Every once in a while I come upon something that makes me scratch my head. This observation is about Sudoku puzzles. Wikipedia tells us the term Sudoku is not be confused with Sodoku, a bacterial zoonotic disease. Who knew? I guess this is helpful to know if you take your chimpanzee to the local vet-you wouldn’t want to say, “I think she has a Sudoku” lest you become a laughing-stock.
The Puzzle
Here’s the deal-the Sudoku puzzles look like this one in our paper today:
As you probably know you solve the puzzle by inserting the number 1-9 into each line. The same goes for each square-numbers 1 through 9. There is only one solution for each puzzle.
People who do Sudoku puzzles usually have a certain method for solving the puzzle, a specific logic. I was given a book about how to solve Sudoku. It was helpful except for the directions for the most difficult puzzles-the explanation was most difficult too.
Useless
I do puzzles-mostly crossword puzzles. It makes sense to provide the solutions to crossword puzzles. You may have inserted an incorrect word, mis-spelled a word or you don’t know the answer at all.
Why in the world do we need the solutions to Sudoku. There is only one answer-either you get it or you don’t. Seeing the solution doesn’t help. You don’t say “Oh, that’s where the three goes!”. It’s a waste of newsprint.
Someone told me recently that not all Sudoku puzzles can be answered by logic. There are some where you must guess. That can’t be true, can it?
Help me out here with a couple of things please
- Do you see a need for providing Sudoku solutions?
- Do you think some Sudoku puzzles can not be solved by logic?
Barb's True Stories 
Hi Barbie,
I rarely do Sodukos However, Gaylene does them lots. She says that sometimes you have to guess. Can you tell that it is 12 midnight and I have been drinking??????
Perhaps you can
I couldn’t tell if you had been drinking. You did not slur your words at all. My question is why do they make puzzles where you can’t use reasoning for once you guess you are most likely to fail. At that point you either start all over again or walk the paper over to the recycle bin. Thanks for commenting-good to know you are out there.
I like crosswords because they take a broad range of useless knowledge (some of which I possess) to solve. You have to KNOW things. The answers help me to learn things I didn’t know before. These Suzukis require math and decoding skills (none of which I possess). The answers may be useful to people who are frustrated beyond endurance trying to solve the thing and want to know that in fact it can be done.
Stick to crosswords, Barb. You KNOW things.
My husband did a happy dance when he read your comment. “Ditto” said he. Thank you for the comment!