Sudoku Trivia and Facts

Sudoku is hard to spell, looks like a crossword with numbers instead of letters and is incredibly addictive. Just try putting down a book full of Sudoku puzzles after you have done the first couple of pages.

Sudoku is easy to learn but difficult to master. It is a lot of fun to play and I have found a few fun facts that may help you enjoy it more.

The spelling for the puzzle Sudoku is often confused with Sodoku, which, according to Wikipedia, is a form of rat-bite fever, a bacterial disease.

Sudoku is a popular logic puzzle found in many newspapers and magazines. There are books, wooden game sets, electronic puzzles and computer games featuring Sudoku.

Sudoku comes from the Japanese ‘Su’, meaning number and ‘doku’, meaning single. Sudoku is pronounced, soo-Doh-koo. It is probably called single number because only the single numbers from one to nine are used in the original versions of the puzzle.

Sudoku is a logic puzzle, not a number puzzle, as many people believe, at first. The squares can be filled with letters, numbers or shapes and the puzzle is still a Sudoku puzzle.

Sudoku is called Number Place in Japan. Number Place was the original name used in Howard Garn’s Dell magazine published games.

A proper Sudoku puzzle has only one solution. It must contain 17 starting digits. Some of the puzzles seen in newspapers and magazines are not proper Sudoku puzzles as they have more than one solution.

There are about 5 billion possible Sudoku puzzles with different grids. The permutations for correct answers are over six sextillion.

Sudoku puzzles are a type of Latin Square. Latin Square puzzles have been around for centuries.

Sudoku is recommended along with crossword puzzles as a form of mental exercise to help defend against age related disorders like Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Sudoku is healthy and fun, so enjoy playing it with a clear conscience.