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Is SudoKu puzzle a good educational tool?

Jyera

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Jun 25, 2004
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With all the rage about SudoKu, I think it is relevant to discuss it's usefulness as an education tool.

Is SudoKu puzzle a good educational tool? Is it overrated?
What can we teach using Sudoku?
Can we teach Critical thinking or logical thinking using Sudoku?
How will doing a Sudoku puzzle as an exercise help?

The above questions are just thrown to start the discussion.
Feel free to make any observation and analysis.

Here is some links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku
http://www.puzzle.jp/keys/sudoku_keys-e.html
200px-Cross-hatching.gif
 
Sudoky is a puzzle, not a teaching aide. The only use I could see for it is to make people think about the best way to solve it for awhile.

I mean, it's not really the hardest puzzle in the world: find the square that has to be a certain value and enter it.
 
It's a very good tool for teaching straight logic. It teaches you while you are playing a game.

And there's no blood or monsters.
 
It's a good pattern-searching game, and as long as that's all that it's being used for, I don't see a problem with it. It's not exactly mathematical, but as long as that's kept in mind...go for it.

Athon
 
athon said:
It's a good pattern-searching game, and as long as that's all that it's being used for, I don't see a problem with it. It's not exactly mathematical, but as long as that's kept in mind...go for it.

Athon
Click to expand...

It is exactly mathematical.
It can lead into discussions of deductive reasoning, logical syllogisms etc.
It's useful for introducing reflexive thinking about thinking, e.g. search algorithms, when do you switch from one algorithm to another?
Its a great way of developing ideas about programming, from arrays, loops and conditionals, to ideas of recursion and efficiency testing.

Alkatran said:
I mean, it's not really the hardest puzzle in the world: find the square that has to be a certain value and enter it.
Click to expand...

Great, please complete the first two 3X3 puzzles at

http://sudoku.sourceforge.net/brain.htm

to demonstrate how easy they are. :)
 
sphenisc said:
It is exactly mathematical.
It can lead into discussions of deductive reasoning, logical syllogisms etc.
It's useful for introducing reflexive thinking about thinking, e.g. search algorithms, when do you switch from one algorithm to another?
Its a great way of developing ideas about programming, from arrays, loops and conditionals, to ideas of recursion and efficiency testing.
Click to expand...

I could use any pattern in place of the numbers. I could have a number of fruit symbols and ask somebody to replace the missing fruit. Quantification and manipulaiting quantified models is not required, which to me is what mathematics is. This is not mathematics, sorry.

Athon
 
I've done a quick search through my text books and online to try to find a definition that might suggest Sudoku is mathematical. The closest definition I can find that might support your argument is

The study of the relations between objects or quantities. These relations are organized so that certain facts can be derived from others by using logic.
Click to expand...
from www.sasklearning.gov.sk.ca/docs/elemath/glossary.html

Set Theory, like Venn Diagrams, is useful in mathematics as a form of applied semiotics, and can be used mathematically to deduce unknown facts from known ones. I guess it all depends on what boundaries you set to your definition. Is it mathematical to deduce the missing letters in a crossword? It's not really all that different.

If crosswords are mathematical applications, then I concede. But I hesitate to make my definition for the discipline of mathematics so broad.

Athon
 
Is it mathematical to deduce the missing letters in a crossword? It's not really all that different.- Athon.

I may have you drummed out of the Clan for this. Crosswords are puzzles demanding intelligence, erudition, general knowledge and a warped mind.

My steam driven PC on the other hand can solve any 9x9 Sudoku puzzle in about three seconds, most of which is screen refresh.

I would not call Sudoku mathematics, certainly not arithmetic.
I'd call it tragically boring, actually.
 
Soapy, I think you misunderstand. I wasn't equating the complexity of the two puzzles; I was saying that if Sudoku (BTW, isn't he a Sith lord or something?) is mathematical, then so are crosswords. The premise of deciding on what symbol to place in a box based on its context within other symbols in the sequence is the same as crosswords.

Of course crosswords are vastly superior.

Please, I beg you; don't have me thrown from the clan! I've only had our family tartan cleaned!

Athon
 
Soapy Sam said:
I would not call Sudoku mathematics, certainly not arithmetic.
I'd call it tragically boring, actually.
Click to expand...
Computers can solve the Tower of Hanoi quite easily. Humans attempting it need to exercise different skills.

SuDoku is useful for developing thinking skills, but not mathematics in general. Logic, yes.
 
Hang on - a computer can solve a sudoko with (I imagine) not that complicated a programme.

I imagine it would take some pretty sophisticated software to solve a times cryptic crossword?

Sudoko must be much closer to mathematics than a crossword is, surely?
 
Tower of Hanoi personal best - 3 mins 33 seconds.

I would have been faster but I cut my finger with the hacksaw.


Yeah. Athon was being ironic.
I was being obtuse.

The point is that neither of them is a mathematical puzzle unless your definition of "mathematical" is very wide indeed.

What may be mathematical, is how do they compile a Sudoku puzzle? It's claimed there is only one answer. What's the proof of this?
Is there a reverse algorithm which should give thecorrect answer without analysing the logic of what is where? If there is only one correct answer given the numbers (or symbols) revealed, then surely it ought to be possible to solve it at a glance?
 
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Soapy Sam said:
Is there a reverse algorithm which should give thecorrect answer without analysing the logic of what is where? If there is only one correct answer given the numbers (or symbols) revealed, then surely it ought to be possible to solve it at a glance?
Click to expand...
No, it's not necessarily the case that there are shorter methods of determining whether the puzzle is solvable - although there may well be such methods.

The program to solve a 3x3 Sudoku is relatively simple - but the most straightforward way of writing it relies on recursion. Rather like the Tower of Hanoi, the solution is much more complicated than the natural-language description of the algorithm implies.
 
athon said:
I could use any pattern in place of the numbers. I could have a number of fruit symbols and ask somebody to replace the missing fruit. Quantification and manipulaiting quantified models is not required, which to me is what mathematics is.
Click to expand...

LIke what sphensic said.

I would regard the sudoku puzzle as a good instance of pure algebra (and/or set theory), in part precisely because of the logical structure divorced from arithmetic.

It's mathematical because it can be so easily described and solved in a purely axiomatic framework, something that a crossword cannot be (you need background knowledge, like the meanings of words, to solve crosswords).
 
sphenisc said:
It is exactly mathematical.
It can lead into discussions of deductive reasoning, logical syllogisms etc.
Click to expand...
I agreed. In addition, it teaches you how not to trust guessing and wishful assumption. One wrong guess can lead to total confusion, regardless of the precise logic after the wrong assumption. It is a bit like, getting the premise wrong.
sphenisc said:
It's useful for introducing reflexive thinking about thinking, e.g. search algorithms, when do you switch from one algorithm to another?
Its a great way of developing ideas about programming, from arrays, loops and conditionals, to ideas of recursion and efficiency testing.
..snipe..
Click to expand...
Rather than just reading other people's solution to how to solve Sudoku, I think the learner would benefit most by trying to figure out the best ways to solve a Sudoku Puzzle.

Solving the puzzle itself is mechanical.

Drafting an instruction manual on the various ways to solve the Sudoku puzzle should prove to be a good exercise in original thinking and critical thinking.
 
I think of this way of teaching critical thinking using Sudoku.

(1) Tell some teams of students to solve a Sudoku puzzle.

(2) Assign three other students to be (a) "Crystal psyhic" (b) Guesser (c)Logicians.

Role of the "psyhic" is to provide consultation blind folded.
The Guesser provide consultation via guessing and will always give an answer.
Logician will use logic of cause.

(3) The solvers may choose to consult once from anyone of the consultant.

(4) Compiling the result should provide some useful insight.

I figured that the teams who has consulted the logician would benefit.
Those who doubted the psychic and guesser will be okay.
While those who took advise from psyhic will be misled and will "curse and swear".
 
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