Happy couples sudoku
(Published on 12. July 2020, 11:18 by KevinCelis)
Normal sudoku rules apply.
The ♂ and ♀ symbols encircle 8 unique digits, 4 male and 4 female respectively.
These 8 digits form 4 happy couples.
The diagonally adjacent cell the male ♂ symbol extends into is the female partner of the male digit encircled by that symbol.
The orthogonally adjacent cell the female ♀ symbol extends into, together with the digit encircled by that symbol, sum up to form that female's partner.
The numbers outside the grid indicate the minumum distance between the two digits of every couple in that row/column.
The example below indicates a 7-2 couple.
The example below indicates a 2-6 couple.
The example below shows a 2 beside the row, because the digits of all the couples in this row (2-6, 4-3, 8-9, 5-7) are at least 2 cells apart.
Solution code: row 5 followed by row 6
Comments
on 17. October 2023, 00:42 by ICHTUES
Really nice. Loved it.
on 12. July 2020, 20:30 by henrypijames
I like this puzzle. The concept is interesting and has potential for more.
on 12. July 2020, 20:11 by KevinCelis
Thanks henrypijames, I updated the explanation as you suggested to make it clear you need to look at the directly adjacent cells.
on 12. July 2020, 18:42 by henrypijames
First I thought "male ♂ symbol points toward" means any cell in the extended line of the arrow, but now it seems to mean just the cell adjacent to it (in which the sign sticks into).
I suggest using the phrases "the diagonally adjacent cells the male symbol is extending into" and "the orthogonally adjacent cell the female symbol is extending into".
on 12. July 2020, 17:06 by KevinCelis
Thank you, edited that part of the explanation.
on 12. July 2020, 16:55 by stefliew
"Each male ♂ symbol points toward the female partner of the male digit encircled by the ♂ symbol.
Each female digit encircled by a female ♀ symbol, together with the digit pointed to by its female ♀ symbol, sum up together to form that female digit's partner."
If the rule says "The sum of the female ♀ digit and the digit below it", some people might misunderstand what it means by 'below' the female symbol since it could mean 1 cell below the encircled female digit or 2 cells below (entirely below the symbol).
on 12. July 2020, 16:48 by KevinCelis
I'm glad you managed to solve it stefliew.
I rewrote the explanation, to make things more clear. Do you think this explains it better, now that you know how it works? Or what would you suggest I explain better?
on 12. July 2020, 16:33 by stefliew
Nice puzzle once you understand the rules.
on 12. July 2020, 16:01 by stefliew
Accidentally deleted my comment earlier.
"The digits 1-9 are divided in 4 unique happy couples and 1 happy single.
The ♂ and ♀ symbol encircle a male and female digit respectively."
Is this supposed to mean that out of the digits 1-9, there are 4 male digits and 4 female digits with 1 leftover digit? With each male digit only being able to be paired with a female digit.
So if I understand this correctly, the following is one possible example: 1234 could be female digits and paired with 5678 as male digits respectively (1-5, 2-6, 3-7, 4-8 couples), so the male symbol can enclose 5 and point at 1 or the female symbol can enclose 1 and point at 4 (1 + 4 = 5, 1's partner). However, 1 and 5 would be exclusive to each other and there cannot be a 1-6 couple or a 2-5 couple.
"Every row and column consists of the same couples."
Taking the above example, if I had a row with 123487659, the 4-8 couple would be the happiest with zero cells between the two digits followed by the 3-7 couple with two cells between them.
"Each digit can only be part of one couple and every row and column consists of the same couples."
I'm not too sure about this, but I think there's some confusion regarding this rule since you seem to be using the term "couple" for two different things. Do you perhaps mean that each of the four male digits must occur exactly once in the four male symbols (the circle part) and each female digit must occur exactly once in the four female symbols (the circle part)?
on 12. July 2020, 15:11 by henrypijames
I don't understand the rules *at all* - like there are at least five different things I don't understand, to the point I don't even know where to start asking questions.
on 12. July 2020, 11:46 by KevinCelis
slightly altered description to be clearer.
