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

[@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!

[@samakafrisco1759]

Same here!!

[@NickCil]

Same here! First time I solved a puzzle before watching Simon/Mark do the solve - and made it all the more enjoyable to watch

[@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.

[@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!

[@rjrodwell]

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

[@maoman4855]

I caught that too lol. He was lucky that finger is a palindrome.

[@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.

[@EnPee91]

That always had to be the case from the rules. There’s one ring in each row/column and each ring is a different digit.

[@Landis963]

Fie upon that pun!

[@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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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!

[@davidrattner9]

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

[@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.

[@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!

[@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

[@evergreentree8042]

Simon is so used to complicated solution paths that he totally overlooked the 5s at the start and started messing around with colours.

[@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!

[@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!

[@artyheartylife8588]

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

[@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

[@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."

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 17:47 minutes. This was a cute puzzle. I loves the theming around and the eerie looking index fingers just floating around. Marty showing off his skills with art is always appreciated. A nice approachable Marty puzzle is also appreciated. I think my favorite part was the eureka moment of how to deal with the ring in region 6 of the grid. It was simple, but it still felt real nice to spot. Great Puzzle!

[@katiekawaii]

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

[@martysears]

💜

[@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!

[@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

[@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

[@DaRaginGamer]

Cool flex I guess

[@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.

[@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.

[@PabloAndresDealbera]

Just resolved this with my SO, it's the first one of the channel we tried to do as we only do 1 star atm and I'm fascinated that the fact that we did it following a different path! Took us a lot of time tho, but I'm happy we managed it. Thanks for sharing it!

[@TimWalton0]

20 mins for me and I really enjoyed it, thanks Marty!

[@iris.holmes]

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

[@falloutfan2502]

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

[@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!

[@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.

[@Coyotek4]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@JohnFiala]

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

[@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…

[@MarushiaDark316]

Simon finally getting a short puzzle for a change.

[@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!

[@therealAQ]

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

[@petermawhorter9016]

Got this one in 32 minutes after spending 4+ hours on another Marty Sears puzzle... A lot of fun in both cases, just different kinds.

[@A_CC_K]

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

[@tabularasa0606]

Lovely setting from Marty.

[@thebushmaster0544]

MY PRECIOUS

[@davidhughes7174]

Thank you Simon, I spotted belatedly the 5 could never go on a finger except on the nail. You did that stage last.

[@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.

[@stohelit]

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

[@AaronPriceColby]

Fun fast one, took me about 18mins first try, re-did it again once I understood the puzzle for a sub 5, very fun and satisfying solve!

[@levb258]

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

[@MarkWiseTechno]

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

[@ronjohnson6916]

Love watching Simon enjoying a relatively simple solve.

[@grahamania]

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

[@bluerizlagirl]

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

[@shawnmichajluk2044]

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

[@mcleanmachut]

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

[@MrGreyprof]

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

[@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

[@williamnathanael412]

Did it with one hint from Simon's video: R5C5 demands the crooked finger. Lovely puzzle!

[@theashen]

Took me a minute to understand the rule set but once I got it it was a smooth solve. Very nice puzzle

[@thefallenarm589]

I expected Simon to tear the rules apart before starting any kind of solve and demonstrate that all "base" phalanx form a collection of the digits 1 to 6, as well as all the "middle" phalanx, as well as all the "tip" phalanx It helped me a bit in the solve !

[@jojocourtice]

As Marty said, you nailed it. 😂

[@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

[@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.

[@francolerud]

One of the rare times that I did the puzzle faster than Simon. Also he got lucky with a palindrome preventing him from messing up the puzzle when he mis-oriented the one finger.

[@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.

[@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

[@Fif4freedom]

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

[@Izual_Rebirth]

15:28 not quite as quick as some of the pros on here but still happy with the time. Flowed really well and not a constraint I’ve seen before.

[@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

[@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 😂🎉

[@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.

[@SirBradiator]

10:19 for me, lovely puzzle again from Marty

[@st0rmforce]

Really nice puzzle. Not too hard but more to it than you first expect

[@michaurbanski5961]

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

[@eddieharwood7788]

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

[@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.

[@ConradAdamsMrJUMBO]

I wasn't able to solve it. The only reason was that despite finding the double 5's at the start, and seeing the alignment of the fingertips making the bottom right a 2 and a 4, and by sudoku the top right corner a 5, the mistake or oversight I kept making was interpreting the last row as row 5 (instead of row 6), which led to contradictions and I eventually gave up in finding what on earth I've done wrong. In the end, it was the 5's that made me mistakenly think the last row is row 5 instead of row 6.. 😬

[@istvanmagi473]

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

[@johnbolton4553]

I got the break-in pretty quickly, but if you miss it initially, it would definitely make for a slow solve.

[@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.

[@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!

[@rywilk]

Lovely puzzle

[@FrankieBiase]

That was a very fun puzzle

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

What a fascinating idea.

[@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.

[@Adramelek14]

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

[@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

[@erikbreathes]

what a fun little solve

[@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.

[@RianneOK]

That waaaas really easy, I solved it in 20:34. That was fun :)

[@jamesrodrick2407]

I managed to solve this in 16:05. I had a small slow down, but once I got all of my coloring done the solution just flowed.

[@Stratelier]

Wow, this one really DID require some crazy thinking to 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

[@danecarter5454]

Very clever puzzle title

[@Quiltfish]

Yay, something GASsy, I feel capable again 😁

[@ChicanoryIsMyName]

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

[@petermills5623]

00:13:36, I really enjoyed this one

[@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!