Extraordinary Number of Solutions

This chapter considers a model which requires a solution with such a large number of variables that a brute force solution is impossible to use. Thus, the need is to rapidly reduce the number of possible states of the system by a set of rules. The philosophy of this chapter is that all needed rules are not necessarily known at the beginning of script development. Thus, one rule is developed, and solutions are attempted. If the rule fails to provide a solution, then the system is examined to define another rule. This process repeats until a sufficient set of rules is defined. The example used in this chapter is to solve Sudoku puzzles. A puzzle has an enormous number of possible states, but only one is correct. Rules are sequentially developed to find that one state. The chapter then considers the issue of creating new puzzles using the developed tools.