Index Fingers: Only 1/5 For Difficulty And Yet Magnificent!

[@martysears]

Hehehe thankyou for featuring this very silly little puzzle. While beavering away at Rat Run season 2, I had to shelve any other ideas that came to me until after Christmas, and so I accumulated quite a few other ideas in a list, and at the top of that list was a simple idea for a pun title: 'Index Fingers'. Had no idea at that point how it would work, but I could kind of picture the slightly creepy artwork in my head haha. The reason I prioritised making it as soon as possible was for one reason only: I had to do it before Juggler thought of the same idea and did it first (it would only have been a matter of time, I'm certain!) 😂All the way through making it I was thinking how Jugglery it felt... silly pun, short ruleset, unexpected theme, no extra disambiguating clues... Once I had the ruleset planned, I thought of the opening move quickly, having one ring placed on the negative diagonal, necessitating two of the same digit on a finger, and so I wanted to make that possible in only one place. I tried setting this up and then just filling in the rest of the grid with fingers and rings in a way that worked, and that was a surprisingly hard thing to do. I had the added stipulation for myself that I didn't want any fingers to bend more than 90 degrees! I played around all week trying to find a valid set-up that maintained the opening break-in logic. I had a strong hunch that if I found such a set-up, I wouldn't need to 'set' anything else, because in such a small grid and with a relatively large amount of information, the solve-path would write itself. Which it did, and luckily in a way I found quite satisfying. Because of this, there's a number of routes through the puzzle after that initial first step, and on this occasion Simon's solve was quite different from mine. My second step involved thinking about where 5 goes in box 6, and realising it can't go on the ring and it can't go in positions 1 or 2 of any other finger, so it has to go on the fingertip in r5c4. The 5 ring is then findable by sudoku in r6c1, and so the finger in box 6 can be filled as 615, and from there the rest of the grid fills in using similar colouring tactics to the ones Simon used. Any solve paths through this are gonna be much of a muchness really, so I don't mind too much, and it makes it interesting for me to see how different people focus on different things. Juggler was the first person i showed the finished puzzle to, and so it made my day when he said he wish he'd made it (a feeling I regularly have about his puzzles!)🙂

[@dolf370]

Had you been a bit nastier, you could have called it Juggler's Dismembered Fingers. But maybe doesn't work so well with rings. Anyways, a very fund puzzle, and my path was like yours, but it took me considerably longer time than for Simon, half an hour.

[@martysears]

@@dolf370 that certainly would affect his ability to juggle...

[@CamilaHaurea]

thank you for such a fun puzzle! i’d love to see a 9x9 version with similar rulesets

[@dinane]

Thank you for this delightful snack of a puzzle! It was perfect for my brain today. A joy, really.

[@dolf370]

@@martysears Pretty sure it would make it difficult for him to keep up with you implementing new ideas in puzzles as well.

[@rjrodwell]

You got lucky at 20:21 making a mistake using the fingertip as an index but it got you to the right place.

[@dyneeoh]

Simon, I’ve watched you for nearly 2 years now and have only a handful of times felt brave enough to try one of these puzzles on my own - and before today, I was never successful. Today was the first time I solved a puzzle like this and I feel so accomplished! Thank you for what you’re doing and the positivity and community you create!

[@AndreiFierbinteanu]

Congratulations, it really is a wonderful feeling! Hope you solve more and more from now on!

[@enchanter1520]

I did it in 5:37. One thing Simon didn't do it is, once you get the initial 5's. You can ask which ring has the digit 5. That allows you to disambiguate location of every ring and puts 5 in R6C1. Which in turn allows you to fill the finger in box 6 with 6-1-5.

[@martysears]

that was more like the way I did it :)

[@mstmar]

This was pretty much my route too but with those steps backwards. after the initial 5s, where is the 5 is in box 6. there's one ring per row/col, so each knuckle/start of finger is also distinct. that means the 5 has to be in r5c4 (not in r5c5 as it's the same digit as r3c4 which sees a 5).

[@MeMe-w8d4b]

I only watch the Videos and got it the same way at 10 min

[@frankthompson9630]

You can also use the fact that each finger start is distinct to disambiguate the purple/green pair in the top left immediately. Purple is on a finger start in box 6, so it can't be on a finger start in box 1. And then it can't be on any other finger cells, so you can fill it into R5C1 and R3C3. There are tons of little tricks available :)

[@dolf370]

My way too, though it took me a while after the crooked finger 5-5 before I figured where the ring 5 was. The whole solve took me half an hour. (Yeah, I'm a hopeless case, but still less than double Simon's video time, so I see it as a success anyway.)

[@956675]

I like that the proximal, medial and distal philanges each represent a 'disjoint' set.

[@MrWaffles1030]

This is one of those rare puzzles where there are a whole bunch of valid solution paths, all utterly gorgeous and all wholly unique. I didn't find any of the stuff Simon did about digits, but I was able to color the whole grid because I noticed that the tips, knuckles, bases and rings all had to be sets with no repeats. So I could immediately color r5c3 and r6c4 the same, because r6c56 would both repeat the color in a finger base. From there I colored the whole grid and didn't consider digits until the very end. Simon put it best when he praised Marty's unique mind. What an original ruleset he came up with!

[@e.m.b.5090]

Simon uses it implicitly I think, but it makes the solve much easier to explicitly keep some consequences of the rules in mind: Every number appears *exactly* once on a finger's root, a finger's middle, a finger's nail and a gold ring. (And, for the sake of completion, twice on a square with nothing on it.) So for example, the initial 5/5 on the crooked finger imply that no other 5 can be on any finger's root or middle. This allows for fast sudokuing.

[@gabrielgullidge2701]

20:22 I think a bit lucky there simon! You placed the 4 on the nail instead of at the base of the finger. Why did it work then? Because both the nail and the base of the finger were 4s!

[@F1r1at]

Well, the base was 4 by sudoku and then by sudoku there'd be just one place for a 4 in box 2, so it basically doesn't matter

[@emilywilliams3237]

So many great things about this video, but the main thing was how fun it was to watch you having fun, Simon. I will definitely be doing this puzzle - very, very clever in the images, the concept, the title, the successful solution message - all of it! Thanks!

[@HabnerGerotto]

This is the first puzzle I had solved before becoming a video here. Such a nice one. Thank you Marty. Thank you Simon. I feel I get smarter every day just by watching your videos and learning through your thought process.

[@Hammock_Dan]

This is the first time I've opened up the puzzle myself! After spotting the first 5s I decided to give it a shot, but then got stuck and needed to see the next bit for a hint. Great fun, and I love the short video!

[@davidrattner9]

Simons joy and love of solving is just extraordinary in this!! Fabulous Marty and thank you for being who you are!!

[@kobs_0]

just shy of 8 minutes here - saw the length of video went "ah I can get this one done nice and quick" - took a second to wrap my heads around that ruleset. Yet another fantastic puzzle from Marty, and yet again cannot wait for rat run season 3

[@minamagdy4126]

Same here (but over). It has a nice flow once you realize what you have to latch on

[@christopheradams7930]

after simon places his first digit just after the nine minute mark, asking "where does that digit go on a ring" gets you a lot of information, and yet even without that, this puzzle is nice enough that there's multiple ways of getting through it, all fun and breezy

[@MaierFlorian]

I love those short Puzzles from time to time because than I can use the time I normally have for watching the video to first solve it myself and than watch the video - where otherwise I could only do one of them in my time schedule. But oc I also absolutely love those brutal and long puzzles that I never could do on my own and watch Simon solving them.

[@praematura]

I honestly didn't think I'd figure this one out and after a small start I began to watch Simon's solve... then stopped (briefly) as I realized what was going on! The puzzle finally clicked and I finished in 7:22 (conflict checker off), plus a minute or two of time thinking while watching the start of Simon's solve. 🙂 Many thanks to Marty for a really cool puzzle!

[@HunterJE]

15:55 The 5 pencil mark placed here can be resolved, you can’t have the 5 on a “knuckle” because that would place a second ring in column 5…

[@matthiasney4871]

Simon solving it one minute faster than me even without him realizing that every digit can only go once on any finger's ground or knuckle really has me think about the speed of my brain. I had the much smoother solving path, still he is faster. What a martinesque and searsy ruleset again, innovative and funny!

[@cooperleher10]

I love the easier puzzles, Simon. I also love any puzzle, regardless of difficulty, that is elegantly constructed

[@iris.holmes]

I've loved doing this puzzle!!! It flows through so quickly, I loved the logic!

[@Yttria]

Not to *point* out the obvious but Marty has done it again. This *little* *index* puzzle is him putting a *ring* on the finger of fun puzzles. Two thumbs up!

[@PauxloE]

Simon seems to have missed the fact that not just the finger tips form a set of 1-6, also the finger joints and the finger starts each form one.

[@sneakyghoti]

After the initial break in I asked where the digit 5 went in box 6, then all that was left was sudoku of all things. Amazing puzzle.

[@BowtiedMedia]

As someone that can only do the more approachable puzzles on this channel, this was by far one of my favourite puzzles to do on the channel!

[@LillaJag]

More short videos please, this was a delightful to watch. Videos around the 30-45 minute mark is perfect to watch before bed time!

[@Coyotek4]

6:56 ... a Sudoku equivalent of finger food; quick and tasty Nice puzzle!

[@cjbarthvdm]

I started with coloring the rings. Then they could be placed soon. Soon there were three 135-rings, one 5-ring, two 24-rings which could not be placed in box 6 where already 2 and 4 were placed. After placing every ring, all locaters could be filled in and the puzzle was solved. Nice puzzle. Thanks Marty!

[@bikesrule392]

Newbie solver here, took me 20 minutes. I opened same as Simon, and was stumped in a similar place, but eventually broke through using the bottom 2 boxes, and asking about where 5s could be and its implications regarding the rings. It was just sudoku from there using the coordinates of the rings as guides. Great puzzle!

[@artyheartylife8588]

What a little gem! Deserves 6 little gems.... one for each ring of course!

[@adammolski]

after the initial discovery the next thing I thought about was where was a gold ring that had 5 on it, and I immediatedly knew where it would go right off the bat. Great puzzle

[@levb258]

A really fun little ten-minute puzzle! The fingers are so neat.

[@MarushiaDark316]

Simon finally getting a short puzzle for a change.

[@annikaQED]

“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.” ― Omar Khayyám

[@MarkWiseTechno]

Took me longer to understand how this worked than I would've liked, but everything flowed so nicely once it clicked!

[@mcleanmachut]

More like this please? Break in is usually the most fun part, and don't always have 60min to crunch the rest.

[@ronjohnson6916]

Love watching Simon enjoying a relatively simple solve.

[@therealAQ]

the gory art on this one never fails to trigger my fight or flight response

[@HolyAlondite]

First featured puzzle I've ever solved! Took me 20:19 to do it, which I'm proud of, since it means I'm only a couple minutes slower than a handicapped Simon (since he has to talk it out for the video). And gotta say, it's really fascinating to watch the solving process and where it differs from person to person.

[@MrGreyprof]

Nice puzzle. Everyone else would never have been featured. You earned it. Lovely

[@Redlai97]

It’s rare that I’m even close to Simon’s time. But this time I think I actually got the rules a bit faster - and saw more of the patterns that occurred. Still a brilliant watch and an amazing puzzle. Love these more approachable ones where I can actually join in on the fun 😂🎉

[@katiekawaii]

Strategy semi-spoiler: Starting by coloring every cell in column 4 (which has 4 of the 6 nails in it) made the solve super fast.

[@inspiringsand123]

Rules: 04:02 Let's Get Cracking: 06:00 What about this video's Top Tier Simarkisms?! Three In the Corner: 2x (19:21, 20:01) And how about this video's Simarkisms?! Sorry: 5x (00:17, 02:30, 04:56, 06:48, 12:01) Ah: 4x (07:07, 10:54, 15:41, 17:46) Clever: 3x (02:09, 08:23, 09:30) Beautiful: 3x (07:58, 08:02, 11:29) By Sudoku: 3x (07:25, 11:34, 13:45) Weird: 3x (13:35, 16:21, 17:19) Brilliant: 2x (20:57, 21:23) Hang On: 2x (06:44, 21:40) What Does This Mean?: 2x (09:38, 12:01) In the Spotlight: 1x (20:04) Stuck: 1x (21:17) Think Harder: 1x (15:41) Puzzling: 1x (03:44) Fabulous: 1x (21:04) Unique: 1x (02:01) Most popular digit and colour this video: One (49 mentions) Gold (28 mentions) Antithesis Battles: Row (45) - Column (31) FAQ: Q1: You missed something! A1: That could very well be the case! Human speech can be hard to understand for computers like me! Point out the ones that I missed and maybe I'll learn! Q2: Can you do this for another channel? A2: I've been thinking about that and wrote some code to make that possible. Let me know which channel you think would be a good fit!

[@MichaelDarrow-tr1mn]

wow, i never could have expected that the most popular color this video was gold

[@bluerizlagirl]

There is only one constructor in the world of Sudoku who could possibly have come up with this puzzle .....

[@falloutfan2502]

So many digits!!! :O Loved this puzzle - great pun, and my speed for difficulty!

[@shawnmichajluk2044]

Excellent puzzle! Took a few tries, but i feel smarter now. Thanks!

[@PassionPopsicle]

Easy but interesting. Always a big decision if I should try myself before watching or just dive right in

[@LukeRodgers-d7x]

Try it! It's fairly accessible, if you can wrap your head around the rules.

[@katiekawaii]

I love Marty Sears. Thanks for keeping Friday Marty Sears-y even without a new Rat Run. 👍

[@martysears]

💜

[@Kirbyfan87827]

Finished in 12:17. Probably could've been faster about it. Wonderful puzzle!

[@LithmusEarth]

10:20 Check Every Ring Location, there is only one currently marked ring or potential ring spot that can be 5 and it's column 1 row 6. Which also tells us where the last two rings are with the other one being Column 2 Row 4.

[@superdog3293]

I'm not much good with sudoku but I tried it upon seeing the video length. Managed to solve it and it was quite fun! Simon's solve was funny to me because I relied heavily on the logic of each finger placement (plus rings) being a different digit while Simon seemed to barely used it.

[@tabularasa0606]

Lovely setting from Marty.

[@stohelit]

Fully expected him to say “we’ll be back later with another edition of cracking the knuckle”.

[@grahamania]

00:13:56 for me. Disembodied fingers was low on my list of expected sudoku rules, but loved the puzzle! Kind comment.

[@A_CC_K]

Yes a Marty Sears puzzle. A brilliant solver. Can't wait to watch Simon's battle Marty Sears.

[@binaryblade2]

One thing that you missed was that each position on the finger was a virtual cage. Because each row column and box had one ring, if the fingers had the same knuckle,the that ring is unique and they point tothe same ring. Rules say one ring per finger and vice versa.

[@JohnFiala]

This was a lot of fun, thanks for the video!

[@michaurbanski5961]

Very fun puzzle! I did the coloring of the grid first, without any digits, then it was straightforward

[@Fif4freedom]

I used indexing more after the 55 step and got much of the bottom half - such fun!

[@RhiannonAgutter]

4:32 for me, I love an easy puzzle every now and again. Asking where the ring with a 5 on it could go early on sped things up a lot.

[@eboss8715]

Really cool puzzle! Seeing it was so short the video I gave it a go and it took me 20 something minutes, but it was incredible very cool

[@jojocourtice]

As Marty said, you nailed it. 😂

[@richbuckingham]

Once you realize the constraint for unique digits for every ring, and every finger stub, knuckle, and tip, its very easy to just brute force your way through it in no time.

[@Kairamek]

This message is approx. six hours after the video was posted. When I finished it, the solve counter was 4590. Seems like there are a lot of us who see a shorter video and say "Sure, I'll give it a go."

[@RussellPaez]

The only logic simon did not figure out here was that since the gold rings are in different rows and columns, each finger section (tip, knuckle, end) formed a set of the digits 1-6. You can use logic throughout the solve to eliminate choices for a smooth solve.

[@jongurney3810]

7:00. Completely different route (finding the rings rather than fingertips) which really shows the quality of the puzzle

[@Stratelier]

Wow, this one really DID require some crazy thinking to solve.

[@xChikyx]

completed it after 21:17, but considering i never ever do sudokus like this, i feel good. Spotting the logic for the first 5s was really easy, but thinking that 2 ring needed to be 5 went over my head and spemd like 10 minutes on that, and also noticing that one tip = one ring took me. awhile

[@SirBradiator]

10:19 for me, lovely puzzle again from Marty

[@Ardalambdion]

I hope you solve his submarine hunt too.

[@Ardalambdion]

By the way, I'm proud to say I solved this one faster than Simon about a week ago.

[@ThePolymathlete]

Once you realize the As Bs and Cs are each themselves a set of the digits 1-6, it is trivial

[@nathanweston9681]

I made that a lot harder for myself by not reading the rules properly and assuming the finger contained the row and column number of its ring in a random order, rather than what the rules actually say. Still solvable until I got a deadly pattern of 24s at the end, at which point I re-read the rules... Great puzzle!

[@aaronrhodes6770]

I missed the part where only 1 ring can exist in any row, column, and box (I thought multiple rings could end up in any area, which made it impossible to narrow anything down and made it confusing how the puzzle was supposed to be easy). Once I got that straightened out it went pretty quick.

[@eddieharwood7788]

What a fabulous puzzle. It took me some time to work out hwat was going on then it came out easily

[@cadeolson6332]

This was my very first sudoku I've attempted on the app! 16:30 isn't the best time, but for my first one I'll take it!

[@SomeRandomGuyOnYouTube]

Please do Marty's Sonar fog puzzle. Simon would love it!

[@kevinbrownsword9558]

I’m lagging behind a day so this was a welcome short one. Great little puzzle

[@andyparkerson]

This was a fun short solve. If helped to look at where a 5 can go in box 6.

[@erikbreathes]

what a fun little solve

[@jacobarends478]

My time was around 27 minutes. This is the second time I’ve complete the puzzle on my own (the first time was the skiing through fog puzzle) it was fun, finding out the next step to take in this one

[@davidh.4944]

17:07@#2922 for me. With a bit of help from a scratch pad to keep track of the possible digits. A neat little puzzle.

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

What a fascinating idea.

[@istvanmagi473]

Calling this difficulty 1 star is a sick joke. Even the break-in needs a genius level idea.

[@piarittersporn]

What a funny puzzle. I did it in 12 minutes.

[@danecarter5454]

Very clever puzzle title

[@Zilvaras2]

Don't let the 1/5 difficulty stop you from putting two 6s into the same column!

[@ChicanoryIsMyName]

So fun. Nice and easy, like it's made just for me.

[@kikania]

12:30 time, awesome puzzle!

[@spex7934]

20:44 you could See the ring with 5 in it on the bottom left as soon as had the two 5s on the Finger cause u Need a Ring with a 5 on it and it was the only position it could go

[@ca-ke9493]

I did all the 5s off the bat running since none of the 5s could be on the fingers in any box. then we could do all the rings as well by having the 5 ring (and 5 finger). Rest of the fingers just had to see which one could match up considering the fingertip and ring could not be in the same row box or column 9:09 short and sweet this one :D

[@upthorn]

just over 10 minutes, and I completely missed the rule that every ring had a different digit I started by coloring each row's possible ring locations, then proceeded by determining which rings could go on which fingers and coloring the respective tips accordingly

[@simonpfehr]

The "Each gold ring contains a different digit" rule is redundant. I solved it again without it A deduction that helps is that because each row and column contains only one ring, the A and B parts of the fingers are a set of the digits 1-6. So, after placing a 5 on the knuckle you couldn't place a 5 on any other knuckle

[@tBagley43]

8:09 wow, got incredibly lucky with some spots in the beginning but I'm genuinely impressed with that solve nonetheless, probably my best ever solve in terms of the ratio between my time and simon's/mark's

[@austinsinger7565]

This one was so hard with dyslexia. I understood the logic of it but I kept mix matching my pairs.

[@spin-rg9ib]

i didnt notice this when solving. but i noticed right away once the first 5's are placed on the finger that resolves the other 2 rings. because the 5s see all the rings except for the box 5 ring and the 5 has only one place to go.

[@peteradawson6576]

Bit late for the 5 gold rings, ... , and the Partridge in the Pear Tree.

[@imatrot]

Once you get the 2 5s on the finger. That places the 5 ring, right? As the 5 ring is now ruled out of all other rings

[@ThePolymathlete]

7:40 for me. Fun easy puzzle today

[@srwapo]

15:35, my time is bad because I colored, and I used a letter, which lead me to using many letters, which lead me to forgetting which letter = which number and I kinda had to do the sudoku a second time to place them all at the end.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

4:40 for me. Fantastic puzzle! I know people prefer the hour-plus long videos, but I'd personally love to see easier puzzles like this more often.

[@noxumbra173]

At the 13 minute mark, where does 5 go in box 6? It has to go to the fingertip. There are no more rings in column 5.