How Did Sudoku Puzzles Come to Be

1

• How Did Sudoku Puzzles Come to Be?

Presentation by Stacie Albi
2
Seem to be a spin off of Latin Squares

• Hmmm.
• What is a Latin Square?

3
Latin squares date back as far as medieval Islam
(1200)

• Close relative to the magic squares which date
  back to 650 B.C.
• J abirean Corpus Islamic writing
• (Magic sqares thought to ease childbirth)
• Chinese Lo Shu Legend

4
(No Transcript)
5
Magic Square
Albrect Durers Magic Square First magic square
in print about 1500
6

• 1779 Leonhard Euler began systematic work with
  Latin squares (Graeco-Latin squares)
• Arthur Caylay continued his work on Latin squares
  
• 1930s R.A. Fisher used Latin squares for
  statistical experiments

7
Latin Squares

• Square grid or matrix
• Entries consist of n symbols
• Each symbol appears exactly once in each row and
  each column
• Can be used with pictures, numbers, letters,
  symbols, etc.

8
Number Place evolves in 1979

• Howard Garns architect
• Added a third dimension to the Latin square
• First published in New York by Dell Magazines in
  its magazine, Dell Pencil Puzzles and Work Games

9
Sudoku evolves

• 1984 puzzle was introduced in Japan in
• newspaper, Monthly Nikolist under title of
• suuji wa dokushin ni kagiru
• Translates as the numbers must be single
• (literally means single celibate unmarried)
• Named by Kaji Maki president of Nikoli
• Eventually shortened to Sudoku common practice
  in Japanese

10
Two innovations added

• Number of givens was restricted to no more than
  32
• Puzzles became symmetrical (the givens were
  distributed in rotationally symmetric cells)
• Introduced in 1986 by Nikoli

11

• Home computer version introduced in 1989
• International popularity in 2005
• Today Sudoku can be found all over including the
  web!

12

• I chose this question because
• I love to do Sudoku puzzles!
• I had no idea of their history
• Classroom uses
• I enjoy using them in the classroom as things to
  do when you finish your test
• Magic squares can be found on our weekly Maths
  Mate homework
• An extension would be to create your own magic
  square or sudoku for a classmate to solve.

13
Sources

• Historical Topics for the Mathematics Classroom
  National Council of Teachers of Mathematics
• www.spiritustemporis.com/sudoku/history.html
• www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/L/Latin_square.
  html
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
• http//www.sudoku-puzzles.net/dailypuzzles.html
• http//mathforum.org/alejandre/magic.square/al1.ht
  ml