Peter Cameron, "Sudoku and Mathematics", 14th Dec
The Copson Lecture 2009Prof Peter Cameron (QMUL)SUDOKU AND MATHEMATICS5.30 Monday 14th DecemberPhysics Lecture Theatre AUniversity of St AndrewsThis lecture is aimed at a general audience and all are welcomeProf Cameron sums it up as follows.In the Independent newspaper, the instructions for Sudoko say There's nomaths involved. You solve the puzzle with reasoning and logic. But, as anymathematician will tell you, maths is just reasoning and logic! There isindeed quite a lot of mathematics in Sudoku. In the lecture, I will explainsome of the history, and show that mathematicians and statisticians couldhave invented Sudoku years before the retired architect Howard Garnsactually did. Time permitting, I will also talk about a variant calledSymmetric Sudoku invented by Robert Connelly, which is closely connectedwith error-correcting codes and finite geometry.tinyurl.com/copson2009