miércoles, abril 19, 2006

question for you math geeks

so I've been playing sudoku lately and it occured to me: how many possible sudoku grids are there? the grid is 9x9 places, and the numbers 1-9 must occur once only in each row, column and box of nine (of which there are nine).

because if there are like, 10 or 20 or even 40 potential grids, wouldn't it possibly be easier to memorize all the potential combinations and just recognize the pattern, rather than spend all that time going through the logical process to discover each value for hours on end. mightn't that
strategy actually save time? and make you equally good at all levels of the game, which, when you solve it the traditional way, you probably aren't.

am I right?


ps- if you're some MENSA person, don't even answer me. as a matter of fact, get off my blog until
you've solved some crimes or something. you tell em, shamy!

3 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

BRITW we need to forward this question to Tom and Scott immediately.

Anónimo dijo...

20 or 40? I don't think so. One calculation has it at 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 potential grids (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku). Better get started memorizing! Even computers don't solve these things by matching with known grids.
You know, there are 9! (9 factorial) ways just to arrange the digits 1-9 (that comes to 362,880 permutations). Lucky thing, too, or we'd quickly run out of phone numbers.

d.a.d.

the lorider dijo...

I know the factorials add up fast, but I thought that because the numbers have to work out horizontally vertically and in the boxes, there'd be a limited number of total solutions...... I didn't count on having to memorize 6 and a half... ummmmmm..... million million billion grids... or what ever that number is!