I have to tell you, this has kept me up nights with worry.
The world is not going to run out of Sudoku puzzles.
It’s an obvious worry. You go in the bookstore, and you see hundreds of Sudoku books, many of them written by Will Shortz. Surely, you think, there’s a limit to Sudoku. Isn’t there?
Turns out there’s not. There are 5.5 billion possible unique (that is, with only one solution) Sudoku puzzles.
Eight of the nine numbers need to be on the initial grid, otherwise there will be multiple solutions. I’ve always wondered about that.
So, now I can rest easy. No Sudoku shortage is in the offing.
Published by Allyn
A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.
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