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Lower Limit Found For Sudoku Puzzle Clues
ananyo writes "An Irish mathematician has used a complex algorithm and millions of hours of supercomputing time to solve an important open problem in the mathematics of Sudoku, the game popularized in Japan that involves filling in a 9X9 grid of squares with the numbers 1–9 according to certain rules. Gary McGuire of University College Dublin shows in a proof posted online [PDF] that the minimum number of clues — or starting digits — needed to complete a puzzle is 17; puzzles with 16 or fewer clues do not have a unique solution. Most newspaper puzzles have around 25 clues, with the difficulty of the puzzle decreasing as more clues are given."
yes this money was well spent to figure out one of man's most complex problems ... a fucking brain teaser
I did RTFA, whoopie shit "may pay off" != it is paying off
I may invest in nokia right now, it may pay off (it probably wont), and frankly if this sort of stunt is needed to stimulate interest in the circles of math nerds then we are truly fucked
Grats! the guy wasted time money and resources to brute force a solution to something no one cares about in the hopes that someone somewhere might shoehorn said brute force application into something totally unrelated
let me just crap my pants