The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[Smythe Dakota]

When you make posts, it would be good if we could all use the same terms. ....

That should help.

.... The puzzle grid consists of 9 rows (horizontally), 9 columns (vertically) and 9 3x3 boxes. ....

What do you call the "boxes" in a jigsaw Sudoku?

Bill Smythe

[Ruud]

Pieces

[gfroyle]

What do you call the "boxes" in a jigsaw Sudoku?

Me personally?

Sometimes tiles, sometimes blocks.

I like "tiles" myself because it carries from mathematics the implication that the tiles/blocks/pieces must completely cover the grid and not overlap..

But of course, to someone not familiar with mathematical tilings, it would mean nothing much...

[ronk]

I like "tiles" myself because it carries from mathematics the implication that the tiles/blocks/pieces must completely cover the grid and not overlap..

But of course, to someone not familiar with mathematical tilings, it would mean nothing much...

"Completely covering" and "no overlap" also apply to household flooring, so I think "tiles" relates the intended meaning to non-mathematicians too.

[lunababy_moonchild]

I like "tiles" myself because it carries from mathematics the implication that the tiles/blocks/pieces must completely cover the grid and not overlap..

But of course, to someone not familiar with mathematical tilings, it would mean nothing much...

"Completely covering" and "no overlap" also apply to househould flooring, so I think "tiles" would mean a lot to non-mathematicians too.

Speaking as a non-mathematician I'd just like to point out that the word tiles conjures up bathroom or kitchen and thus has no meaning when connected to sudoku, since these tiles are uniform in shape i.e. all are square or rectangle. Whilst that does ensure "completely covering" and "no overlap" it's totally redundant when it comes to jigsaw sukodu (since the shapes therein are irregular).

I think, to me, since they are jigsaw sudoku the shapes containing the numbers need to be called pieces.

Luna

[Ruud]

The relationship with jigsaw puzzles immediately prompted me to call them "pieces".

However, in more general terms, I also use the term "nonets" for either the 3x3 "boxes" or the jigsaw "pieces". For many solving strategies, the shape of these nonets is irrelevant.

Ruud.

[Smythe Dakota]

.... I also use the term "nonets" for either the 3x3 "boxes" or the jigsaw "pieces". ....

Doesn't "nonet" come from the Latin word for "nine"? If so, this name would be appropriate only for standard 9x9 puzzles (whether "jigsaw" or not).

Bill Smythe

[udosuk]

If we could have pentominoes, I suppose we could have nonominoes... or abbreviate as nono's...

[lunababy_moonchild]

You want a sudoku puzzle - or parts of therein - to be called no-no's?

Luna

[Smythe Dakota]

.... the word tiles conjures up bathroom or kitchen .... these tiles are uniform in shape i.e. all are square or rectangle .... that does ensure "completely covering" and "no overlap" ....

Did you know that it is possible to tile (i.e. completely and no overlap) a plane with two different sizes of square tiles? I'm not talking about obvious or ham-handed methods, such as one size for the north half of the room and the other size for the south half, or striping. I'm talking about actual chessboard-style tiling:

Code: Select all

              ┌─────────┬──┐
              │        │  │
              │        ├──┴──────┐
              │        │        │
           ┌──┤        │        │
           │  │        │        │
           ├──┴──────┬──┤        │
           │        │  │        │
           │        ├──┴──────┬──┤
           │        │        │  │
           │        │        ├──┘
           │        │        │
           └──────┬──┤        │
                 │  │        │
                 └──┴─────────┘



Far from a perfect rendering (it would have worked perfectly on an MS-DOS screen) but you get the idea (I hope). The above pattern can be repeated as far as desired, left, right, up, or down.

The ratio between the sides of the two square sizes -- 1/2, 1/3, 3/5, etc -- is not important. It does not even have to be rational. The same idea works no matter what the ratio.

I actually saw this done once, on the floor of the lobby at a Hilton at 94th and Cicero in suburban Chicago.

Bill Smythe

[udosuk]

Code: Select all

              ┌─────────┬──┐
              │        │  │
              │        ├──┴──────┐
              │        │        │
           ┌──┤        │        │
           │  │        │        │
           ├──┴──────┬──┤        │
           │        │  │        │
           │        ├──┴──────┬──┤
           │        │        │  │
           │        │        ├──┘
           │        │        │
           └──────┬──┤        │
                 │  │        │
                 └──┴─────────┘



Far from a perfect rendering (it would have worked perfectly on an MS-DOS screen) but you get the idea (I hope).

I'd be surprised if anybody can get the idea visually from the above "rendering"...
By any chance you were trying to describe the following configuration?

Code: Select all

   .-----.--.
   |     |  |
.--:     :--'--.
|  |     |     |
:--'--.--:     |
|     |  |     |
|     :--'--.--:
|     |     |  |
'--.--:     :--'
   |  |     |
   '--'-----'

[lunababy_moonchild]

You will notice that they are still rectangle and uniform though. Whether on a wall or a floor, regardless of the room.

Luna

*typo*

[tso]

If we could have pentominoes, I suppose we could have nonominoes... or abbreviate as nono's...

Though order 9-cell polyomino are called a nonominoes -- it would be much more sensible in this context to call them simply "ominoes". That way, they would have the same name regardless of what size the puzzle is. "omino", "N-omino", "order N omino" are terms in current use in the polyform world. And though nonomino is just as valid as pentomino, hexonimo, heptonimo and octonimo, I don't believe it is nearly as obvious to the uninformed what it means. And though the meaning of "pent" is fairly obvious in context, the meaning of "nono" is not.

[ab]

.... Did you know that it is possible to tile (i.e. completely and no overlap) a plane with two different sizes of square tiles?

Much more interesting is the problem of tiling a square with different sized squares. It can be done

PS this should be in the off topic forum really

[Smythe Dakota]

.... I'd be surprised if anybody can get the idea visually from the above "rendering"...
By any chance you were trying to describe the following configuration?

Code: Select all

   .-----.--.
   |     |  |
.--:     :--'--.
|  |     |     |
:--'--.--:     |
|     |  |     |
|     :--'--.--:
|     |     |  |
'--.--:     :--'
   |  |     |
   '--'-----'

Thanks, that's much better. If only the Windows boys hadn't messed up MS-DOS (where my version would have looked perfect) -- oh well.

At least one person DID get the idea from my rendering -- you. Again, thanks.

Bill Smythe