Abstract

This thesis briefly examines the history, logic, and strategy of the increasingly popular Sudoku puzzle. Latin squares are then studied in terms of their relationship to quasigroups and their properties of orthogonality. Bounds on the number of Latin squares of order n are also stated and proved. An introduction of gerechte design then leads to the link between Latin squares and Sudoku boards. Several properties, theorems, and conclusions about Sudoku are studied from the perspectives of combinatorics, projective and affine geometry, coding theory, and graph theory. Lastly, Sudoku is studied from a psychological and educational standpoint. The results of the Sudoku survey that was administered are discussed, and a lesson plan is presented that could hopefully be used to enhance mathematical interest and learning in high school students. Overall, the goal of this thesis is to show that Sudoku is a deeply-rooted mathematical concept with many mathematical properties and educational applications.

Advisor

Bowen, Jennifer Roche

Department

Mathematics

Publication Date

2008

Degree Granted

Bachelor of Arts

Document Type

Senior Independent Study Thesis

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© Copyright 2008 Bethany Smith-Polderman