Related papers: Finding a Unique Solution to Radon-Kaczmarz Puzzle…
The 15 puzzle is a classic reconfiguration puzzle with fifteen uniquely labeled unit squares within a $4 \times 4$ board in which the goal is to slide the squares (without ever overlapping) into a target configuration. By generalizing the…
Magic squares are a fascinating mathematical challenge that has intrigued mathematicians for centuries. Given a positive (and possibly large) integer \( n \), one of the main challenges that still remains is to find, within a computational…
We introduce a new family of one-player games, involving the movement of coins from one configuration to another. Moves are restricted so that a coin can be placed only in a position that is adjacent to at least two other coins. The goal of…
Tantrix is a puzzle to make a loop by connecting lines drawn on hexagonal tiles, and the objective of this research is to solve it by a computer. For this purpose, we give a problem setting of solving Tantrix as arranging tiles in an…
The Hurwitz problem of composition of quadratic forms, or of "sum of squares identity" is tackled with the help of a particular class of $(\mathbb{Z}_2)^n$-graded non-associative algebras generalizing the octonions. This method provides an…
It is unknown at present whether a magic square of squared integers exists. Such an object is defined to be a 3 by 3 grid of 9 distinct integer squares, such that the entries of each row, column, and two main diagonals sum to the same…
Solving Sudoku puzzles is one of the most popular pastimes in the world. Puzzles range in difficulty from easy to very challenging; the hardest puzzles tend to have the most empty cells. The current paper explains and compares three…
We develop a novel, fundamental and surprisingly simple randomized iterative method for solving consistent linear systems. Our method has six different but equivalent interpretations: sketch-and-project, constrain-and-approximate, random…
An unconstrained crossword puzzle is a generalization of the constrained crossword problem. In this problem, only the word vocabulary, and optionally the grid dimensions are known. Hence, it not only requires the algorithm to determine the…
We study a popular puzzle game known variously as Clickomania and Same Game. Basically, a rectangular grid of blocks is initially colored with some number of colors, and the player repeatedly removes a chosen connected monochromatic group…
Sudoku is a popular combinatorial puzzle. A new method of solving Sudoku is presented, which involves formulating a puzzle as a special type of transportation problem. This model allows one to solve puzzles with more than one solution,…
Su-Doku, a popular combinatorial puzzle, provides an excellent testbench for heuristic explorations. Several interesting questions arise from its deceptively simple set of rules. How many distinct Su-Doku grids are there? How to find a…
The Kaczmarz method for solving a linear system $Ax = b$ interprets such a system as a collection of equations $\left\langle a_i, x\right\rangle = b_i$, where $a_i$ is the $i-$th row of $A$, then picks such an equation and corrects $x_{k+1}…
Solving linear systems of equations is a fundamental problem in mathematics. When the linear system is so large that it cannot be loaded into memory at once, iterative methods such as the randomized Kaczmarz method excel. Here, we extend…
In this paper we report on an application of computer algebra in which mathematical puzzles are generated of a type that had been widely used in mathematics contests by a large number of participants worldwide. The algorithmic aspect of our…
A chessboard has the property that every row and every column has as many white squares as black squares. In this mostly methodological note, we address the problem of counting such rectangular arrays with a fixed (numeric) number of rows,…
We study a version of the randomized Kaczmarz algorithm for solving systems of linear equations where the iterates are confined to the solution space of a selected subsystem. We show that the subspace constraint leads to an accelerated…
The randomized Kaczmarz (RK) method is an iterative method for approximating the least-squares solution of large linear systems of equations. The standard RK method uses sequential updates, making parallel computation difficult. Here, we…
We prove the computational intractability of rotating and placing $n$ square tiles into a $1 \times n$ array such that adjacent tiles are compatible--either equal edge colors, as in edge-matching puzzles, or matching tab/pocket shapes, as…
Let $a_1,\ldots,a_m$ be nonzero integers, $c \in \mathbb Z$ and $r \ge 2$. The Rado number for the equation \[ \sum_{i=1}^m a_ix_i = c \] in $r$ colours is the least positive integer $N$ such that any $r$-colouring of the integers in the…