[Maths-Education] Group Theory and Soduko (Ernest, Paul)

[Alan Rogerson]

Dear Paul,
I now realise what your question meant - does the Sudoku table "look 
like" a group table would look for some group, with the digits as 
elements in it. I was thinking along other lines of the transformations 
involved in moving from table to table, and since the Sudoku is a Magic 
Square all the extensive literature on that which I read and have mostly 
forgotten is relevant to that question, and also creating new and bigger 
magic squares, which is not connected to Sudoku directly.
I imagine you are not a Sudoko Widower as I (almost) am, Margaret has 
moved on from the "trivial" problems to Killer Sudoku (eg Kakuru) and 
"Absolutely deadly" versions -  so avoid the addiction of you can! It 
does no good my telling her that all Sudoku solutions are /ipso facto/ 
"the same" except of course for permuting the nine digits, since it is 
the struggle to find particular patterns and not the final array that 
matters to the addicts, life evidently imitates Sudoku in being a 
journey and not a destination...
Best wishes
Alan

PS  the books appear to call it Sudoku, but a Soduko by any other name 
would be just as addictive..... You say Soduko, I say Sudoku,......... 
let's call the whole thing off!