Sudoku Tips - Sudoku Origin

Have you ever wonder who invented Sudoku?2 3 4 5 1
I would like to share with you a real encounter with a3 4 5 1 2
Sudoku fanatic I met from my site.4 5 1 2 3
I wrote this article History of Sudoku on my site5 1 2 3 4
which traces its origin. The history of Sudoku is saidAs you can see, this is just to simple of
to trace back to 18th century. Very often, you willaconstruction for to be attributed to ANYONE --
come across many sites that linked the developmentI'msure both you and I independently "invente" it
of Sudoku to Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler.whilescribbling in our notebooks in grade school.
There are some sites even claimed that he inventedThe Graeco-Latin Square that Euler wrote about has
Sudoku. Though it is not proven, it adds colours totwosymbols in each cell, none of which are duplicated
the argument as to who actually invented Sudoku.inany row or column. Each symbol pair appears
I received a strange email from a Sudoku fanatic,exactlyonce:
apparently a Japanese, who felt so strongly that the1d 2b 3a 4c
name Leonhard Euler should not even be mentioned3c 4a 1b 2d
in the history of Sudoku.4b 3d 2c 1a
To protect his privacy, I won't mention his name. But2a 1c 4d 3b
I gave him the credit for doing the thoroughAs you can see, this has nothing to do with
research.Sudoku,nothing to do with puzzles in general.
Here's what he wrote to me:3) Neither Latin Squares nor Graeco-Latin Squares are
==========="based on" Magic Squares, certainly not on the Lo
From: XXXXXXXXShusquare. Euler wrote about "A new kind of magic
To:square"
Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 1:01 PM-- refering to a way that Graeco-Roman squares
Subject: History of Sudoku (couldbe used to generate magic squares. (Take the
Most of what you wrote here is correct -- exceptsquareabove and replace the a, b, c and d with +0,
thefirst paragraph:+4, +8and +12 and you'll get this:
"Sudoku is said to have 18th - century roots, but13 6 3 12
theorigins are unclear. It is believed the puzzle11 4 5 14
startedfrom an 18th - century game invented by8 15 10 1
Swissmathematician Leonhard Euler, which in turn was2 9 16 7
basedon an ancient Chinese puzzle, Lo Shu.".. see the Euler Archive:.
The myth of the Euler connection is just lazinessEuler Archive
onthe part of the press.(he ended with a strong statement...)
1) The origins of Sudoku ARE clear. HowardEuler has NOTHING to do with Sudoku, and
Garnesinvented Number Place, Nikoli changed it andthoughbrilliant, didn't discover Latin Squares.
coinedthe name Sudoku. It origins as are concrete as====================
canbe, no more or less than the Rubik's cube.I followed the forum which he also participated in and
2) Euler invented Graeco-Latin Squares (which areI saw many heated posts written by him promoting
inno way related to or similar to Sudoku)his defensive theory against Euler.
usingpre-exsiting knowledge of Latin Squares --A Sudoku fanatic? Sudoku Addict? I don't know? But
whichpre-date his birth by several centuries.I admire his effort in doing the research and holding
A Latin Square is nothing more than an nxn arraystrong in his belief.
inwhich each digit from 1 to n appears once in eachIf you are keen to know the development of the
rowand column. It is not a puzzle, nor areSudoku History, click on the link.
Graeco-RomanJust a day of History lesson on the subject of
Squares.Sudoku! :)
This is a Latin Square:Eric T.
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