Related papers: Minimal and maximal Numbrix puzzles
We study the Torus Puzzle, a solitaire game in which the elements of an input $m \times n$ matrix need to be rearranged into a target configuration via a sequence of unit rotations (i.e., circular shifts) of rows and/or columns. Amano et…
It has been shown that any 9 by 9 Sudoku puzzle must contain at least 17 clues to have a unique solution. This paper investigates the more specific question: given a particular completed Sudoku grid, what is the minimum number of clues in…
In response to the Numberphile video regarding the Mondrian Puzzle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49KvZrioFB0, we provide a lower bound on how many integers less than a given threshold $x$ satisfy $M(n) \neq 0$ where $M(n)$ is the quantity…
In the Collatz 3x+1 problem, there are 3 possibilities: Starting from any positive number, we either reach the trivial loop (1,4,2), end up in a non-trivial loop, or go until infinity. In this paper, we shall show that if a non-trivial loop…
We study the problem of identifying an initially unknown $m$-bit number by using yes-no questions when up to a fixed number $e$ of the answers can be erroneous. In the variant we consider here questions are restricted to be the union of up…
We obtain partial progress towards answering the question of whether the quantity defined in the Mondrian Puzzle can ever equal 0. More specifically, we obtain a nontrivial lower bound for the cardinality of the set $\{n\leq x: M(n)\neq0…
We prove an exponential upper bound for the number $f(m,n)$ of all maximal triangulations of the $m\times n$ grid: \[ f(m,n) < 2^{3mn}. \] In particular, this improves a result of S. Yu. Orevkov (1999).
Consider the commonly known puzzle, given $k$ glass balls, find an optimal algorithm to determine the lowest floor of a building of $n$ floors from which a thrown glass ball will break. This puzzle was originally posed in its original form…
We study a family of sorting match puzzles on grids, which we call permutation match puzzles. In this puzzle, each row and column of a $n \times n$ grid is labeled with an ordering constraint -- ascending (A) or descending (D) -- and the…
The sudoku minimum number of clues problem is the following question: what is the smallest number of clues that a sudoku puzzle can have? For several years it had been conjectured that the answer is 17. We have performed an exhaustive…
An effective upper bound is established for the least non-trivial integer solution to the system of cubic forms \[ \begin{cases} F = c_{1}x_1^3 + c_{2}x_2^3 + \cdots + c_{n}x_n^3 = 0, \\ G = d_{1}x_1^3 + d_{2}x_2^3 + \cdots + d_{n}x_n^3 =…
The objective here is to find the maximum polygon, in area, which can be enclosed in a given triangle, for the polygons: parallelograms, rectangles and squares. It will initially be assumed that the choices are inscribed polygons, that is…
The rules of Sudoku are often specified using twenty seven \texttt{all\_different} constraints, referred to as the {\em big} \mrules. Using graphical proofs and exploratory logic programming, the following main and new result is obtained:…
We prove that every connected cubic graph with $n$ vertices has a maximal matching of size at most $\frac{5}{12} n+ \frac{1}{2}$. This confirms the cubic case of a conjecture of Baste, F\"urst, Henning, Mohr and Rautenbach (2019) on regular…
In this paper, a new upper bound for the Multiple Knapsack Problem (MKP) is proposed, based on the idea of relaxing MKP to a {\em Bounded Sequential Multiple Knapsack Problem}, i.e., a multiple knapsack problem in which item sizes are…
Upper bounds on the maximum number of codewords in a binary code of a given length and minimum Hamming distance are considered. New bounds are derived by a combination of linear programming and counting arguments. Some of these bounds…
Structured prediction can be considered as a generalization of many standard supervised learning tasks, and is usually thought as a simultaneous prediction of multiple labels. One standard approach is to maximize a score function on the…
Minimal codewords have applications in decoding linear codes and in cryptography. We study the maximum number of minimal codewords in binary linear codes of a given length and dimension. Improved lower and upper bounds on the maximum number…
A subset of the Hamming cube over $n$-letter alphabet is said to be $d$-maximal if its diameter is $d$, and adding any point increases the diameter. Our main result shows that each $d$-maximal set is either of size at most $(n+o(n))^d$ or…
Let $M(x)$ be the length of the largest subinterval of $[1,x]$ which does not contain any sums of two squareful numbers. We prove a lower bound \[ M(x)\gg \frac{\ln x}{(\ln\ln x)^2} \] for all $x\geq 3$. The proof relies on properties of…