17 and Sudoku Clues - Numberphile

17 is the minimum number of clues required to give a unique sudoku solution - but how did mathematicians prove this?

Dr James Grime discusses a recent paper which cracked the problem. The paper being discussed by McGuire and others is at http://arxiv.org/abs/1201.0749

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Videos by Brady Haran

James Grime's website is at http://singingbanana.com/

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• sudoku
• puzzle
• sudoku clues
• numberphile
• number phile
• number
• numbers
• maths
• mathematics
• mathematical
• numerals
• count
• counting Mathematics

[mariaxenac]

"it's like a joke!"

haha

[QBAlchemist]

"its like a joke .. its not much like one i'll give you that"

truer words were never spoken :D

but seriously, i think this guy is pretty awesome. he just has that 'presenter' personality; like Brian Cox and Stephen Fry ... they are all good at teaching what they know.

[UzumakiNarutoKun96]

easy, one clue on every row / horizontal and upwards = 17 squares.

[frickenbaba]

Get him his own TV show!

[IamNVINCIBAL]

i feel this would be a easier way to prove this. if you fill the top and one side of a 9 X 9 grid, you get 17 numbers. im curious if you would get the same result if you did a Sudoku-esc 12 X 12 grid.

[monkey6573]

I always thought that the diagonals also had to include 1-9, maybe that is why I always failed at sudoku.

[nahAllow]

I like this guy, I find Brian Cox irritating and Stephen Fry overly smug.

[VKrycha]

4:38 mass effect ending

[Tanmark1998]

WOW! how did you know?!

[EclecticSceptic]

Lol yeah, oops.

[headbanginCJ]

Well yes between 1 and 10 but not including 10

[Sumthing]

Excellent, especially loved the self-commentary after the "joke"! Made me smile and laugh.