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Sticklers — March 17 had me purring!

 
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Glassman



Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 50
Location: England

PostPosted: Thu Dec 08, 2005 1:06 pm    Post subject: Sticklers — March 17 had me purring! Reply with quote

Definition: Stickler:- one who attempts to solve Sudoku puzzles without writing anything down other than the solution in solved cells (obviously without using any other aids to memory). All you use to solve a problem is your brain and your fingers as an aid to counting.

The puzzle of Thursday March 17 is a beauty, and, in my humble opinion, the best of all by this compiler for sticklers. On no less than three occasions, while solving this puzzle, I was on the verge of giving up and printing out a large grid so that I could enter all the possibilities. It took me two days, on and off, to solve. Wonderful. I am glad I did not resort to non-stickler tactics.

Obviously you will find a great deal on this website about this wonderful devious and vicious puzzle. If you really want to enjoy it, print it out on a standard grid, close this website, and solve it, stickler fashion.

I cannot say more without spoiling it.

Glassman Cool
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geoff h



Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Posts: 58
Location: Sydney

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 3:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, I agree with you that solving some of these puzzles without resorting to any markings on the grid is quite a challenge!! So far, I have only attempted the medium puzzles using the Stickler Method. This is the first Hard one I have tried. I succeeded after about one and a half hours, so thanks for the great suggestion. I recommend it for anyone to try without markings on the grid.

Cheers.
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Guest






PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 10:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I use no other methods except 'stickler' to solve any sodoku puzzles because this is the only method I know.

When I first started back in July, my average time for hard/V.Hard puzzles was about 1 hour, but now I only need around 20mins.

My advise for everyone is to use the 'sticklers' method all the time because it gives you more satisfaction and you will get better.

This method only fails when the puzzle has more than one solutions or can only be solved with trial & error (commonly found in newspapper).

I'm glad to say that this site only publishes unique solution puzzles that do not require trial & error to solve them.

Derek.
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dotdot



Joined: 07 Dec 2005
Posts: 29
Location: oberseen

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 12:48 pm    Post subject: Re: Sticklers — March 17 had me purring! Reply with quote

Glassman wrote:
Definition: Stickler:- one who attempts to solve Sudoku puzzles without writing anything down other than the solution in solved cells (obviously without using any other aids to memory). All you use to solve a problem is your brain and your fingers as an aid to counting.


It never occurred to me to use my fingers.
You are cheating actually, because each finger is obviously an aid to memory.

A question (for the methods thread?):
what is it that you count and do you have to put your pencil down?
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Glassman



Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 50
Location: England

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 2:42 pm    Post subject: Re: Sticklers — March 17 had me purring! Reply with quote

dotdot wrote:
You are cheating actually, because each finger is obviously an aid to memory.

Are you saying that you can count without using your fingers? That's novel.

Glassman Cool
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David Bryant



Joined: 29 Jul 2005
Posts: 559
Location: Denver, Colorado

PostPosted: Fri Dec 09, 2005 6:25 pm    Post subject: Counting Reply with quote

Glassman wrote:
Are you saying that you can count without using your fingers? That's novel.

Hi, Glassman!

Your little joke about counting reminds me of a recent response to the description of "undecimal" in "A Word A Day" -- anthropologists recently discovered a tribe of aborigines in the Amazon who use base 21 arithmetic. dcb Shocked
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Glassman



Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 50
Location: England

PostPosted: Tue Dec 13, 2005 9:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

*** CAUTION — Please do not read on if you wish to solve this classic puzzle — further posts discuss the solution. ***

David & dotdot — Counting with fingers as an aid to memory? My experiments have now proved this untrue. To make the most effective use of fingers for 9x9 Sudoku, it is obviously best to use trinary? / tertiary? numbers, as fingers can be held in three ways, straight, bent, or folded. Two fingers can then be used to represent the nine numbers 0–22 or 0–8 in decimal. By making the 0 represent trinary 100 or decimal 9 you can see that we only need two fingers, enabling the storage of five numbers on ten fingers.

The problems with this are many. First your fingers start to ache from holding them in one position. Then you forget the trinary system, and have to work it out again, by which time you have forgotten what the problem was you were trying to solve. Then you pick up your mug of coffee and lose all the numbers on that hand. Same when you pick up a pencil. And, finally, all this makes you forget whether you are keeping a note of the numbers it can't be or those it can.

So, I conclude that fingers are more trouble than they are worth.

Glassman 8)

*** CAUTION — Please do not read on if you wish to solve this classic puzzle — further posts discuss the solution. ***


Last edited by Glassman on Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:14 am; edited 2 times in total
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boweasel
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PostPosted: Sat Dec 24, 2005 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

What do people mean about unique solutions? I read about how interesting this particular puzzle was while reading through forum postings, and I thought I oughta give it a crack.

I came up with 3 different solutions, performed a 'search' on the keywords "march' and 17 to what the other readers had to say about the multiple solutions, but saw no mention of it...

The 3 possibilities are:
1- 4 (r1c3), 3 (r1c7), 8 (r1c9), 8 (r2c3), 4 (r2c9)
2- 4 (r1c3), 8 (r1c7), 3 (r1c9), 8 (r2c3), 4 (r2c9)
3- 8 (r1c3), 3 (r1c7), 4 (r1c9), 4 (r2c3), 8 (r2c9)

Or am I suffering from too much spiked egg nog?

Bo
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Glassman



Joined: 21 Oct 2005
Posts: 50
Location: England

PostPosted: Sun Dec 25, 2005 7:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

boweasel wrote:
... Or am I suffering from too much spiked egg nog?

I don't know what you are suffering from, but this classic has just the one solution. You haven't checked your results carefully enough. Sad

Happy Christmas,

Glassman
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boweasel
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 27, 2005 5:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, one solution only. Note to self: 'Never try to complete a sudoku when impaired by Christmas cheer'.

Thanks for not being too hard on me.

Bo
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