Wednesday, September 27, 2017

mathematics - Solving a Rullo Puzzle


How can I solve in a (relatively easy) way, a Rullo puzzle? (Screenshot below)


Rules: Enable or disable a circular number (pink is enabled) in order to make the row or column match the sum on the left / right or top / bottom



You can consider the circles with a darkened circumference have no special meaning.


My current strategy: Start solving rows / columns which require the least sum (10 in the case below - since it requires fewer numbers) then solve the ones with odd sums (17 and 15 - since odd + odd is even and even + even is even)


In the example below, once the 3 on row 4, col 4 is clicked, the board will be solved.


What algorithm / strategy can be used to solve such a puzzle? (the board will always be a square - eg. 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 etc)


The numbers inside will be between 1 (inclusive) and 19 (inclusive). Multiple solutions may be possible.


Source code for a brute-force program is allowed (provided it only takes a reasonable amount of time to solve a 8x8 board - eg. up to 10 minutes on your computer)


Rullo Screenshot




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