The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Pat]

X-Wing:

In rows 3,6 v can only be in columns 3,6
conclusion: in columns 3,6 v can only be in rows 3,6 ==> (2, 6) ≠ v

I don't know the origin of the names.

ancient history —

The technique you're looking for is one which I call "X-Wings"
— named for the Star Wars fighters.

That may not help you find it,
but after you've found it you will know immediately why I call it that.

[Pat]

Any idea why they then turned to fish varieties for hidden triples, etc?

going from 2ness to 3ness
was an awkward process
which started with a 2-2-2 pattern
— a pattern which invited the name "Swordfish"
( named for airplane, not for fish )

by the time proper 3ness was reached,
the name "Swordfish" had stuck
( though the airplane shape no longer fit )

so at 4ness,
someone chose another type of fish —
makes no sense,
goes to show how terms are invented

[Mathimagics]

Well, I was way off the mark, I thought the fish allusion was based on the child'd card game "Fish", where you ask someone if they are holding a given card (are you hiding this number?). I thought that was pretty clever, so I named my hidden n-tuples routine "Fish"!

I have an option to test it's effectiveness, called "No fishing!"....

I think I'll keep it anyway!

Thanks for the info ...