The Most Beautiful Mathematical Equation: Tobias constructs an Euler Sudoku

[@tobiasbrixner]

Only just now I discovered that you featured my puzzle. Many thanks, glad you liked it! You wondered whether you had covered another one previously, and indeed you have: „Schrödinger Equation“ several months ago.

[@SudokuSleuth]

Oooh. My pleasure!

[@mrpokefan8369]

14:43 here, what a wonderful idea and nice setting. Thanks Sleuth.

[@anaayoung9142]

Math is indeed very beautiful!! 😍

[@AditaBattleForge]

Mark of CTC had this featured yesterday. It's a beautiful puzzle! Took me 20 mins.

[@SudokuSleuth]

Should have posted after I recorded on Friday 😔

[@annikaQED]

"It has been estimated that Leonhard Euler was the author of a quarter of the combined output in mathematics, physics, mechanics, astronomy, and navigation in the 18th century." (From the Wikipedia article on Euler). Many math discoveries seem to be named after the 2nd person to discover them, since otherwise practically everything would be named after Euler. 🙂 He is arguably one of the three greatest mathematicians of all time (Archimedes, Euler & Gauss) and until the 20th century was the most prolific mathematician ever. In fact, completing the printing of his vast output is an ongoing project. In fact, he could be credited with initiating the development of Sudoku! From The Guardian, 2005: "The Sudoku story began in 1783 when Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician, devised 'Latin Squares', which he described as 'a new kind of magic squares'. Euler had come up with a grid in which every number or symbol appears once in each row or column. More than two centuries later, the difference for Sudoku players is that the grid is subdivided into blocks of nine."

[@annikaQED]

This equation is a special case of Euler's identity: e^ (ix) = cos(x) + i sin(x). So when x = pi we get e^ (i pi) = cos(pi) + i sin(pi) = -1 + i(0) = -1 + i (0) = -1. Hence e^(i pi) = - 1, so e^(i pi) + 1 = 0 (combining five of the most important constants in one equation). BTW, Euler is responsible for a lot of modern math notation, including e and i, and popularized the use of the Greek letter pi for the ratio Circumference/Diameter.

[@SudokuSleuth]

I was certainly thinking of you when I mentioned some of you are mathematicians. I admit I thought you were a physicist though. Regardless I was so looking forward to your comment 😁as I knew I was going to learn something interesting

[@neil2796]

I call it Sudoku blindness when I miss something like that 1 in r7 resolving the 1,2 pair in c2.

[@niyazali7983]

I got 12:20 on this one.

[@Sinisest1121]

12:41 for me

[@boydegg]

13:38 after 2 failed attempts

[@SudokuSleuth]

Ouch!

[@psiphiorg]

This is indeed a great identity! My time today was 9:03, solver number 7787.