Sudoku Solving Algorithms
A standard Sudoku contains 81 cells, in a 9×9 grid, and has 9 boxes, each box being the intersection of the first, middle, or last 3 rows, and the first, middle, or last 3 columns. Each cell may contain a number from one to nine, and each number can only occur once in each row, column, and box. A Sudoku starts with some cells containing numbers (''clues''), and the goal is to solve the remaining cells. Proper Sudokus have one solution. Players and investigators use a wide range of computer algorithms to solve Sudokus, study their properties, and make new puzzles, including Sudokus with interesting symmetries and other properties. There are several computer algorithms that will solve 9×9 puzzles (=9) in fractions of a second, but combinatorial explosion occurs as increases, creating limits to the properties of Sudokus that can be constructed, analyzed, and solved as increases. Techniques Backtracking Some hobbyists have developed computer programs that will solve Sudoku p ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Sudoku Puzzle By L2G-20050714 Standardized Layout
Sudoku (; ja, 数独, sūdoku, digit-single; originally called Number Place) is a logic-based, combinatorial number-placement puzzle. In classic Sudoku, the objective is to fill a 9 × 9 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3 × 3 subgrids that compose the grid (also called "boxes", "blocks", or "regions") contain all of the digits from 1 to 9. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid, which for a well-posed puzzle has a single solution. French newspapers featured variations of the Sudoku puzzles in the 19th century, and the puzzle has appeared since 1979 in puzzle books under the name Number Place. However, the modern Sudoku only began to gain widespread popularity in 1986 when it was published by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli under the name Sudoku, meaning "single number". It first appeared in a U.S. newspaper, and then ''The Times'' (London), in 2004, thanks to the efforts of Wayne Gould, who devised a com ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Hitting Set
The set cover problem is a classical question in combinatorics, computer science, operations research, and complexity theory. It is one of Karp's 21 NP-complete problems shown to be NP-complete in 1972. Given a set of elements (called the universe) and a collection of sets whose union equals the universe, the set cover problem is to identify the smallest sub-collection of whose union equals the universe. For example, consider the universe and the collection of sets Clearly the union of is . However, we can cover all of the elements with the following, smaller number of sets: More formally, given a universe \mathcal and a family \mathcal of subsets of \mathcal, a ''cover'' is a subfamily \mathcal\subseteq\mathcal of sets whose union is \mathcal. In the set covering decision problem, the input is a pair (\mathcal,\mathcal) and an integer k; the question is whether there is a set covering of size k or less. In the set covering optimization problem, the input is a pair (\ma ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Mathematics Of Sudoku
The mathematics of Sudoku refers to the use of mathematics to study Sudoku puzzles to answer questions such as ''"How many filled Sudoku grids are there?"'', "''What is the minimal number of clues in a valid puzzle?''" and ''"In what ways can Sudoku grids be symmetric?"'' through the use of combinatorics and group theory. The analysis of Sudoku falls is generally divided between analyzing the properties of unsolved puzzles (such as the minimum possible number of given clues) and analyzing the properties of solved puzzles. Initial analysis was largely focused on enumerating solutions, with results first appearing in 2004. For classical Sudoku, the number of filled grids is 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 (), which reduces to 5,472,730,538 essentially different solutions under the validity preserving transformations. There are 26 types of symmetry, but they can only be found in about 0.005% of all filled grids. A puzzle with a unique solution must have at least 17 clues, and there ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Composition Of Relations
In the mathematics of binary relations, the composition of relations is the forming of a new binary relation from two given binary relations ''R'' and ''S''. In the calculus of relations, the composition of relations is called relative multiplication, and its result is called a relative product. Function composition is the special case of composition of relations where all relations involved are functions. The word uncle indicates a compound relation: for a person to be an uncle, he must be the brother of a parent. In algebraic logic it is said that the relation of Uncle (x U z) is the composition of relations "is a brother of" (x B y) and "is a parent of" (y P z). U = BP \quad \text \quad xByPz \text xUz. Beginning with Augustus De Morgan, the traditional form of reasoning by syllogism has been subsumed by relational logical expressions and their composition. Definition If R \subseteq X \times Y and S \subseteq Y \times Z are two binary relations, then their composition R; ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Set Complement
In set theory, the complement of a set , often denoted by (or ), is the set of elements not in . When all sets in the universe, i.e. all sets under consideration, are considered to be members of a given set , the absolute complement of is the set of elements in that are not in . The relative complement of with respect to a set , also termed the set difference of and , written B \setminus A, is the set of elements in that are not in . Absolute complement Definition If is a set, then the absolute complement of (or simply the complement of ) is the set of elements not in (within a larger set that is implicitly defined). In other words, let be a set that contains all the elements under study; if there is no need to mention , either because it has been previously specified, or it is obvious and unique, then the absolute complement of is the relative complement of in : A^\complement = U \setminus A. Or formally: A^\complement = \. The absolute complement of is u ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Composition Of Relations
In the mathematics of binary relations, the composition of relations is the forming of a new binary relation from two given binary relations ''R'' and ''S''. In the calculus of relations, the composition of relations is called relative multiplication, and its result is called a relative product. Function composition is the special case of composition of relations where all relations involved are functions. The word uncle indicates a compound relation: for a person to be an uncle, he must be the brother of a parent. In algebraic logic it is said that the relation of Uncle (x U z) is the composition of relations "is a brother of" (x B y) and "is a parent of" (y P z). U = BP \quad \text \quad xByPz \text xUz. Beginning with Augustus De Morgan, the traditional form of reasoning by syllogism has been subsumed by relational logical expressions and their composition. Definition If R \subseteq X \times Y and S \subseteq Y \times Z are two binary relations, then their composition R; ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Permutation
In mathematics, a permutation of a set is, loosely speaking, an arrangement of its members into a sequence or linear order, or if the set is already ordered, a rearrangement of its elements. The word "permutation" also refers to the act or process of changing the linear order of an ordered set. Permutations differ from combinations, which are selections of some members of a set regardless of order. For example, written as tuples, there are six permutations of the set , namely (1, 2, 3), (1, 3, 2), (2, 1, 3), (2, 3, 1), (3, 1, 2), and (3, 2, 1). These are all the possible orderings of this three-element set. Anagrams of words whose letters are different are also permutations: the letters are already ordered in the original word, and the anagram is a reordering of the letters. The study of permutations of finite sets is an important topic in the fields of combinatorics and group theory. Permutations are used in almost every branch of mathematics, and in many other fields of scie ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Partial Permutation
In combinatorial mathematics, a partial permutation, or sequence without repetition, on a finite set ''S'' is a bijection between two specified subsets of ''S''. That is, it is defined by two subsets ''U'' and ''V'' of equal size, and a one-to-one mapping from ''U'' to ''V''. Equivalently, it is a partial function on ''S'' that can be extended to a permutation. Representation It is common to consider the case when the set ''S'' is simply the set of the first ''n'' integers. In this case, a partial permutation may be represented by a string of ''n'' symbols, some of which are distinct numbers in the range from 1 to n and the remaining ones of which are a special "hole" symbol ◊. In this formulation, the domain ''U'' of the partial permutation consists of the positions in the string that do not contain a hole, and each such position is mapped to the number in that position. For instance, the string "1 ◊ 2" would represent the partial permutation that maps 1 to itself and maps 3 ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bijection
In mathematics, a bijection, also known as a bijective function, one-to-one correspondence, or invertible function, is a function between the elements of two sets, where each element of one set is paired with exactly one element of the other set, and each element of the other set is paired with exactly one element of the first set. There are no unpaired elements. In mathematical terms, a bijective function is a one-to-one (injective) and onto (surjective) mapping of a set ''X'' to a set ''Y''. The term ''one-to-one correspondence'' must not be confused with ''one-to-one function'' (an injective function; see figures). A bijection from the set ''X'' to the set ''Y'' has an inverse function from ''Y'' to ''X''. If ''X'' and ''Y'' are finite sets, then the existence of a bijection means they have the same number of elements. For infinite sets, the picture is more complicated, leading to the concept of cardinal number—a way to distinguish the various sizes of infinite sets. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Restriction (mathematics)
In mathematics, the restriction of a function f is a new function, denoted f\vert_A or f , obtained by choosing a smaller domain A for the original function f. The function f is then said to extend f\vert_A. Formal definition Let f : E \to F be a function from a set E to a set F. If a set A is a subset of E, then the restriction of f to A is the function _A : A \to F given by _A(x) = f(x) for x \in A. Informally, the restriction of f to A is the same function as f, but is only defined on A. If the function f is thought of as a relation (x,f(x)) on the Cartesian product E \times F, then the restriction of f to A can be represented by its graph where the pairs (x,f(x)) represent ordered pairs in the graph G. Extensions A function F is said to be an ' of another function f if whenever x is in the domain of f then x is also in the domain of F and f(x) = F(x). That is, if \operatorname f \subseteq \operatorname F and F\big\vert_ = f. A '' '' (respectively, '' '', etc.) of ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Function (mathematics)
In mathematics, a function from a set to a set assigns to each element of exactly one element of .; the words map, mapping, transformation, correspondence, and operator are often used synonymously. The set is called the domain of the function and the set is called the codomain of the function.Codomain ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics'Codomain. ''Encyclopedia of Mathematics''/ref> The earliest known approach to the notion of function can be traced back to works of Persian mathematicians Al-Biruni and Sharaf al-Din al-Tusi. Functions were originally the idealization of how a varying quantity depends on another quantity. For example, the position of a planet is a ''function'' of time. Historically, the concept was elaborated with the infinitesimal calculus at the end of the 17th century, and, until the 19th century, the functions that were considered were differentiable (that is, they had a high degree of regularity). The concept of a function was formalized at the end of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Partial Function
In mathematics, a partial function from a set to a set is a function from a subset of (possibly itself) to . The subset , that is, the domain of viewed as a function, is called the domain of definition of . If equals , that is, if is defined on every element in , then is said to be total. More technically, a partial function is a binary relation over two sets that associates every element of the first set to ''at most'' one element of the second set; it is thus a functional binary relation. It generalizes the concept of a (total) function by not requiring every element of the first set to be associated to ''exactly'' one element of the second set. A partial function is often used when its exact domain of definition is not known or difficult to specify. This is the case in calculus, where, for example, the quotient of two functions is a partial function whose domain of definition cannot contain the zeros of the denominator. For this reason, in calculus, and more gene ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |