Schrödinger’s Loop
(Published on 16. May 2021, 23:36 by Nordy)
"Beware the two-faced loop, for some say it is no loop at all... but a snake!" ‒Ancient Teaching
Rules:
- Normal Sudoku Rules apply.
- Thermometers: in gray thermometers, digits must increase from the bulb end.
- Loop: some cells must be shaded to form a single closed loop that is one cell wide, cannot touch itself orthogonally, and must contain only odd digits. Four cells of the loop are marked by gray diamonds in the grid.
Possibly 4 star difficulty
“1 or 9? 1 or 9? 1... or 9?!” ‒Scribbled Notes in an Old Journal
Solution code: Row 2 then Column 7
Comments
on 22. September 2022, 23:01 by codewizard
I liked the puzzle. It was a quite laborious journey with many many smaller deductions that required a lot of searching around, rather than a few big ones (at least for me). It helped that the comments clarified that there might be some superposition going on, so it didn't bother me :)
on 4. September 2021, 23:13 by uvo_mod
Labels angepasst.
on 19. May 2021, 18:05 by Timwi
The ambiguity of the loop, despite being clarified in the comments, bugs me and makes the puzzle feel inelegant.
@Timwi Thanks for the feedback! I underestimated how controversial the ambiguity would be, hoping that the small narrative elements (title and two quotes) would add some flair to the puzzle and provide compelling reasons for the ambiguity. Then again, this is "Logic" Masters, so I do suppose many solvers are looking for a purely logical experience... food for thought! -Nordy
on 18. May 2021, 09:41 by henrypijames
Very clever construction. But strictly speaking, this puzzle doesn't have a unique solution: The rules specify a loop to be drawn, which makes the loop part of the solution. That loop remains ambiguous in the end, even though it doesn't impact the sudoku.
Now, I don't know if the ambiguous is actually intended, given the puzzle's name...
@henrypijames I hope the title and the two quotes in the body can clarify my intentions :) interesting point about “unique general solution” though, although I can confidently say it has a unique Sudoku solution. Thanks for solving! -Nordy
on 17. May 2021, 01:15 by Nordy
Spelled title correctly...
