Are you looking for puzzles, or for solution books?
If the latter is the case, have a look at the Mensa Guide to Solving Sudoku. It has helped me a bit, but it's not that great a book. I have not seen any better here in S.A.
I'm sorry, but all I was really doing was trying to subtly announce that I have created a wondrous new book that advances Sudoku beyond anything anyone has ever seen before. However, I don't want to explicitely come out and say it, as I am but humble and shy.
Lou, in all your pictures of magic hexagons you have drawn the background hexagons with one of their angles at the top. Is that some sort of tradition, because it seems to me that if the background hexagons were drawn with one of their lines at the top that they'd better match the enclosed magic hexagon.
If you are referring to those Hexes that I have in my signature, I had no overall strategy for placing the Background behind the Magic Hexagons.
I just wanted a variation between the actual Magic Hexagon, and the background itself, so I rotated the background in relation to that of the Magic Hexagon itself.
I call them Order 2 and order 3 due to a preliminary observation.
Magic Squares and Magic Hexagons have 1 basic difference, in that the rows of All Magic Squares have the same number of cells while the rows of Magic Hexagons vary by 1 in an ascending/descending fashion.
So Since Magic Squares are 4 sided, and Magic Hexes are 6 sided, and since both are divisible by 2, I originally decided to call my new magic figures, first of all Magic Meshes, as their rows, as you vary their #Sides, builds a mesh if you view them as threads {Perhaps as Dream Catchers are constructed?}, and secondly as order 2 and order 3 to signify thair "parent" shape, a square or a hexagon.
However, as I was developing them, I realized that the nominclature should be derived directly from how the rings progressed, and NOT from their parent shape. All Order 2 have the #Cells per ring side, from outside to, vary in by -2, while all order 3 have their #Cells per ring side vary from outside to in by -1.
So...This also implies that there is an Order 4 where the #Cells per ring from outside to in vary by -0, Order 5: +1, Order 6:+2...
And indeed there is such an Order 4, however, since Order 2 and Order 3 have #Cells per ring lessining from outside to in, it is easy to know when you have no more inner rings to progress to... With an Order 4, where every ring has the same # Cells per side, there is no comfortable defining point where you know when there are no more inner rings! It becomes an arbitrary definition.
Similarly for Order 5 and above.
So, Ultimately, I decided to ignore the absolute defining property as it relates to a naming convention, as I decided that I would only be concentratimg on my initial 2, and be happy with my original decision to associate the order with their natural parent shape.
Speaking of shapes. even though I only posted 5 sided examples of Order 2 and Order 3 Magic Meshes, there is no end to their #Sides, as the included attachements illustrate.
-Lou
Last edited by NotLKH; Dec 28th, 2007 at 10:11 PM.
And so, Ultimately, I developed Order 3 Magic Meshes, then Realized I could create Order 2 Magic Meshes, which once I realized I could do that, made me realize I could finally develop Multi sided sudoku, or PseuDoh!.
The only lively comments I recieved were from someone who, when I mentioned that I don't do sudoku puzzles, I just create programs that generate and solve them, went from a wide eyed, amazed, expression of wonder at my variations, to downright disgust at "having made her feel dumb when I don't even know how to do sudoku!"