Beginners' Question: How Do You Play Sudoku?

Sudoku is one of the most popular puzzle games throughout the globe. Many people enjoy the challenge that they get with it. This said puzzle is so well-known that even those people who have not tried answering or completing a single Sudoku puzzle have at least an idea about what Sudoku is. However, most people have this very common misconception that Sudoku is a game which requires the player some advanced mathematical skills to complete it. With this notion in mind, people who are not really lovers of math start to give up the idea of trying to understand the puzzle and even fail to ask the question "How do you play Sudoku?". But before we answer that question, let us feed our minds first with some interesting information about Sudoku.

It all started in the Land of the Rising Sun, Japan. A group of Japanese puzzle-makers designed this number-filling puzzle and named it Sudoku, which means "single number". In 1986, Sudoku is already known not only in Japan but also in other parts of the world after its first appearance in a local Japanese newspaper. Sudoku's challenging and entertaining nature made it very much wanted and played by Sudoku enthusiasts not only in Japan but in many countries as well. Completing a single Sudoku puzzle proves to be very stimulating in the mind since one should incorporate analytical abilities and a great amount of patience in order to get it done.

When you begin to complete a Sudoku puzzle, your eyes will be greeted by rows and columns of numbers inside small boxes and blank or unfilled boxes. As mentioned above, the presence of numbers may cause some people to think that Sudoku involves mathematics. The thing is, there are no addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division processes that should be used in a classic Sudoku puzzle. Completing a 9x9-grid Sudoku puzzle only requires analysis, logic, and patience. Some sets may be easy and fast to complete while others can be very difficult and may take a person a number of hours to get it done. Sudoku is a number-completing puzzle. Thus, your main aim as a player is to complete the number puzzle by putting the right numbers, which range from 1 to 9, inside blank boxes of a 9x9 grid. No single mathematical operation is involved.

Sudoku rules are very simple and easy to understand.

1st rule: A number (from 1 to 9) should not appear more than once in each row.
2nd rule: A number (from 1 to 9) should not appear more than once in each column.
3rd rule: A number (from 1 to 9) should not appear more than once in each sub-square (a 3x3 box within the 9x9 grid).

You just have to make sure that each row, column, and sub-square contains a particular number, ranging from 1 to 9, only ONCE. That's it. Short and simple.

Aside from the classic 9x9 grid Sudoku puzzle, there are also a number of Sudoku puzzles that bear various grid sizes. Two of them are the Mini Sudoku and Mega Sudoku. The concept and rules found in the classic 9x9 grid Sudoku can also be applied to Mini Sudoku, which has smaller 4x4 or 6x6 grid sizes, and Mega Sudoku, which has larger 12x12 or 16x16 grid sizes. With these and many other Sudoku variants to choose from, you can enjoy Sudoku with a grid size of your choice.

So, how do you play Sudoku? Playing Sudoku is actually very simple if you follow its rules and stay focused. Of course, you should exercise your mind and use some logic and analysis when playing Sudoku. A great amount of patience will also be very helpful to any Sudoku player - especially those beginners. There is no age range or age limit in Sudoku. Everyone is welcome to try and complete the puzzle. Grab your pencil with eraser now and enjoy filling those boxes and eventually succeed in completing your Sudoku puzzle.

See Also : Buy Best Price Buy Best Price Buy Lowest Prices Top Rate Clothing Video Clip Review GameFlash

Online Learning - Design Tips For Beginners

This short article will provide some practical suggestions for converting existing materials into online learning content and for developing new content.

1. Introduction

The best place to begin with online learning, if you are new to it, is to present course documentation online as a way to support the face-to-face teaching rather than replace it. These resources can be easy to develop and upload to the learning platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard or WebCT. This kind of simple informational content takes very little time and effort to produce.

2. Tips for Designing Online Learning Materials & Courses

i) Consider your learning objectives and outcomes. Breakdown the objectives into a series of learning goals. Break down the learning goals into small steps and tasks. For interactive learning, think of activities that will get the learners doing the tasks. Focus on what will the learners actually being doing.

ii) Identify who the learners are and their main characteristics. (It is worthwhile keeping in mind that for some people online learning may be out of necessity rather than preference.)

iii) Make an outline and build a course framework.

Divide into week-by-week topics
List teaching points under each topic and sub-topic
Structure each topic to answer one question or problem
Present in a logical order
iv) Gather existing materials together. Decide which materials must be delivered face-to-face and which can then be placed online.

v) Chunk the information into small (3 to 5) stand-alone pieces that can be used as building blocks. Keep topics small. Put the topic building blocks in order. (See the site HubPages for tips on how to chunk information and media together.)

vi) Provide a series of flexible materials which support both those learners who like structure and those eclectic learners who just want to explore.

3. Creating Online Documents & Presentations for Online Viewing

Research shows that people scan web pages rather than reading them word- by-word. It is a good idea therefore to prepare simple, informational pages that are very clear and effective. Use a narrow column so that the words are easily scanned.

Here are some tips to create easy-to-read informational materials:

Use bullet lists
Turn prose into tables
Use consistent headings and sub-headings

Highlight key words
One idea per paragraph
Use 40-50% white space
Use light background with dark text
Use a non-serif font (e.g. Arial) with standard font size (10 point)
Keep pages short
Have both the unit title and topic title at the top center of every page
Include page numbers at bottom of page (e.g. page 1 of 7)

4. Finally

There is a lot to learn when designing for online learning; it is different from designing for face-to-face learning. But the above tips should be enough for you to get started in creating good content for online learning.

Visit : Video on Sale Vibrators Sex Toys Digital Music on Sale Gold Jewelry BlurayDiscPlayerBD570Network LCD 1080p HDTV

Online Learning - Design Tips For Beginners

This short article will provide some practical suggestions for converting existing materials into online learning content and for developing new content.

1. Introduction

The best place to begin with online learning, if you are new to it, is to present course documentation online as a way to support the face-to-face teaching rather than replace it. These resources can be easy to develop and upload to the learning platforms such as Moodle, Blackboard or WebCT. This kind of simple informational content takes very little time and effort to produce.

2. Tips for Designing Online Learning Materials & Courses

i) Consider your learning objectives and outcomes. Breakdown the objectives into a series of learning goals. Break down the learning goals into small steps and tasks. For interactive learning, think of activities that will get the learners doing the tasks. Focus on what will the learners actually being doing.

ii) Identify who the learners are and their main characteristics. (It is worthwhile keeping in mind that for some people online learning may be out of necessity rather than preference.)

iii) Make an outline and build a course framework.

Divide into week-by-week topics
List teaching points under each topic and sub-topic
Structure each topic to answer one question or problem
Present in a logical order
iv) Gather existing materials together. Decide which materials must be delivered face-to-face and which can then be placed online.

v) Chunk the information into small (3 to 5) stand-alone pieces that can be used as building blocks. Keep topics small. Put the topic building blocks in order. (See the site HubPages for tips on how to chunk information and media together.)

vi) Provide a series of flexible materials which support both those learners who like structure and those eclectic learners who just want to explore.

3. Creating Online Documents & Presentations for Online Viewing

Research shows that people scan web pages rather than reading them word- by-word. It is a good idea therefore to prepare simple, informational pages that are very clear and effective. Use a narrow column so that the words are easily scanned.

Here are some tips to create easy-to-read informational materials:

Use bullet lists
Turn prose into tables
Use consistent headings and sub-headings

Highlight key words
One idea per paragraph
Use 40-50% white space
Use light background with dark text
Use a non-serif font (e.g. Arial) with standard font size (10 point)
Keep pages short
Have both the unit title and topic title at the top center of every page
Include page numbers at bottom of page (e.g. page 1 of 7)

4. Finally

There is a lot to learn when designing for online learning; it is different from designing for face-to-face learning. But the above tips should be enough for you to get started in creating good content for online learning.

Friends Link : VHS on Sale Sunglasses Lcdtv 3d Nx710 40 Inch

Freecell Solitaire: A Strategy Guide For Beginners

Freecell Solitaire is a highly popular game, made famous by Microsoft. Freecell is included in Windows, and is considered a classic solitaire game by many. Because you can see ALL the cards right from the start, there is no luck involved, making Freecell one of the few solitaire games which is based totally on the player's skill.

Freecell is quite a hard game, but despite that, all deals (except for deal number
11982) are solvable in the 32000 deals in Microsoft's version.

USING FREECELLS WISELY

The key to finishing Freecell is judicious use of the freecells. They should be used as
temporary storage- only storing cards in them for a short time to help you move
longer sequences around.

For example, suppose you had a column with the following (taken from deal 14396)

5 Hearts
Ace Spades
Ace Hearts
4 Clubs

In this situation, it is okay to move the 4 of Clubs to a freecell, because we know
that right after that, we can move the two Aces to the foundation, and then move
the 4 of Clubs back from the freecell onto the 5 of Hearts. See how the freecell was
only used temporarily?

SAFE MOVES

There are certain moves you can make at any time in Freecell and know it wont
"trap" you later on in the game. You can move the Aces (and the twos when they can
be played), at any time, as no other cards depend on them. For the other cards, you
can safely move them to the foundation if the cards one less in rank, of the opposite
color, are already in the foundation. For example, you can safely move the 5 of
Diamonds, if the black 4s have already been moved to the foundation.

Better Freecell games will automatically do these safe moves for your, so you can
concentrate on the moves that matter, rather than having to manually make
inconsequential moves.

THE NEED TO EMPTY COLUMNS

Your first goal in Freecell is to empty a column.

Why is this?

Because an empty column allows you to move longer sequences around. The size of
the sequence you can move in Freecell is based on the number of available freecells
and empty columns. The more empty freecells and columns you have, the longer the
sequence is that you can move.

The formula for how many cards you can move is:
(number of empty freecells + 1) * 2 ^ (num empty columns)

For the less mathematically inclined, here is a table showing how many cards you
can move in some different scenarios...

Empty Freecells Empty Columns Card Sequence Length
0 0 1
1 0 2
2 0 3
3 0 4
0 1 2
1 1 4
2 1 6
3 1 8
0 2 4
1 2 8
2 2 12
3 2 16

As you can see, empty columns are particularly valuable, as they allow you to move
considerably longer sequences. By the time you have two columns free (particulaly
with two or more freecells free), you can move very long sequences, and the game is
usually quite easy to complete from there.

HOW TO EMPTY COLUMNS

So what is the easiest way to empty a column?

Start by emptying columns that don't have any Kings in them. A column with a king
can't be emptied initially, because there is nowhere for the King to go.

Don't just make moves because you can. Have some mini plan in mind, and only
move cards if they help empty the column you are aiming for.

Another popular strategy is just to go straight for releasing the Aces, and then the
2's, etc. This strategy is easier, and requires less thought. It will work for the easier
games, but won't help on the hard deals (such as deal 1941)

The most important strategy of all though, is to try and keep the freecells empty. If
you can do that, and empty a couple of columns as well, then you should find it very
easy to finish the game.

Recommend : Lipstick Digital Cameras Pipe Jacking Tool Sets & Home Repair