Black Holes and Revelations
(Eingestellt am 5. Mai 2026, 02:22 Uhr von Dr Logic)
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You asked for it, I delivered. Here is the 9x9 sequel to the 6x6 I created recently.
At the time of uploading this, I have just finished my final dissertation (thesis) for my degree in Mathematics, which happens to be all about black holes and gravitational waves. Inspiring this puzzle. The title is inspired by the 'Muse' song of the same name, as I listened to a LOT of 'Muse' while writing the thesis. Please leave a comment on your thoughts, positive or negative.
I would like to thank Nicolas for testing. If you haven't already, go and check out his page. He posts really lovely puzzles daily.
When solving, make sure you stand at least 2GM/c^2 meters away from the screen so that you do not fall into the puzzle!
Happy solving!
- Normal 9x9 sudoku rules apply
- You need to place 4 black holes in the grid. We would rather not invoke a binary black hole merger, as a result we must keep the black holes out of each others orbit. The black holes cannot share any edge of any cells, but may touch diagonally.
- Similarly, we cannot place more than one singularity in any row, column or marked 3x3 box.
- Black holes are mysterious creatures and a lot is unknown. However, in this puzzle, we know that they have a singularity each, and are surrounded by an accretion disk.
- The singularity is a single cell, at least the size of the largest digit cells situated in the accretion disk (the surrounding 8 cells). Altogether, each black hole is made up of 9 cells total.
- Each accretion disk obeys a different rule: one such disk is a region sum line, where box borders that divide the disk must sum to the same total (this disk must cross at least one box border to be valid). One is a parity line, adjacent digits differ in parity (odd/even). One is a German whispers line, adjacent digits differ by at least 5. The final disk is a renban, where digits do not repeat and together constitute a consecutive set of digits, in any order.
- Accompanying these objects are smaller bodies. Cells separated by a red dwarf (red dot) are in a 1:2 ratio. Cells separated by a white dwarf (white dot) are consecutive.
- There are moons in the grid (grey circles). Due to the time dilation that occurs if you are near a black hole, if a moon is on an accretion disk, its value must be higher than (or including) 5, and if they are not on an accretion disk they must have a value less than 5 (1-4). The moons do not cross the event horizons, and therefore cannot be placed in any singularity cell.
- Not all red or white dwarfs are given.
If you have not yet solved the 6x6 that precedes this puzzle, it may be worth doing so to get equipped with the rules (and because it's fun #biased)!
Lösungscode: Row 5 of the finished grid, followed by column 4. (18 digits total)
Kommentare
am 13. Mai 2026, 20:44 Uhr von NotVeryNeat
Thank you for making this sequel! Great flow and fun deductions :)
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Thank you for the comment, I'm glad you enjoyed!
- Dr Logic
am 5. Mai 2026, 09:16 Uhr von Mr. Happy
Fun! Got a bit stuck in the middle but I think that was just me grappling with the novel ruleset. Really creative overall.
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Glad you enjoyed! Thanks for the comment :)
- Dr Logic
