food will be provided.
This event is a part of Engineers Week and in association with CPL
and Discover Science & Engineering
In less than a decade, Sudoku has gone from obscure logic puzzle to
global phenomenon. Even if you don’t do them, you can understand the
attraction. Along with the popularity has come increased scrutiny and
competition between people to see if certain properties of the puzzle
can be found. Apart from actually solving Sudoku puzzles, there are a
large number of interesting questions that can be asked about Sudoku
that are easily stated, but require some pretty nifty mathematics to
come to terms with.
So what kinds of questions might we ask about Sudoku puzzles?
A Sudoku player might want to know if a particular puzzle can be
solved at all, and, if so, if there is more than one solution.
Assuming that a puzzle has a solution, the player may want to know if
there is an algorithm that can be used to solve the puzzle in an
efficient manner. A puzzle author would probably be interested in
knowing how many clues he or she is required to include in order to
guarantee that the puzzle has a unique solution.
A puzzle author might even want to know what is the toughest possible
puzzle that’s actually solvable, and how to rate the difficulty of the
puzzles that he/she is setting. For Sudoku, solvable means the puzzle
only has one unique solution. So far, nobody has been able to find a
solvable puzzle with fewer than 17 clues. For years the search has
been on around the world for a puzzle with 16 clues. Now, the search
is over.
Gary McGuire will discuss the science and maths involved in our proof
that there are no Sudoku puzzles with 16 clues, along with other
aspects of Sudoku science. Got to http://www.math.ie/checker.html for
more information.
Date: Tuesday 28th February 2012
Location: The Mercantile, Dame St, Dublin 2
Time: 7:30pm (sharp)
Admission: Free – All Welcome!
Complimentary finger food will be provided.
This event is a part of Engineers Week and in association with CPL
and Discover Science & Engineering
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