The Most Astonishing 4th Digit

[@Kairamek]

I love it when Simon says "It's filling itself in," like he didn't just spend 30 minutes working through logic.

[@al129]

Another from Simon's back up videos... I hope all is well.

[@sarahlowes1501]

Simon said he was fighting the beginning of a cold., Maybe he has a sore throat atm. Although we are now mid December and that means catch up with friends for drinks and meals before Christmas but even a slightly hungover Simon has done videos in the past unless there would have been a timing issue to film and edit a new video to get it up on time.

[@xandermouser2216]

He did say he was going to be in new York around this time

[@xy00]

A hidden gem of CTC. I've no idea why this wasn't uploaded, but I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you, Simon and Mark, for all you've done for me and everyone who enjoys the channel. Cheers! (this may now be the only video where ALL the comments are kind.)

[@chris5619]

What is this sorcery?!

[@RecreationallyCynical]

@@chris5619 This is a prerecorded video, first uploaded a month ago, but somehow xy00 managed to sneak in and comment before Simon could mark the video unlisted/private

[@DIYTAO]

When Simon greets with "Welcome to today's edition of cracking the cryptic," it means that this is prerecorded buffer episode. For some reason he has not been able to make his regular puzzle today.

[@xy00]

This was just in a CTC playlist I was watching, so they must have accidentally added the unlisted video to a playlist. Didn't realize it was a buffer episode, my mistake.

[@Phurba13]

I'm glad to see this puzzle featured. Great solve by Simon. I hope he is well or gets well soon!

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

I am glad this puzzle was finally published, because it fully deserves to be. Magnificently magnificent. You are one of the best and I am honoured to have the opportunity to enjoy your art 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@hamishwatt2475]

So is the dot in box 9 an egg or a poo?

[@Phurba13]

@@hamishwatt2475 I leave it to the solvers to decide.

[@MisterM2402]

18:28 Simon: "And that gives us our first digit in the puzzle." 9: "Am I a joke to you?"

[@shaunelliott8583]

Simon: "Well you are a bit trivial"

[@spreekstem]

Get well soon, Simon! ❤ [ETA:] What a lovely puzzle. Thank you, Phurba!

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

I am glad this puzzle was finally published, because it fully deserves to be. Magnificently magnificent.

[@MsNosis]

am I the only one who thinks the two white dots look like the dove's eye and .. ehum.. dove droppings? it would make sense, because even peace doves need to go to the toilet too :D

[@allendracabal0819]

They don't need to GO to the toilet. For them, the toilet is always directly below.

[@Kirbyfan87827]

I actually deduced the three-cell region sum segments were all different via sudoku- if, for instance, the line segments in boxes 1 and 4 had the same three digits, those three digits would go in column 1 in box 7, and that plus box 7's own region sum line would leave three cells that must sum to 27, and that's the case for any two three-cell segments in the same rows or columns. The thing about four cells in a column having three separate digits among them is a lot simpler, of course, and I completely missed that, but I'm kinda proud of the way I was able to figure it out. Of course, I had no idea where to go from there and had to follow along with the video solution to finish in 17:13.

[@karabatut]

Watching these videos without an academic pressure just isn't the same 😪

[@SvenBroos]

Sending love Simon! ❤

[@chocolateboy300]

I finished in 98 minutes. That was indeed an absolutely stunning fourth digit. I did feel like Simon for a moment when I spotted. I even explained it to the imaginary audience. While that part was awesome, I think my favorite part was the geometry around the other dot and how no digit from the 1-6 set could go on the bottom cell of the dot. It always created a 123 triple in the wrong place that ruled out the other region sum in box 1. That was so cool to see. Another minor deduction that was cool was seeing that 1 couldn't go in r5c4 due to r4c4 being an 8 and forcing a 1 into r4c9. This forces the region sums in box 4 and 6 to share a 2, which now must go in r4c6, partnering with 7. This now breaks as 7 and 8 both see r4c8, which could only be a 7 or 8. It didn't do much, but it was cool that it happened. I very much enjoyed the way this one worked. Also, pretty picture. Great Puzzle!

[@thegolddog5583]

another way to realize that the totals are 9 is to note that for each of boxes 3,6, and 9 there are 3 cells adding up to a total that is less than 10. All these cells are in columns 7 and 8 so only 2 1's can be in these 3 cell totals so for the third 3 cells - it does not contain a 1. 2+3+4 = 9

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

_"I think ... I just have to propagate this box [box 9] somehow"_ (Simon @21:50) Yes, before analyzing the white dot in *box 2* you should have deduced that either *r3c7* or *r6c7 = 4* (with 2 and 3 in its blue segment) Hence, by sudoku *r3c7 = either 3 or 4* (and the same is true for r6c7, of course) This would have made the following deduction (@26:56) much easier to grasp and to explain to viewers. 👉 In other words, it would have made the 4th digit *less astonishing* 🤣

[@iuriikononenko9238]

The way Simon went crazy with pencilmarking is just great!

[@stuartmcconnachie]

The dot in box 2 is the dove’s eye. So what’s the white dot in box 9….? 😮

[@Roblilley999]

Bird poo

[@xChikyx]

poop

[@D4N1CU5]

Maybe it's because I've spent a fair bit of time on daily killer sudoku with its little calculator tool that allows you to exclude different ways of summing to the same number but the way I think about the beginning is: You've got a single digit region so your regions must all sum to 9 or less You've got 3 digit regions so the lowest number with a 3 digit sum is 6. Your options are now 6, 7, 8 or 9. There are 4 two digit regions in the middle box so your number has to be made 4 different ways using 2 digits. The only single digit with 4 different ways of making it from two digits is 9.

[@situzone]

@wirtualtv coop sometime? Would love to see Simon play Trackmania and Wirtual solve a sudoku (maybe while sliding on mayonayse)

[@MasterHigure]

I was wondering about that too. The chapter title seems like just a copy-paste error if you ask me, but we could hope there is more to it than that.

[@Giveyouthesquid]

@@MasterHigure wirtual talked about liking the channel, so probably isn't a mistake

[@MasterHigure]

@@Giveyouthesquid That's encouraging. And I've seen Wirtual have fun with chess, so sudoku isn't entirely wrong for him, even though it's a bit off-brand. But seeing Simon race around in an F1 car would be strange.

[@ericpraline1302]

Some very elegant logic, thanks. I feel I laboured over it somewhat after finding that fourth digit, which was rather splendid.

[@Gonzalo_Garcia_]

24:44 for me. What a break-in and what a puzzle! Loved it!!

[@Rubrickety]

I'm so sad I was unable to find that gorgeous break-in. I caught a whiff of it, but couldn't quite make the right generalization. Brilliant puzzle.

[@livedandletdie]

I truly love this puzzle, Region Sum lines are truly astonishing and wonderful to solve. Only 22 minutes.

[@charlier.k4934]

You smashed it in a fraction of the time i did! After id got those initial three 9s in, I had to come back to the video and get a tad bit of help because i got stuck for an hour.

[@davidhughes7174]

Thank you Simon, an enjoyable solve from a lovely puzzle.

[@nemuchan]

2:54 It's the time it took Simon to ruin a perfectly fine hairdo :)

[@srwapo]

44:54*, needed help from the video, once to see I had to think about the digits not 1,2,3 around the grid and the second time for using the white dot in box 2 (which I doubt I would have ever gotten on my own without bifurcation).

[@Paolo_De_Leva]

Anyway, the deduction was astonishing and the explanation was crystal clear. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

[@tom.e]

Funny how this puzzle heavily uses the pigeonhole principle, brilliant naming

[@compiling]

50:47. I found it extremely difficult to work out what was going on with the kropki dot in box 2 and had to bifurcate to get past that step.

[@nicoschmidt7618]

Coloring 1/2 took at least 15 minutes off your solve, something I failed to do. You did miss a bit of fun logic, but I am always blown away by the simple, yet extremely difficult to spot, things you do to make solves so much faster and easier.

[@fynnsternis6432]

Seeing simons scanning skills at work in those last few minutes was remarkable :) Mr. Simon "Speedy Gonzales" Cryptic at work (i'm sure thats his last name thats always in the beginning credits 😌)

[@A_CC_K]

Another brilliant solve from Simon.

[@xerodeus2337]

awww I hope Simon is okay... It would be great if someone could let us know

[@Amafaw]

What's the name of the game plz, is it exist in play store?

[@leefisher6366]

0:34 - And the other dot, representing something doves (which are pigeons) do a lot of.

[@LednacekZ]

54:01 for me. i just gave up on the logic and filled it as i felt it should be filled and it worked.

[@gregind01]

If the top left kropki dot represents the doves eye, then what does the bottom right kropki dot represent??? 😉😆

[@leefisher6366]

18:50 - It's the guano dot!

[@titusadduxas]

I got the 3 quickly enough but just couldn’t spot the implications of the other Kropki. In the end I had to watch Simon show me what to do there after which it was fairly plain sailing. It did take me over 2hours though!

[@piarittersporn]

Brilliant puzzle.

[@ruminator2943]

Loved this one! Quite fun.

[@bait6652]

Simons logic is always typically better and this is one of them, getting the right triplet in B2 was nice without stepping. But I like to play was domino/triminio logic For me the 8 9sum triplets , one can prove each 3set triple on (doublr-R or C) are distinct And then prove the D- triplet pairs are distinct. Now curious is without the white dots are their more solutions??? Given the heavy constrained on low digits.

[@robofox97]

While I love watching Wirtual (great song btw), I'm confused as to his mention in the first chapter, because there seems to be no mention of him in the video.

[@iceberg54321]

Crossing into (or exiting) a 3x3 box divide the blue line into segments. Each segment's digits or digit have the same total. (Fixed)

[@leefisher6366]

19:40 - The proof that this isn't recently recorded. Simon, let us know what is happening, and if you're alright, please.

[@n8style]

Shooting Stars that's a blast from the past!

[@leefisher6366]

21:35 - OK, was that Maverick, or some eldritch horror?

[@JohnRandomness105]

If one dot is the dove's eye, what is the other. A dropping?

[@sagov9]

I did get the break in quite fast, but then somehow I got incredibly stuck, not seeing the R4C4 had to be the orange for the longest time.

[@MyriamTT]

Beautiful !

[@zobososhizion6478]

00:50:39

[@thecaneater]

He was so close to getting the 6/7 in box 2 early on. Then just abandoned it.

[@onijester56]

I didn't see the December snow for the Xmas Three...that means this video is kinda old compared to when it was recorded. Therefore, I hope Simon is doing ok!

[@JeffRaze]

I normally stay away from uniqueness arguments, but that kropki dot in box 2 being the only difference between the possible locations of 7s and 8s was far too alluring.

[@MarkBennet10001]

Indeed, that generated an expectation when I solved it that suggested where to look

[@ab-ig4ku]

Is it the white bird crap that was crucial?

[@henk-ottolimburg7947]

Easier break in, esp. if you expect the sum to be 9: Where is 9 in the central box? It can't be on a line.

[@RichSmith77]

It only can't be on a line in the central box because r4c7 cannot be 10 or 11. (Making it more or less the same break-in as Simon's, no?)

[@wanderlustwarrior]

43:42 for me. I went much faster after I wrote down some information.

[@sinajakelic]

the other white dot is poop

[@Ardalambdion]

I spotted the genius in R4C7!

[@Ardalambdion]

I also spotted the genius in R9C9!

[@daphfried10]

Asking for a birthday shoutout this week. December 17th is the birthday of long-time follower Daphne from North Carolina.

[@robertcousins2274]

36:08 for me

[@TurquoizeGoldscraper]

49:08 for me.

[@George4943]

Bird dropping first.

[@Roblilley999]

100 day old video :)

[@HollowMythology-eu7hz]

Hi xy00, it's been uploaded

[@Jukka70]

ooh Simon you're in trouble, lol, you sang the wrong song, it's Oh Christmas 3, lol, but ingenious breakin

[@strawberrymilk3695]

It’s a prerecorded video

[@nb2vcxz]

It's also the wrong confetti as well. An old video. Simon must have the day off.

[@Jukka70]

@nb2vcxz ah, didn't realize that, you're right :)

[@bigjoemaggie5267]

What's going on? That was supposed to be a Christmas "3"?

[@RecreationallyCynical]

This is a prerecorded video from before Christmas 3 was added

[@peaoui165]

The rules aren't right in the puzzle. The first 2 sentences read: "Normal Sudoku rules apply. Place the digits 1 through 9 in each empty cell." Surely this implies that each cell in the grid should contain all the single digits (omitting 0) and is contradicted by the 3rd sentence: "Digits must not repeat within the same row, column, or box."

[@dyneeoh]

Any reason why the intro chapter had a shout out to @WirtualTV? One of my favorite KZbinrs, would be crazy if they collabed or knew each other or something

[@xhitman9923]

Why does the chapter intro say @wirtualTV in it? I love Wirtual, but what does he have to do with this lol

[@Amafaw]

What's the name of the game plz, is it exist in play store?