The History of Sudoku

Sudoku is a challenging logic-based puzzle that has become a worldwide sensation in only the last few years. Sudoku Many players want to know the story of this addictive puzzle. This article discusses the mystery of the origin, how it comes to be so popular, and where we can expect that the history of Sudoku to us tomorrow.

Magic Squares

The history of Sudoku begins here ... with the magic square. Magic squares are a group of numbers in a square. In this square of each row, column and diagonal often equal the same number ... as if by magic.

Magic Squares are old enough to be legendary, two separate cultures claim to its origin.

The Yih King (an ancient Chinese book) speaks of the Lo Shu legend. After the history, "River God" and demanded 15 victims to this demand by spitting, a turtle with a magic square on the back ... all figures miracle of 15 in any order.

The Jabirean Corpus-Islamic writings compiled in the late 9th /Early 10th Century - is also the first appearance of the magic square. The scriptures say that magic squares (known as wafq in Arabic), the birth.

Really, magic squares have little in common with sudoku puzzles, and their story is more entertaining than important for our study. You may like ... but here it is. There is no solution if the numbers and arithmetic Sudoku does not have to be used (a puzzle maker could colors, fruits, letters ... whatever, the mystery yet to be resolved).

I mention magic squares here for a reason, they brought the formation of the next step in our journey ... the Latin square.

Latin squares

Latin squares are a device used in the statistical analysis and also in multiplication tables. The Latin square must have the same number of symbols in each row and each column, and each number can only occur once in every row or column. This makes Latin squares more closely related to the modern Sudoku puzzle.

Leonhard Euler, Swiss mathematician, is credited with the creation of the Latin Square in 1782 or the 1783rd His lecture, entitled "Studies on a new kind of Magic Square", was the first appearance of the Latin Square. The paper was prepared on the basis of Euler extensive research on the magic square, including working with the title "On Magic Squares" at the Academy in St. Petersburg the 1776th

It is important to note that Euler not his view, the creation of each type of puzzle, and many rules, the Sudoku puzzle makers now follow, are not required in the creation of Latin squares.

"Number Place" - Sudoku gains popularity

1979, Dell Magazine published the first "Sudoku" puzzles (there was not yet called that) in his pen Puzzles and Word Games Magazine . It entitles him "Number Place". The Latin Square is an inspiration for "Number Place".

The puzzle designer is not recorded, but there are two theories. A name Walter Mackey, a jigsaw puzzle manufacturer Dell.

However, Will Shortz (New York Times puzzle editor), which is a fairly impressive deduction for an alternative option. Shortz went through the list of contributors in several Dell magazines, having regard to a single name that was always present when a Number Place puzzle was published, and no other.

This single yarn name is Howard, a retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor.

Like Sudoku got its name

Japanese company Nikoli published the puzzle for the first time in Japan. This happened in April 1984 and was published in the paper "Monthly Nikolist". The original title was "Suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru". Maki Kaji, the president of Nikoli, later shortened to "Sudoku", which means "number single" or "single number".

Nikoli also were the first two new rules to Sudoku, what it is today: Firstly, puzzle makers can not have more than 32 references in each puzzle. Secondly, each puzzle must be "balanced".

One other interesting tidbits to note: Nikoli keeps brand name on the Sudoku in the country of Japan. All competitors in Japan have their titles Puzzles otherwise to avoid copyright infringements.

Sudoku and Computers

Computer Aided in the explosion of the Sudoku craze. How? It allows the possibility of unique puzzles quickly and without much effort or human error.

Loadstar /Softdisk the first home computer version of Sudoku in 1989 for the Commodore 64 It was entitled "Digihunt" and remains to this day.

But the real excitement began under the leadership of Wayne Gould.

Wayne Gould, a retired Hong Kong judge and computer programmer, a computer program to create sudoku puzzles quickly. Gould accomplished this feat over a 6-year period (1997 to 2003).

View a clever marketing spirit that sought Gould The Times, a British paper to his puzzle free. The only problem: it had at its Web address with each puzzle it presented. The Times agreed and published, "Su Doku" on 12 November 2004.

Sudoku explosion

inclusion of The Times sudoku puzzles an international boom in motion. Well, Sudoku is a household name. There are Web sites, online forums, blogs, articles, and all kinds of products for Sudoku. It would be hard to find, a large newspaper, not even the puzzle on a daily basis.

Future of Sudoku

A question remains to be asked. Is this just a fashion craze?

This is hard to say. If you Google Zeitgeist 2007-end review of how each mark, the demand for Sudoku may be subsiding. In fact, it is the 8th Rank in the list of the fastest, the search terms.

But newspapers are still printing new puzzles at breakneck speeds, new books published every month Sudoku, Sudoku, there are tips on the Internet, and thousands of people can not get enough of the difficult puzzle.

What does all this mean? No one knows about. One can only hope that the history of Sudoku is to far into the future ... keep us all on the missing numbers, pencils Clenched in his hand.

 

Brandon Dillon is an avid Suodoku Player and admitted sudoku addict. He is also the founder of playsudokutips.

You can access free sudoku tips, view pictures related to this article AND view the bibliography at the following site:

http://www.sudoku-strategy.blogspot.com

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