Sudoku (which literally means “Number of Singles”) is now one of the most popular puzzles that provide entertainment for people of all ages. Although it can be disconcerting when you first try to solve one, it has a way of getting you addicted to it, and over time it will make you spend hours and hours playing it. In fact, it’s slowly stealing the spotlight from the crossword puzzles we all grew up with.
The name of the puzzle sounds strange and can be a source of different misconceptions. So for this article, we will break down some of the common myths associated with it and clear things up once and for all.
Myth number one: Sudoku was invented by the Japanese.
It is a known fact that this puzzle has been popular in Japan for 25 years since Nikoli, a local puzzle publishing giant, introduced it to the country’s readers. However, the Japanese did not invent it. Sudoku has its roots in the West. A late 19th century Swiss mathematician, Leonhard Euler, is credited with inventing the concept of having a square grid where symbols are placed in squares with the restriction that each symbol appears only once in each row and column. This was known as the “Latin Square” and is considered the father of modern Sudoku. At the time, it was not intended for entertainment, but was intended to be used for statistical and mathematical calculations.
Two hundred years later, Howard Garns, a retired Indiana architect, took the Latin Squares concept and created what he called the Number Place puzzle, which was published in 1979 by Dell Magazines. Garns’s creation was enhanced by Nikoli, a Japanese puzzle editor, and it became the Sudoku we know today.
Myth number two: Sudoku requires advanced math.
When people watch Sudoku, the first thing that comes to mind is math. I think it’s safe to say that the majority of the population either fears or hates math and made an effort to avoid it in school. This is the reason given by most of those who are new to the puzzle as to why they would rather not play it. Sudoku has nothing to do with mathematics or the use of any mathematical equations. You may see the numbers 1 through 9 placed on the squares and grids, but the numbers are not the only thing that can be used for the puzzle. His father, the Latin Squares, used to contain Latin symbols and not numbers. In fact, you can use any set of 9 symbols to replace the numbers, for example, hieroglyphs, shapes, letters, colors, etc.
All that is required in this puzzle is logic. Some people may argue with me and say that logic is within the realm of mathematics, but let me correct that misconception as well. In fact, logic gave rise to mathematics, not the other way around. So it is safe to say that mathematics cannot claim a monopoly on logic, and in fact the opposite is true.
Myth number three: a Sudoku puzzle can be solved using different solutions.
A properly constructed Sudoku can only have one solution. That is the standard and the rule that cannot be broken. No exceptions of any kind. You may now be scratching your head thinking that that is not possible as perhaps you were able to solve a puzzle and find a different solution than the one the puzzle creator gave. If that happened, then the puzzle you solved was not built correctly and you may want to find another Sudoku puzzle editor that provides you with better puzzles.
However, it is a fact that there are around 5 billion possible Sudoku puzzles that use different grids. Surprisingly, there are more than six sextillion permutations available for the correct answers. So this means that you won’t run out of riddles to solve in your life!