Related papers: Sudoku Solving and Finding Magic Squares by Probab…
We settle the existence of certain "anti-magic" cubes using combinatorial block designs and graph decompositions to align a handful of small examples.
Septoku is a Sudoku variant invented by Bruce Oberg, played on a hexagonal grid of 37 cells. We show that up to rotations, reflections, and symbol permutations, there are only six valid Septoku boards. In order to have a unique solution, we…
We explore some of the properties of consecutive, equally-summed arithmetic progressions of odd numbers, particularly their offsets and sums, before using them to prove that no $3\times3$ magic squares of distinct square integers exist.
In this paper we give a mathematical model for a game that we call picture cube puzzle and investigate its properties. The central question is the number of moves required to solve the puzzle. A mathematical discussion is followed by the…
We present an exact method for counting semi-magic squares of order 6. Some theoretical investigations about the number of them and a probabilistic method are presented. Our calculations show that there are exactly…
The aim of this note is to introduce a fast new general method for the construction of double and single even order magic squares. The method for double even order magic squares is fairly straight-forward but some adjustment is necessary…
Cohn and Umans proposed a framework for developing fast matrix multiplication algorithms based on the embedding computation in certain groups algebras. In subsequent work with Kleinberg and Szegedy, they connected this to the search for…
Sudoku puzzles can be formulated and solved as a sparse linear system of equations. This problem is a very useful example for the Compressive Sensing (CS) theoretical study. In this study, the equivalence of Sudoku puzzles L0 and L1…
Parametric Markov chains occur quite naturally in various applications: they can be used for a conservative analysis of probabilistic systems (no matter how the parameter is chosen, the system works to specification); they can be used to…
Some Magic Tricks (MT), such as many kinds of Card Magic (CM), consisting of human computational or logical actions. How to ensure the logical correctness of these MTs? In this paper, the Model Checking (MC) technique is employed to study a…
We consider Markov decision processes (MDPs) in which the transition probabilities and rewards belong to an uncertainty set parametrized by a collection of random variables. The probability distributions for these random parameters are…
In this paper we introduce new types of square-piece jigsaw puzzles, where in addition to the unknown location and orientation of each piece, a piece might also need to be flipped. These puzzles, which are associated with a number of real…
We describe a password generation scheme based on Markov models built from English text (specifically, Charles Dickens' *A Tale Of Two Cities*). We show a (linear-running-time) bijection between random bitstrings of any desired length and…
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…
We introduce a graph attached to mutually orthogonal Sudoku Latin squares. The spectra of the graphs obtained from finite fields are explicitly determined. As a corollary, we then use the eigenvalues to distinguish non-isomorphic Sudoku…
By simulating an ergodic Markov chain whose stationary distribution is uniform over the space of nxn Latin squares, Mark T. Jacobson and Peter Matthews [4], have discussed elegant methods by which they generate Latin squares with a uniform…
We review a known method of compounding two magic square matrices of order m and n with the all-ones matrix to form two magic square matrices of order mn. We show that these compounded matrices commute. Simple formulas are derived for their…
We consider apictorial edge-matching puzzles, in which the goal is to arrange a collection of puzzle pieces with colored edges so that the colors match along the edges of adjacent pieces. We devise an algebraic representation for this…
A key problem in the application of first-order probabilistic methods is the enormous size of graphical models they imply. The size results from the possible worlds that can be generated by a domain of objects and relations. One of the…
The Rubik's Cube is the most popular puzzle in the world. Two of its studied aspects are God's Number, the minimum number of turns necessary to solve any state, and the first law of cubology, a solvability criterion. We modify previous…