Thank you Simon for the amazing solve. This was entirely the intended path. I must say you were extremely quick to find the break-in. As for the cage with no total, it's just there to preserve symmetry.
Thanks for confirmation and contribution, Joseph! I advanced the hypothesis that a cage with no total has to be aesthetic (or for symmetry) when it doesn't cross a box boundary. Anyone have any thoughts on that idea?
I think the majority of us are not upset with the pauses. We know you are looking through the puzzle to find a break-in. It is almost like watching a movie and the suspenseful part is the pause. Then all of a sudden the moment of revelation comes and you find another piece of logic to amaze us. I think the pauses are necessary to build anticipation and makes these videos way more entertaining.
Don't mind the pauses Simon. They give us the chance to play the game of trying to find the next bit of logic before you (and usually failing to do so).
LOL right? The only time I notice something he doesn't is when it's like... a really obvious Sudoku move... And he's just too busy playing interdimensional chess to notice.
@@Jonimasters1997 I try every puzzle by myself. If I get really stuck the video helps. I usually watch almost until the video catch up with where I am and see something that Simon/Mark hasn't gotten to yet. It's as if I'm using the video for rubberducking, but I am the duck.
Adding to the list of people who find the puzzle a great aid to sleep - not because it's dull, far from it! Your videos have become part of the daily rhythm, a chance to pause, unwind and put all worries aside apart from where numbers go.
I'm definitely one of the people that this helps fall asleep. The algorithm is hilarious. I would have never clicked on the original video that was recommended if it hadn't had like 3 million views... I thought there's got to be a reason this has so many views 🤷🏼♀️ Now I watch one of two solves before bed like every night. But I also just downloaded the arrow Sudoku app... I'm on like puzzle six or seven now... I should mention I downloaded it today... (Hyperfocus much?) I'm not going to lie I was really worried that it would be a bit over my head. They're definitely not easy but accessible is probably a good term. I've roughly got an average time of about 45 minutes. Longest took me 2 hours shortest was about 30 min. On my normal app where I do classic Sudoku the "expert" ones usually take me 10 minutes to finish just for context. It's really a nice challenge/change. Also it's just really satisfying being able to solve puzzles like that.
I haven't fell asleep often to the videos, but it happens occasionally. I think watching the puzzle uses quite a lot of brain power, akin to doing them, but playing the video and not watching the puzzle, it suddenly all becomes delightful nonsense and thus very relaxing. I think their consistency of uploading helps massively with the security-blanket feeling too, I don't know any other youtuber who uploads daily, especially twice a day. Noone would blame them if they took off even one day a week, or more (or had guest presenters like tv does), and maybe they should for their own sakes, or they will once restrictions ease fully, but whilst they are able to do it, it is reassuring no matter what kind of day I have had, good, bad or indifferent, to always be able to watch Simon and/or Mark, take a pause and almost reset the day for the evening (I usually watch the following day, about 5pm) because Cracking the Cryptic always has a video for me. It's nice. Also, Simon's voice is great, he could probably get work as a voice actor reading audiobooks if he wanted to.
This channel has re-ignited my love for sudoku. And, because I watch each and every video within earshot of my husband, he's caught the sudoku bug as well. Now we spend quiet evenings together solving puzzles in the Killer Sudoku app and having a grand old time. We feel especially accomplished when we can solve a puzzle without bifurcation, though my husband is quite liberal with the pencil marks. We've also added such phrases as "bobbins", "by sudoku of all things", and "you numpty" into our family's lexicon. Thank you, Simon for bringing my husband and I closer together. 💓
The influence of SImon Anthony and, to a lesser extent Mark Goodliffe, on the English language - especially among non-native speakers - is growing by the day. In future dictionaries and thesauruses we will see naughty snakes, naked singles and nori-nori, alongside bobbins as an expletive, 'by the power sudoku of all things' and all the wonderful enrichments of Their Braininesses weirdity. William Shakespeare, your match has been found.
i agree. i started solving sudoku again. i first learned sudoku in first class and it was so much fun and now a whole new world of sudoku has opened up. So many new and interesting additional rules. i cant remeber when i found this channel, must be somewhere around 2020/2021, since then i watched every simon video that goes online. its so much fun, thinking with you to solve the sudoku. my fiance has nothing to do with sudoku, but when he is hearing your voice, he knows i am watching sudoku again. my favorite phrase is your knowledge bomb yesterdays was kb was really special 6=6
Whenever you pause, I get a sense of anticipation. And whenever you say, "Ah, yes - yes, this is absolutely brilliant . . ." - that is the payoff. Whenever I follow your puzzles, that is my favorite part by far. But it wouldn't be as cool without the pauses (not to mention my own pauses can be hours long). Trust me, you don't waste our time!
STOP APOLOGIZING! You’re miles above 99% of us who watch daily, as well as - hands down - one of the best sudoku professors alive today. I like to think I’m a rather intelligent and logical person, but am often stunned at how you maneuver yourself around a puzzle!
The logic flow of this puzzle is stunning. Thank you Joseph Nehme for your creation. And, as always, thank you Simon for your solve. You make appear all these logic power blenders like a stroll. You explain every step and everything is a breeze.
Words cannot express how proud I am of finding this break in, using the Set theory logic, on my own. Without a year or so of watching this channel every day, there's literally no chance I ever would have been able to do this puzzle. Thank you, Simon, for the education.
I like the pauses. I watch and try to comprehend what you are doing, and my reasoning is not as quick as yours, obviously. So the pauses allow me to process. Without the pauses I need to sometimes stop the video myself cause you’re going fast and I need a bit of breathing room. As a non native speaker I also need some allowance for that mental effort as well.
Usually I am left scratching my head and saying "how the bobbins" but I was able to follow today's puzzle and I must say that set theory is really growing on me now.
Oh my God! I did it! This is by far the most complex sudoku I have solved without any help (and using set too!). Great puzzle, Joseph, you certainly made me feel clever for solving it.
I think its actually hilarious since i actually use this as a sleeping pill! Works great, the only time i can go sleep early is when i watch ur videos (its a compliment) even though i do watch ur videos still in the daytime for fun. Edit: Its not even that i dont find sudoku interesting i find it highly interesting this just really helps me sleep cuz its not blasting and shouting like the normal videos i watch its just a dude calmly solving a sudoku.
The two-cell unmarked cage had no impact on the puzzle at all, so my guess is it was added for aesthetics and wasn't given a value because it would not have been relevant at the point where the symmetrically matching 11 cage was relevant, and having no value was more aesthetic.
Simon is looking at it the wrong way around. It isn't "It has no impact, so why not give it?"...It's that it wasn't given BECAUSE it had no impact on the puzzle. The 11 was important in working out the 79 in r6c7, which is why it WAS given.
And also, as a 13-cage, it would either have been 7-6, 8-5, or 9-4. But all of those options would have gotten in the way of trying to sort out the 7s/9s in Boxes 5 & 6. There would be too much back-and-forth between tbe cage and the box, that it would have become untidy and thus missed the beauty of that part of the logic.
My break-in is by maths: Set the following variables: a=r3c5, b=r5c3, c=r5c7, d=r7c5, e=r2c5, x=r5c4+r5c5+r5c6, y=r4c5+r5c5+r6c5, z=r5c5 Row 5: 2b+x+2c=45 => x=45-2b-2c Column 5: 2(e+a)+y+2d=45 => y=45-2a-2d-2e a, b, c and d must appear in the corner cells of box 5. Box 5: a+b+c+d+x+y-z=45 => a+b+c+d+45-2b-2c+45-2a-2d-2e-z=45 => 90-a-b-c-d-2e-z=45 => 45-(a+b+c+d+z)=2e That means: The four middle cells of box 5 (=r4c5+r5c4+r5c6+r6c5) must have the same value as two times r2c5. The minimum for these four cells is 1+2+3+4=10. So the minimum for r2c5 is 5. If they are 1,2,3,4, then r3c5 is at least 6. 5+6=11, so r1c5 has no filling. If r2c5 is 6, then they are 1,2,3,6 or 1,2,4,5. 1,2,3,6 is not possible because 4+6=10. With 1,2,4,5 we could take r3c5=3, and 3+6=9, but none of the corner cells of box 5 could be 3. If r2c5 is 7, the maximum for r3c5 is 2. And that’s the minimum for r4c4. So that is fixed. The four middle cells have to make 2*7=14, without a 2. The only way to do that is 1+3+4+6.
Dear Simon, I'm guilty for using your video's to help me sleep (got sleeping problems). You have a very calming voice and your voice range is not that big, it has an relaxing effect ^^. I also love the channel, the sudoku puzzles and I might tell, you and Mark are doing a great job entertaining us puzzle solvers. Keep it up! : D: D Also, I have a request if possible, is there a possibility to add lists of combination options for the online puzzles, just like has been done in the apps? It would help a lot with solving.
You have single Handedly gotten me into sudoku and not only that but I have now gotten to where i play every day and I have purchased all of your Apps!!!
the puzzle is called L+ The big cage in the middle is a + and the 2 2 cell cages on each side each make up an L (the right one being turned upside down) The cage might have had a value in an earlier version and then been taken out as it was not needed for the solve
I was thinking the same thing from the very offset. I couldn't figure out what information it would give under any circumstances and couldn't think of a single one
I completely failed at this puzzle, but I just found a very nice way of finding a digit at the start: Where does 9 go in the middle column? It can't go in the middle because it would be together with 1+3 in box 5 to make it odd (because the arrows are even numbers, so 2+3 or 1+2 wouldnt work; the circles in the middle box only contain digits from 4-9). But then you would have the rest of 45-13=32 so you would need another 9 (because 32 = 9+9+7+7) for the same row/column. By this and coloring the column + row as Simon did, you can conclude that 9 has to be in row 1!
Unfortunately, I think you may have made the same mistake I made. I also thought 1,2,3 could not go in any of the circles in box 5, and had also "deduced" that 9 had to go in r1c5. I then wasted 30 minutes trying to find how 1,2 and 3 could be placed in the central part of the cross in box 5. Everything I tried lead to a contradiction! I eventually had to watch part of Simon's solve, to see that the circle in r4c4 could in fact be 2!!! Doh!
@@RichSmith77 thanks! I didn't watch Simon's solve carefully enough and yes I made the mistake eliminating 2, 3 and 4 from the circle and forgot 2=1+1 would also be a possibility.
@@maverickstclare3756 Yes, but 9+7+8 is greater than 21 too, so he couldn't use his earlier information that they were at least 21 to get r7c5 any faster.
32:29 for me. There were several times that i had a crisis and just couldn't move forward and wanted to give up, but I just felt that there has to be something there and kept looking. And found it.
34:43 some beautiful logic here. 8 cannot be on the short arrow in box 7/box8 because then there would be no place for 8 in box 9. Its basically the same logic as the top short arrow.
Persistence paid off for me on this one. My first attempt went nowhere, so I abandoned the puzzle and ended up solving the 'Mark' puzzle first (which was quite brutal for me). I came back to this and got nowhere again ... at first. Then I saw the trick to break in, and that led me to one 'a-ha' moment after another; my second attempt ended in success. (My solve felt quick, but I forget if I had paused the timer at some point; a time of 13:29 feels *too* quick, though that would also not include my 10+ minutes from my first try.) Wonderful puzzle!
It may be hard for you to believe, Simon, but we don't mind the pauses and you aren't wasting our time. I have never yelled "Come on, Simon! It's right there!" at my screen yet...
I honestly can't wait for the Murder Mystery Hunt, even though I'm a noob in sudokus (I started watching your videos like a week ago and just got enamored)! Are the puzzles going to be approachable?
@@bradmclean4988 In general, it is a law of nature that Simon's cursor indicates his bouts of stormtrooperitude with more than statistically random frequency. This discovery has been hailed as one of the great breakthroughs of neuroscience. To date, no one has found an explanation. Maverick, the Poltergeist and Simon's cat have been excluded as possible sources of the phenomenon that researcher have given the name *_Anomalous Nonverbal Semiotic Incidence of Peripheral Deictic Devices in Real-Time Cognitive Disambiguation Dilemmas_* . Research continues and thousands of amateur psychologist volunteers are participating in a world-wide effort to shed more light on this potentially very significant but so far rather mysterious phenomenon. None of the theories so far advanced have found wide support in the world of weirdity. Your comment is merely a false positive.
I guess it just helps to shape the L, for the L+ title. A cell with no sum-number within a single box/row/column gives absolutely no additional information. Not even the fact that digits may not repeat within the cell, because we already know that from the box/row/column.
Different break-in (Simon style maths): spoiler....
- colour the central box as follows: corner cells (purple), central cell (red) and remaining cells (green) - we may now state that `purple + red + green = 45` (CTC knowledge bomb) - note that the purple cells match the points of the cross shaped cage and that all except one are also an arrow circle - in box 2, colour the arrow circle (blue) and the arrow tip that matches one of the purple cells (orange) - the sum of column 5 and row 5 may now be written as `2*purple - 2*orange + 2*blue + green + 2*red` - eliminate green from the latter formula by substituting the first equation to find `purple - 2*orange + 2*blue + red = 45` - since orange is one of the purples we can simplify this even more by clearing one of the purple cells, doesn't really matter which one at this point but as we are expecting a fairly low digit r4c4 is the logical choice - the formula now becomes `purple - orange + 2*blue + red = 45` - the max value for orange may now be found as `max(purple+red) + 2*max(blue) - 45 = max(orange)` which resolves as `30 + 18 - 45 = 3` - since orange is one of the corner cells in box 5 and is therefore an arrow circle, r4c4 is the only cell that can accommodate such a low value but the given 2 in r1c3 prevents it from being a 3 - so now we know that orange is 2 and this creates a freedom of 1 on our last formula that can't come from blue as this value is doubled, so blue = 9 and purple and red form a 5,7,8,9 quadruple. - 9 in r1c5 gives us a 7 to complete the arrow and since 9 and 7 are also in purple they map onto the arrow circles in row 5, leaving a sum of 13 on this row in box 5 to complete, with a choice of 5,8 for the central cell. - with 2,5,7 already in the box all options to create 8 with two cells are gone, so the central cell must be 8 and we get a 1,4 pair to complete the row. - take it from here...
I think I followed it, although I struggled most with the creation of the '2*purple - 2*orange + 2*blue + green + 2*red' step. I found it easier to visualise if I didn't colour a cell in box 2 as orange, but instead had three purples and one orange in the four circles in box 5. (As you say, initially it doesn't matter which of the four you colour as orange.) If I can still link to Imgur, this is how I interpreted your method, i.imgur.com/uwROB9T.png
@@RichSmith77 Correct. The original idea here is that the sum of the arrows is the same as the value in the circle, hence the factor 2 on purple and if the arrow in box had pointed upwards the resulting formula for the sum of column 5 and row 5 would have been `2 * purple + green + 2 * red`. Since however the arrow in box 2 points downwards we need to subtract the value we assigned to that arrow (2 * orange, with orange being one of the corner cells in box 5) and add the correct value (2 * blue) instead.
@@gordonbos5447 Yep. I kind of grasped that. It was just with r3c5 being simultaneously purple, orange and part of blue that was causing my head to spin. 😁 I found it easier to ignore it being orange/purple, and just think of it as just three purples + an orange in box 5 instead. 🙂 But I liked the basic idea. 👍
I think there were different paths to the break-in because mine was only about 50% the same as Simon's. Also my time was 44 minutes to Simon's 33 which gives me an extreme amount of satisfaction. I quickly used the set/arrow trick to limit the middle row arrows to sum to fifteen or more, but then asked the question Simon didn't -- where do those digits go in the central column? It's a little tricky to see neither can go at the bottom on the arrow (if for instance you try to put six down there you drive up the minimum total to sixteen and can't use the 6 to make sixteen in the middle row!). Once you get both large digits at the top, the path is the same as Simon's.
I got the break in through the maths stuff but was completely blind to the fact the arrow could be a 2 with double 1. Had convinced myself its minimum was 1&3 and then couldn't make the 9 sum work. Grrrrr
Agree with the others. A cage with no total and completely within a single box has no information at all. It adds no additional restrictions to the puzzle. It is purely for aesthetics.
There was another way to resolve the 38 in the short arrow at the bottom: whatever it is, it also has to appear in box 9 row 7, so one of 314, i.e. not 8.
This one was tough for me… I don’t think I completely found the break-in, but instead found some pieces of logic from it and kind of brute-forced it from there. I can’t wait to see what I was missing, time to check the video. Oh, and final time of 38:07. Edit: Well, I did find everything I needed for the break-in, I just didn’t know how to use it properly. The path I followed was similar to Simon’s, but a little bit more messy.
I think you have it backwards. The unnumbered cage wasn't the mean part of the puzzle. The rest of the puzzle was mean and the cage was the only nice part.
That arrow is where I got the break through as well but not as beautifully as Simon got there!! Mine had to do with how that arrow will break if it were anything other than 2+ 7 in the order with respect to the centre cell and the other 3 arrow cells... it was kinda bifurcation calculation!! 😅😅
Would someone explain how can you remove r7c5 from purple/blue sets? The way I see it is if you can prove that r5c4c6 are exact same digits as r1r2c5, then the sum of r5c1c2c8c9 equals to the value of r7c5 and I can tell why you could be able to do so. What if r1r2c5 are exact matches with r5c3c4 instead?
Ah, making a fool out of myself. Since r5c1c2c8c9 have to repeat in r3r4r6r7c5, one of them is forced to be exactly r7c5, so of course you may remove it.
That cage doesn’t seem to be significant at all. Since there’s no given total all it says is that the digits can’t be the same which is already true by the box and row. I think it’s only there to be symmetrical with the 11 cage on the other side.
Had you utilized the domino cages and the "short stubby arrows" as you call them, you'd have been able to do a lot of work in the puzzle around the 45 cage, particularly in regards to eventually trimming down the possibilities in those dominoes and getting the 13 cage which bounces back into the 11 cage in box 6.
I left the same comment in sympathy with you, because I know it’s a bad combination. It’s not even a good contrast for those of us who have normal colour vision, so I really don’t understand why anyone would choose it when they have all 72 pairs of colours to choose from.
There are some colour combinations you just shouldn’t use out of respect for colourblind viewers if you can choose whichever colours you want, and purple&blue is one of those combinations. Green&yellow is another difficult combination for them.
what is this BS Mathmagic you just pulled by invoking the name of Phistomefel? my eyes went cross and smoke left my ears. idk what you did. but it worked
Thank you Simon for the amazing solve. This was entirely the intended path. I must say you were extremely quick to find the break-in. As for the cage with no total, it's just there to preserve symmetry.
Beautiful puzzle Joseph! I really love the logic around the short arrows. Good stuff even after the amazing break-in!
Beautiful puzzle Joseph,
That was my immediate thought with that cage. You already had uniqueness and added a meaningless cage for aesthetics
And thanks to you for a great sudoku, I really enjoyed solving it.
Thanks for confirmation and contribution, Joseph! I advanced the hypothesis that a cage with no total has to be aesthetic (or for symmetry) when it doesn't cross a box boundary. Anyone have any thoughts on that idea?
I think the majority of us are not upset with the pauses. We know you are looking through the puzzle to find a break-in. It is almost like watching a movie and the suspenseful part is the pause. Then all of a sudden the moment of revelation comes and you find another piece of logic to amaze us. I think the pauses are necessary to build anticipation and makes these videos way more entertaining.
Ditto!
The pauses also give us a chance to look at the puzzle and try to find the bit of logic that Simon is missing.
Don't mind the pauses Simon. They give us the chance to play the game of trying to find the next bit of logic before you (and usually failing to do so).
I must say I am why better at finding logic while watching before Simon than I am solving on my own :D
@@Jonimasters1997 I think that happens to a lot of us XD
LOL right? The only time I notice something he doesn't is when it's like... a really obvious Sudoku move... And he's just too busy playing interdimensional chess to notice.
@@Jonimasters1997 I try every puzzle by myself. If I get really stuck the video helps. I usually watch almost until the video catch up with where I am and see something that Simon/Mark hasn't gotten to yet. It's as if I'm using the video for rubberducking, but I am the duck.
I have never heard the word rubberducking, please could you elaborate?
Adding to the list of people who find the puzzle a great aid to sleep - not because it's dull, far from it! Your videos have become part of the daily rhythm, a chance to pause, unwind and put all worries aside apart from where numbers go.
And his voice is so soothing
I'm definitely one of the people that this helps fall asleep.
The algorithm is hilarious. I would have never clicked on the original video that was recommended if it hadn't had like 3 million views... I thought there's got to be a reason this has so many views 🤷🏼♀️
Now I watch one of two solves before bed like every night.
But I also just downloaded the arrow Sudoku app... I'm on like puzzle six or seven now... I should mention I downloaded it today... (Hyperfocus much?)
I'm not going to lie I was really worried that it would be a bit over my head. They're definitely not easy but accessible is probably a good term. I've roughly got an average time of about 45 minutes. Longest took me 2 hours shortest was about 30 min.
On my normal app where I do classic Sudoku the "expert" ones usually take me 10 minutes to finish just for context. It's really a nice challenge/change.
Also it's just really satisfying being able to solve puzzles like that.
I haven't fell asleep often to the videos, but it happens occasionally. I think watching the puzzle uses quite a lot of brain power, akin to doing them, but playing the video and not watching the puzzle, it suddenly all becomes delightful nonsense and thus very relaxing.
I think their consistency of uploading helps massively with the security-blanket feeling too, I don't know any other youtuber who uploads daily, especially twice a day. Noone would blame them if they took off even one day a week, or more (or had guest presenters like tv does), and maybe they should for their own sakes, or they will once restrictions ease fully, but whilst they are able to do it, it is reassuring no matter what kind of day I have had, good, bad or indifferent, to always be able to watch Simon and/or Mark, take a pause and almost reset the day for the evening (I usually watch the following day, about 5pm) because Cracking the Cryptic always has a video for me. It's nice.
Also, Simon's voice is great, he could probably get work as a voice actor reading audiobooks if he wanted to.
This channel has re-ignited my love for sudoku. And, because I watch each and every video within earshot of my husband, he's caught the sudoku bug as well. Now we spend quiet evenings together solving puzzles in the Killer Sudoku app and having a grand old time. We feel especially accomplished when we can solve a puzzle without bifurcation, though my husband is quite liberal with the pencil marks. We've also added such phrases as "bobbins", "by sudoku of all things", and "you numpty" into our family's lexicon. Thank you, Simon for bringing my husband and I closer together. 💓
The influence of SImon Anthony and, to a lesser extent Mark Goodliffe, on the English language - especially among non-native speakers - is growing by the day. In future dictionaries and thesauruses we will see naughty snakes, naked singles and nori-nori, alongside bobbins as an expletive, 'by the power sudoku of all things' and all the wonderful enrichments of Their Braininesses weirdity. William Shakespeare, your match has been found.
i agree. i started solving sudoku again. i first learned sudoku in first class and it was so much fun and now a whole new world of sudoku has opened up. So many new and interesting additional rules. i cant remeber when i found this channel, must be somewhere around 2020/2021, since then i watched every simon video that goes online. its so much fun, thinking with you to solve the sudoku. my fiance has nothing to do with sudoku, but when he is hearing your voice, he knows i am watching sudoku again. my favorite phrase is your knowledge bomb
yesterdays was kb was really special 6=6
Whenever you pause, I get a sense of anticipation. And whenever you say, "Ah, yes - yes, this is absolutely brilliant . . ." - that is the payoff. Whenever I follow your puzzles, that is my favorite part by far. But it wouldn't be as cool without the pauses (not to mention my own pauses can be hours long). Trust me, you don't waste our time!
You're never "too slow", Simon. Your cogitations are part of the experience. Don't let people tell you otherwise!
STOP APOLOGIZING! You’re miles above 99% of us who watch daily, as well as - hands down - one of the best sudoku professors alive today. I like to think I’m a rather intelligent and logical person, but am often stunned at how you maneuver yourself around a puzzle!
The logic flow of this puzzle is stunning. Thank you Joseph Nehme for your creation. And, as always, thank you Simon for your solve. You make appear all these logic power blenders like a stroll. You explain every step and everything is a breeze.
I'm reasonably sure that the empty cage was just for symmetry.
It does form the titular 'L'. Wonder if the cage value was left out so as to indicate that it wasn't a hint worth chasing.
Words cannot express how proud I am of finding this break in, using the Set theory logic, on my own. Without a year or so of watching this channel every day, there's literally no chance I ever would have been able to do this puzzle. Thank you, Simon, for the education.
I like the pauses. I watch and try to comprehend what you are doing, and my reasoning is not as quick as yours, obviously. So the pauses allow me to process. Without the pauses I need to sometimes stop the video myself cause you’re going fast and I need a bit of breathing room. As a non native speaker I also need some allowance for that mental effort as well.
Yes, yes, and yes!
I started watching CtC to fall asleep about half a year ago, but now I am too invested in watching the solve to be able to sleep xD
Simon, you look smashing on that Form Guide promo. You could be the next James Bond.
Best comment ever 😍
@@CrackingTheCryptic So? Give Smartypants a heart already!
@@amoswittenbergsmusings We love your poetry. No reason to be jealous. 😉
Agent no double 7?
@@CrackingTheCryptic Perhaps if you used a more recent photo...
I love the video where Simon is basically ahead of me all the time, and then out of nowhere I spot something he didn't.
4:15 Your 1 hour video definitely helps me to sleep, the video comes out at 12-30 am Pakistan time.
Where do we sign the petition to make Simon stop apologizing?
Usually I am left scratching my head and saying "how the bobbins" but I was able to follow today's puzzle and I must say that set theory is really growing on me now.
I love the word “shenanigans” and I must say, it’s very nice indeed to see it included in your vocabulary!
Oh my God! I did it! This is by far the most complex sudoku I have solved without any help (and using set too!). Great puzzle, Joseph, you certainly made me feel clever for solving it.
I think its actually hilarious since i actually use this as a sleeping pill! Works great, the only time i can go sleep early is when i watch ur videos (its a compliment) even though i do watch ur videos still in the daytime for fun.
Edit: Its not even that i dont find sudoku interesting i find it highly interesting this just really helps me sleep cuz its not blasting and shouting like the normal videos i watch its just a dude calmly solving a sudoku.
That custom cushion is a pretty wonderful prize.
makes me wish I could afford to partronise!
The two-cell unmarked cage had no impact on the puzzle at all, so my guess is it was added for aesthetics and wasn't given a value because it would not have been relevant at the point where the symmetrically matching 11 cage was relevant, and having no value was more aesthetic.
Came to ask this exact question. Not a particularly satisfactory explanation, but I can't think of a better one.
Simon is looking at it the wrong way around. It isn't "It has no impact, so why not give it?"...It's that it wasn't given BECAUSE it had no impact on the puzzle. The 11 was important in working out the 79 in r6c7, which is why it WAS given.
And also, as a 13-cage, it would either have been 7-6, 8-5, or 9-4. But all of those options would have gotten in the way of trying to sort out the 7s/9s in Boxes 5 & 6. There would be too much back-and-forth between tbe cage and the box, that it would have become untidy and thus missed the beauty of that part of the logic.
My guess is that it is needed to form the L in the puzzle’s title “L+”.
My break-in is by maths:
Set the following variables:
a=r3c5, b=r5c3, c=r5c7, d=r7c5, e=r2c5, x=r5c4+r5c5+r5c6, y=r4c5+r5c5+r6c5, z=r5c5
Row 5: 2b+x+2c=45 => x=45-2b-2c
Column 5: 2(e+a)+y+2d=45 => y=45-2a-2d-2e
a, b, c and d must appear in the corner cells of box 5.
Box 5: a+b+c+d+x+y-z=45
=> a+b+c+d+45-2b-2c+45-2a-2d-2e-z=45
=> 90-a-b-c-d-2e-z=45
=> 45-(a+b+c+d+z)=2e
That means: The four middle cells of box 5 (=r4c5+r5c4+r5c6+r6c5) must have the same value as two times r2c5.
The minimum for these four cells is 1+2+3+4=10. So the minimum for r2c5 is 5.
If they are 1,2,3,4, then r3c5 is at least 6. 5+6=11, so r1c5 has no filling.
If r2c5 is 6, then they are 1,2,3,6 or 1,2,4,5. 1,2,3,6 is not possible because 4+6=10. With 1,2,4,5 we could take r3c5=3, and 3+6=9, but none of the corner cells of box 5 could be 3.
If r2c5 is 7, the maximum for r3c5 is 2. And that’s the minimum for r4c4. So that is fixed. The four middle cells have to make 2*7=14, without a 2. The only way to do that is 1+3+4+6.
Dear Simon, I'm guilty for using your video's to help me sleep (got sleeping problems). You have a very calming voice and your voice range is not that big, it has an relaxing effect ^^.
I also love the channel, the sudoku puzzles and I might tell, you and Mark are doing a great job entertaining us puzzle solvers. Keep it up! : D: D
Also, I have a request if possible, is there a possibility to add lists of combination options for the online puzzles, just like has been done in the apps? It would help a lot with solving.
You have single Handedly gotten me into sudoku and not only that but I have now gotten to where i play every day and I have purchased all of your Apps!!!
This is great, Simon is so happy on this one
being here before the bots is now my biggest flex
Is it weird that I would love to have a keyboard camera as a second perspective? 😅🙈
Is it just me or is an unlabeled killer cage entirely within a box/row by definition purely cosmetic?
That's right :)
the puzzle is called L+
The big cage in the middle is a + and the 2 2 cell cages on each side each make up an L (the right one being turned upside down)
The cage might have had a value in an earlier version and then been taken out as it was not needed for the solve
I was thinking the same thing from the very offset. I couldn't figure out what information it would give under any circumstances and couldn't think of a single one
Almost dis-information, in a sense. It would break up the logic doing the 7s/9s on the right.
I completely failed at this puzzle, but I just found a very nice way of finding a digit at the start:
Where does 9 go in the middle column? It can't go in the middle because it would be together with 1+3 in box 5 to make it odd (because the arrows are even numbers, so 2+3 or 1+2 wouldnt work; the circles in the middle box only contain digits from 4-9). But then you would have the rest of 45-13=32 so you would need another 9 (because 32 = 9+9+7+7) for the same row/column. By this and coloring the column + row as Simon did, you can conclude that 9 has to be in row 1!
Interesting. I had looked at some parity like this, but not noticed that conclusion.
Unfortunately, I think you may have made the same mistake I made. I also thought 1,2,3 could not go in any of the circles in box 5, and had also "deduced" that 9 had to go in r1c5. I then wasted 30 minutes trying to find how 1,2 and 3 could be placed in the central part of the cross in box 5. Everything I tried lead to a contradiction!
I eventually had to watch part of Simon's solve, to see that the circle in r4c4 could in fact be 2!!! Doh!
@@RichSmith77 thanks! I didn't watch Simon's solve carefully enough and yes I made the mistake eliminating 2, 3 and 4 from the circle and forgot 2=1+1 would also be a possibility.
Glad to have got through this as I nearly gave up. Very nice.
The usual Simon Story: Brilliantly works out C5R1 + C5R2 + C5R7 = 21. Promptly discards that information!
*at least 21
@@ragnkja It turned out to be 21 though, 9 + 7 + 5
@@maverickstclare3756 Yes, but 9+7+8 is greater than 21 too, so he couldn't use his earlier information that they were at least 21 to get r7c5 any faster.
32:29 for me. There were several times that i had a crisis and just couldn't move forward and wanted to give up, but I just felt that there has to be something there and kept looking. And found it.
Such a lovely puzzle. Thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the solve
Simon crushes his testers with a beautiful break in
34:43 some beautiful logic here. 8 cannot be on the short arrow in box 7/box8 because then there would be no place for 8 in box 9. Its basically the same logic as the top short arrow.
i put these videos on to sleep but then end up too interested in the puzzle to fall asleep
"It's brutal and beautiful."
So it's... Brutiful?
Brutal and beautiful, you say? It's brutiful.
Persistence paid off for me on this one.
My first attempt went nowhere, so I abandoned the puzzle and ended up solving the 'Mark' puzzle first (which was quite brutal for me). I came back to this and got nowhere again ... at first. Then I saw the trick to break in, and that led me to one 'a-ha' moment after another; my second attempt ended in success. (My solve felt quick, but I forget if I had paused the timer at some point; a time of 13:29 feels *too* quick, though that would also not include my 10+ minutes from my first try.)
Wonderful puzzle!
40 mins long videos are perfect
It may be hard for you to believe, Simon, but we don't mind the pauses and you aren't wasting our time. I have never yelled "Come on, Simon! It's right there!" at my screen yet...
Simple rules and great logic! Thank you !!!
Brutiful
Nice portmanteauing!
I was going to make the same comment... decided to double-check first.
Brutal and beautiful seems to be commonplace on CtC, so let's make it "brutiful" from now on.
:-D
I'll use that word.
I honestly can't wait for the Murder Mystery Hunt, even though I'm a noob in sudokus (I started watching your videos like a week ago and just got enamored)! Are the puzzles going to be approachable?
Approachable, by Mark standards, at least 😂
It's probably just there for symmetry. I never once thought that cage had any meaning.
Me putting this video on at 3am to fall asleep: *laughs at intro* it really does work
"I bet you are all seeing something I am missing". while the pointer is on the exact square that we are likely all seeing. Great stuff.
I am a bity wrong there. I assumed that square has to be at least a 6 but I see that I am incorrect.
@@bradmclean4988 In general, it is a law of nature that Simon's cursor indicates his bouts of stormtrooperitude with more than statistically random frequency. This discovery has been hailed as one of the great breakthroughs of neuroscience. To date, no one has found an explanation. Maverick, the Poltergeist and Simon's cat have been excluded as possible sources of the phenomenon that researcher have given the name *_Anomalous Nonverbal Semiotic Incidence of Peripheral Deictic Devices in Real-Time Cognitive Disambiguation Dilemmas_* . Research continues and thousands of amateur psychologist volunteers are participating in a world-wide effort to shed more light on this potentially very significant but so far rather mysterious phenomenon. None of the theories so far advanced have found wide support in the world of weirdity.
Your comment is merely a false positive.
It’s brutiful!
29:50 Just there for rotational symmetry, probably let it out either so as not to be distracting. or not to shortcut other logic.
I guess it just helps to shape the L, for the L+ title. A cell with no sum-number within a single box/row/column gives absolutely no additional information. Not even the fact that digits may not repeat within the cell, because we already know that from the box/row/column.
Yeah, a given digit! Great solve, SImon.
Different break-in (Simon style maths):
spoiler....
- colour the central box as follows: corner cells (purple), central cell (red) and remaining cells (green)
- we may now state that `purple + red + green = 45` (CTC knowledge bomb)
- note that the purple cells match the points of the cross shaped cage and that all except one are also an arrow circle
- in box 2, colour the arrow circle (blue) and the arrow tip that matches one of the purple cells (orange)
- the sum of column 5 and row 5 may now be written as `2*purple - 2*orange + 2*blue + green + 2*red`
- eliminate green from the latter formula by substituting the first equation to find `purple - 2*orange + 2*blue + red = 45`
- since orange is one of the purples we can simplify this even more by clearing one of the purple cells, doesn't really matter which one at this point but as we are expecting a fairly low digit r4c4 is the logical choice
- the formula now becomes `purple - orange + 2*blue + red = 45`
- the max value for orange may now be found as `max(purple+red) + 2*max(blue) - 45 = max(orange)` which resolves as `30 + 18 - 45 = 3`
- since orange is one of the corner cells in box 5 and is therefore an arrow circle, r4c4 is the only cell that can accommodate such a low value but the given 2 in r1c3 prevents it from being a 3
- so now we know that orange is 2 and this creates a freedom of 1 on our last formula that can't come from blue as this value is doubled, so blue = 9 and purple and red form a 5,7,8,9 quadruple.
- 9 in r1c5 gives us a 7 to complete the arrow and since 9 and 7 are also in purple they map onto the arrow circles in row 5, leaving a sum of 13 on this row in box 5 to complete, with a choice of 5,8 for the central cell.
- with 2,5,7 already in the box all options to create 8 with two cells are gone, so the central cell must be 8 and we get a 1,4 pair to complete the row.
- take it from here...
I could follow some of that, but without the visuals I couldn't get to the end of it, sorry :(
@@elizabethgrosvenor153 I'm sorry too. Where did you loose me?
I think I followed it, although I struggled most with the creation of the '2*purple - 2*orange + 2*blue + green + 2*red' step. I found it easier to visualise if I didn't colour a cell in box 2 as orange, but instead had three purples and one orange in the four circles in box 5. (As you say, initially it doesn't matter which of the four you colour as orange.)
If I can still link to Imgur, this is how I interpreted your method,
i.imgur.com/uwROB9T.png
@@RichSmith77 Correct. The original idea here is that the sum of the arrows is the same as the value in the circle, hence the factor 2 on purple and if the arrow in box had pointed upwards the resulting formula for the sum of column 5 and row 5 would have been `2 * purple + green + 2 * red`. Since however the arrow in box 2 points downwards we need to subtract the value we assigned to that arrow (2 * orange, with orange being one of the corner cells in box 5) and add the correct value (2 * blue) instead.
@@gordonbos5447 Yep. I kind of grasped that. It was just with r3c5 being simultaneously purple, orange and part of blue that was causing my head to spin. 😁
I found it easier to ignore it being orange/purple, and just think of it as just three purples + an orange in box 5 instead. 🙂
But I liked the basic idea. 👍
I think there were different paths to the break-in because mine was only about 50% the same as Simon's. Also my time was 44 minutes to Simon's 33 which gives me an extreme amount of satisfaction. I quickly used the set/arrow trick to limit the middle row arrows to sum to fifteen or more, but then asked the question Simon didn't -- where do those digits go in the central column? It's a little tricky to see neither can go at the bottom on the arrow (if for instance you try to put six down there you drive up the minimum total to sixteen and can't use the 6 to make sixteen in the middle row!). Once you get both large digits at the top, the path is the same as Simon's.
Taking this thought one step further, that would place 9 in either R1C5 or R5C5 because the 9 cannot be on any of the lines.
That is a rich break-in. Loved it.
I got the break in through the maths stuff but was completely blind to the fact the arrow could be a 2 with double 1. Had convinced myself its minimum was 1&3 and then couldn't make the 9 sum work. Grrrrr
I think the "ungiven" cage is just there to make the "L" in the title.
Agree with the others. A cage with no total and completely within a single box has no information at all. It adds no additional restrictions to the puzzle. It is purely for aesthetics.
There was another way to resolve the 38 in the short arrow at the bottom: whatever it is, it also has to appear in box 9 row 7, so one of 314, i.e. not 8.
This one was tough for me… I don’t think I completely found the break-in, but instead found some pieces of logic from it and kind of brute-forced it from there. I can’t wait to see what I was missing, time to check the video. Oh, and final time of 38:07.
Edit: Well, I did find everything I needed for the break-in, I just didn’t know how to use it properly. The path I followed was similar to Simon’s, but a little bit more messy.
Simon you r right.. I don't sleep until your 1hour movie finish.. by then it's 2:30 am..
I love this channel. Sometimes I wish you would post a vid of a mistake right at the end to prove you're still human. Happens to me all the time.
You need a T-Shirt that says "Worst kept secret"
What's your favorite Simonism?
I think mine is stormtrooper scanning
That is from a comment on one of Mark's videos, around a month ago.
Hard choice... we should list the ones we remember and vote on them haha
I’m a fan of “nori-nori” myself
That's... almost interesting.
I don't know verbatim but varying somewhat along the following lines:
"Let's do some thinking. ... What do we think about?"
Fabulous puzzle
Nice solve
I've also no idea about the 5 8 cage but ....
Beautiful Puzzle. Nori nori...
Good grief... amazing (though obvious) break in... and still 20+ minutes after to solve? Completed this in 24min06s!!!
Brutal and beautiful Puzzle😒
It looks to me like it was there to preserve the symmetry around the grid.
It's brutiful!
I think you have it backwards. The unnumbered cage wasn't the mean part of the puzzle. The rest of the puzzle was mean and the cage was the only nice part.
Beautiful, quite tough puzzle. :-)
That arrow is where I got the break through as well but not as beautifully as Simon got there!! Mine had to do with how that arrow will break if it were anything other than 2+ 7 in the order with respect to the centre cell and the other 3 arrow cells... it was kinda bifurcation calculation!! 😅😅
The Google Play link does not work for me. It just sais URL not found
That was brutiful
If you turn a 2 upside-down, it's still a 2...
I know I keep saying this but: Amazing.
Would pencil marking the 2 in b3 help whittle down the r4 c6 number?
Looking forward to your chat with Rob, will it be on other platforms later?
Would someone explain how can you remove r7c5 from purple/blue sets? The way I see it is if you can prove that r5c4c6 are exact same digits as r1r2c5, then the sum of r5c1c2c8c9 equals to the value of r7c5 and I can tell why you could be able to do so. What if r1r2c5 are exact matches with r5c3c4 instead?
Ah, making a fool out of myself. Since r5c1c2c8c9 have to repeat in r3r4r6r7c5, one of them is forced to be exactly r7c5, so of course you may remove it.
Nice suit, Simon 😉 Do you miss it?
"It's brutal and beautiful". So , it's _brutiful_ ?
I’m honestly relieved that the 5-8 cage didn’t turn out to be an 8-9 arrow. 😉
can anyone explain the reasoning behind the 33:59 - 68 pair mapping onto r3c1 ? feels like it's trivial but just not able to see it..
Whether it's a 6 or an 8 on the stubby arrow between boxes 2 and 3, there's only one place it can go in box 1.
phew...got there, but that break in is brutal
Great puzzle.
Out of interest, what's the animation of the lil fella popping up over the grid when the puzzle loads?
Sven Neumann - the app developer
@@nightjarflying Hah, I see. Half guessed that, but wasn't sure. Cute.
Cheers
That cage doesn’t seem to be significant at all. Since there’s no given total all it says is that the digits can’t be the same which is already true by the box and row. I think it’s only there to be symmetrical with the 11 cage on the other side.
Don't worry about being slow--that's what the 1.25 speed setting is for. :P
2x gang baby
Woah, no downvote.... yet
this is an amazing puzzle, but is that digitless cage just there for the symmetry bothering anyone else? no? just me?
I think it's bothering Simon...
I wonder if anyone can create a bishop sudoku
Had you utilized the domino cages and the "short stubby arrows" as you call them, you'd have been able to do a lot of work in the puzzle around the 45 cage, particularly in regards to eventually trimming down the possibilities in those dominoes and getting the 13 cage which bounces back into the 11 cage in box 6.
🤯
Stupid question: What is the use of the unmarked 2-cell cage? Why is it there? Sorry....just read the answers....
Simon. For the quadrilionth time 😅 stop putting purple and blue together when colouring. Us colourblinds are really screwed.
I left the same comment in sympathy with you, because I know it’s a bad combination. It’s not even a good contrast for those of us who have normal colour vision, so I really don’t understand why anyone would choose it when they have all 72 pairs of colours to choose from.
There are some colour combinations you just shouldn’t use out of respect for colourblind viewers if you can choose whichever colours you want, and purple&blue is one of those combinations. Green&yellow is another difficult combination for them.
That cage in box 4 is 100% useless.
what is this BS Mathmagic you just pulled by invoking the name of Phistomefel? my eyes went cross and smoke left my ears. idk what you did. but it worked