Sudoku-Mania (Exchange Favorite)

It’s all numbers and no math, it takes brains but doesn't take knowledge, it’s Sudoku. Short for the Japanese phrase "the digits must remain single", the object of Sudoku is to successfully place the numbers one through nine on a nine by nine boxed grid where every row, every column and every three by three box contains each number once. Although Sudoku puzzles first were published in the US in 1979, and caught on in Japan in the mid eighties; it wasn't until last year that Sudoku became an international phenomenon, and a piece of its history can be traced back to Northern New Hampshire. Today on the Exchange we look at the popularity of Sudoku, how to play it and explore its relationship to the Granite State. Laura's guests are Wayne Gould, Former lawyer and judge who developed the computer program now used for Soduku. Wayne Gould also manages the website, sudoku.com. Peter Winkler, Professor of Math and of Computer science and Albert Bradley 3rd Century Professor in the Sciences at Dartmouth College. Peter Winkler is also the author of "Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur's Collection". We'll also be joined by Mark Guerringue, Publisher and Co-founder of the Conway Daily Sun, the first newspaper to publish a Sudoku puzzle and Will Shortz, Puzzle editor for the New York Times, puzzlemaster for NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday and author of 23 books on Sudoku.

*This show originally aired on 6/2/06*