The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[simes]

The hidden triplet and naked sextet are "opposite sides of the same coin". That is, they're mutually exclusive subsets. But, it's often easier to see the smaller triplet than the longer sextet.

Simes

[george-no1]

I know they're the same thing but I would have said that its nearly always easier to see something that's naked, rather than hidden, no matter how many numbers are involved.

Maybe it's just the way my strange mind works.

George

[gmc]

Very clever - wouldn't have spotted the hidden triplet in a month of Sundays - solved it cos somebody pointed out the quadruplet in box 7

[george-no1]

But gmc, would you have spotted the naked sextuplet?

I'm just speculating here, but I reckon

it's often easier to see the smaller triplet than the longer sextet

is not true.

George

[shakers]

Yes, I'd say the first Sunday Times sudoku was a fiendish one. I ended up having to fill in a large sudoku grid with all the possibilities in the empty cells. I usually need to do that only with The Times's fiendish puzzles.

Pappocom's program rates this puzzle as "V. Hard", whereas the regular Fiendish puzzles are only "Hard".

[gmc]

But gmc, would you have spotted the naked sextuplet?

I'm just speculating here, but I reckon

it's often easier to see the smaller triplet than the longer sextet

is not true.

George

Haven't a clue what a naked sextet is, but if I wanted to see one it would have to be the Nolan Sisters (well 25 years ago)

[stuartn]

and is there another hidden triple in column 2 ?

stuartn


www.brightonandhove.org

[george-no1]

gmc, a naked sextet is identical to a hidden triplet, it just depends how you see it. As simes put it:

They're mutually exclusive subsets

You said that you would never have seen the hidden triple (2,5,7), so I asked if you could have spotted the naked sextet (1,3,4,6,8,9). If you look at the column 9 pencilmarks that easysurf supplied, it may become a bit clearer.

George

[george-no1]

It is naked because (3,9) down to (8,9) can only have (1,3,4,6,8,9) in them. Therefore the above candidates can be removed from (1,9), (2,9) and (9,9), leaving a triplet of (2,5,7) in those cells.

George

[george-no1]

Hey, where's possum's post gone?

(It asked why it was a naked sextet rather than partially hidden)

George (confused)