Careful with that hook, Emmett ! [S-Cell Sudoku]
(Eingestellt am 1. März 2023, 15:12 Uhr von Christounet)
Hill Valley, Nov. 1955 : "Okay, now, we run some industrial-strength electrical cable from the top of the clock tower, down, suspending it over the street between these two lampposts. Meanwhile, we've outfitted the time vehicle with this big pole and hook, which runs directly into the flux capacitor. At the calculated moment, you start off from down the street, driving directly towards the cable, accelerating to 88 miles per hour. According to the flyer, at precisely 10:04 p.m. this Saturday night, lighting will strike the clock tower, electrifying the cable, just as the connecting hook makes contact, thereby sending 1.21 gigawatts into the flux capacitor and sending you back to 1985!" (Emmett Brown, Back to the future I)
To complete my trilogy of puzzle related to Back to the Future, I figured it would be fitting to try and recreate that famous scene from the movie. I hope the fans of the movies will appreciate the little details I fitted in the puzzle. I also wanted to use S-cells in this one because I thought it would fit quite well to feature some quantum physics in a time-travel related sudoku.
Beware that the difficulty is not consistent throughout the solve. It should start off quite easy around 2/5 and rise up to 4/5 in the midsolve which isba bit tricky. The end gets easier after that.
Rules :
- Normalish sudoku rules apply: Every row column and box contains the digits 0-9 once each. To enable this, one cell in each row, column, and box is a Schrödinger cell (S-Cell) : it contains two digits.
If a S-cell is on an arrow, double arrow, cage or region sum line, its value is the sum of the 2 digits in it. If it's on a renban or thermo, both digits are considered on the renban/thermo.
- Arrows : digits along an arrow sum to the digit in that arrow's circle.
- Renban : digits on a renban (purple lines) form a set of non repeating consecutive digits in any order.
- Diagonal : the negative diagonal (marked in blue) must contain the digits 0 to 9 once each.
- Double arrow : the sum of the digits in the two orange circles is equal to the sum of the digits along the orange line.
- Region sum line : digits on the blue line have an equal sum N within each box it passes through. Note that the blue line is partially hidden by the circle in R8C6.
- Cages : digits in cages sum to the indicated total in the top left corner
- Quads : the digits contained in the small white circles must each appear at least once in the 4 surrounding cells.
- Thermometer : digits on a thermometer must stricty increase from the bulb.
- The big circles with partial transparency are only cosmetic. They are just meant to represent the design of the clocktower. No effect on the puzzle.
The puzzle :
CTC webapp (with answer check on non-S-cells digits)
Enjoy ! And consider giving feedback if you appreciate the puzzle !
Thanks to ONeill for testing it!
You can check out my other puzzles here if you liked this one.
Lösungscode: All the digits in the S-Cells, from top to bottom, with the lowest digit first (18 digits in total)
Kommentare
am 1. Mai 2023, 00:34 Uhr von lerroyy
Very fun puzzle!
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@lerroyy : Thanks :)
am 16. März 2023, 05:02 Uhr von Paquet Voleur
I somewhat feel that the Schrödinger cell rules didn't even have to be as detailed as they were in the first version of the rules. If each Schrödinger cell IS each of the two digits it contains, it seems only natural that it will contribute two distinct digits on thermos and renbans, each of which needs to fit the requirements of the object it sits on, and that it will contribute two digits to the sum on objects involving sums. It all seemed pretty natural to me when I did it, prior to the thermo issue being raised.
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@Paquet Voleur : You are definitely right about the "natural" effect S-cells could have on each type of clue, depending on how they work (sum or not), and that was my first instinct when I set the puzzle. I guess that's why many solvers didn't bother that I forget the precision about thermos in the rules.
But you could also imagine having renbans or thermos using S-cells with the sum of the digits, and that's why I made that very specific in the rules, because I knew it would raise some questions among solvers. And it did !!
am 9. März 2023, 08:32 Uhr von yoboo
Back to the Future is my favorite movie so I had to do this as soon as I saw Simon's intro. I signed up for the site just to submit my solution, haha.
My main issue was knowing exactly what could or couldn't be an S-cell in the rules. I didn't know if the circle of an arrow was part of the arrow. This may just me being new to the space and not having known if people consider the circle part of the arrow. Obviously had to figure this out. I honestly would not have added the S-cell thermo line to the rules you did. I think I might have doubted and literally not have known how to start the puzzle with that new rule.
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@yoboo : Thanks for the solve and comment ! I actually updated the rules because I got so many comments saying the rules needed clarifications, but I understand your point too.
I smiled when I read that you signed up here just to submit you solution ! I hope this will bring you to discover the many more puzzles that are published here daily :)
am 9. März 2023, 02:59 Uhr von Christounet
Updated the rules due to feedback about lacking info for S-cells on thermos.
am 9. März 2023, 01:59 Uhr von Ragna
I had no chance without Simon, because I'm not familiar with those terrible S-cells.
Okay, I solve the puzzle simultanely.
That was fun and I thank you for sharing.
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@Ragna : Glad you liked solving it despite being not familiar with S-cells ! They're actually a lot of fun to set and solve with. I encourage you take a look at starwarigami and Zetamath S-cell puzzles as well. I shall make another one myself soon I think.
am 9. März 2023, 00:31 Uhr von Hydalin
I enjoyed the puzzle, took me something around 1h 20min. During solving I was not always sure whether a cell can be a Schrödinger cell or not (e.g. on the intersection of the pink line and the arrow), but in the end it was no guessing/T&E required. It is not easy to annotate all that I found out so I got a bit confused. I like the puzzle very much with the picture it gives, but I don't like puzzles with so many different rules too much (personal opinion of course). My rating is 3 *** difficulty. Thanks for that piece of art, Christournet
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@Hydalin : Thanks for the solve and the nice comment ! This one was actually really about the design and trying to find neat clues that would serve for the design AND to make the solve interesting and original. Therefore I needed quite a lot of different rules to make that design come to life. I tried to get some cool interactions with S-cells as well, and keep it logical of course, no T&E as you noticed. But I do get your point about long rules and I myself like it also when the rules are shorter, as you can see if you take a look at my other recent puzzles :) Really glad you liked the design here !
am 6. März 2023, 01:38 Uhr von Flambierter Flamingo
Yay, my first 4 star solve! This was a lot of fun, thanks! The easy break in helped a lot with keeping my spirits high
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@Flambierter Flamingo : Thanks for the solve and congratulations for this achievement ! The average difficulty was indeed closer to a 3/5, but some harder deductions made people rate it higher than I thought it would be. Now you can begin tackling even harder puzzles !
am 5. März 2023, 14:07 Uhr von giladooshlon
Very enjoyable puzzle
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@giladooshlon : Thanks ! Glad you enjoyed the puzzle !
am 4. März 2023, 22:56 Uhr von picoton
thanks for answering my previous comment!
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@picoton : You're welcome, let me know if you need more help :)
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its okay, thanks! the puzzle is cracked now
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@picoton : Good! Glad you did it :)
am 4. März 2023, 18:46 Uhr von Paquet Voleur
I really enjoy puzzles with Schrödinger cells but also find them intimidating, and I'm always worried I'll spend a lot of time for no results (I probably shouldn't worry so much because it's usually fine). Anyways, the reminiscence of a fabulous song in the title decided me to go ahead with it and I'm really happy I did. Fairly smooth solving, and I didn't notice things got very much harder midway through the solve. Thanks a lot for a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle!
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@Paquet Voleur : Thanks for the very nice comment ! I'm glad to read that it was smooth for you. And I'm really happy someone noticed the reference to the Pink Floyd song :) Really one of my favorite bands, and I shall make a tribute to them in another dedicated puzzle once.
am 3. März 2023, 14:23 Uhr von ONeill
Very fun puzzle :) Definitelty deserves more solves.
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@ONeill : Thanks my friend, it did get more solves :)
am 2. März 2023, 21:19 Uhr von Niverio
Amazing logic! Loved it.
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@Niverio : Thanks! It was amazing to witness your solve as well :)
