Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-p2v8j Total loading time: 0.001 Render date: 2024-06-02T00:45:09.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An unexpected use of primes: solving sudokus by calculator

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2015

Mark Spahn ,
Ron Lancaster ,
Deborah Moore-Russo  and
Gerald Rising
Mark Spahn
Affiliation:
Independent Japanese-to-English technical translator, West Seneca, New York
Ron Lancaster
Affiliation:
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto
Deborah Moore-Russo
Affiliation:
Department of Learning and Instruction, University at Buffalo, e-mail:insrisg@buffalo.edu
Gerald Rising
Affiliation:
Department of Learning and Instruction, University at Buffalo, e-mail:insrisg@buffalo.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

This essay demonstrates an application of prime numbers to the development of a calculator program that solves sudoku puzzles. Among the positive integers, the primes—numbers with exactly two divisors, the numbers themselves and 1—are central to our thinking about numbers. They give us a basis for factoring and divisibility and they contribute to the solution of many problems in the mathematical field of number theory. More important for the purposes of this paper, they provide a way of representing numbers uniquely by prime factors. For example, 6221592 = 23 × 32 × 13 × 172 × 23, any other factorisation differing only in the order of factors.

Type
Articles
Information
The Mathematical Gazette , Volume 94 , Issue 530 , July 2010 , pp. 224 - 232
Copyright
Copyright © The Mathematical Association 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Keedwell, A. D., Two remarks about Sudoku squares, Math. Gaz., 90 (November 2006) pp. 424–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2. Rising, G. R., Calculator programs for Sudoku puzzles, http://www.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/LINKS/Sudoku.htm Google Scholar
3. Rising, G. R., Inside your calculator, http://www.buffalo.edu/~insrisg/InsideYourCalculator.htm Google Scholar
4. [Author unknown], Sudoku, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudoku Google Scholar