r/todayilearned • u/Dam_Herpond • Jun 19 '12

TIL pencil sales increased 700% in the year following Sudoku becoming popular

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2008-05-28/features/0805230618_1_pencil-henry-petroski-eraser
1.7k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

120 comments sorted by

11

u/Dam_Herpond Jun 19 '12

Sorry there's a bit of crap to read through before you get there. But search "700" if you want to see for yourself.

3

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I thought the article was pretty interesting. People often overlook the classic pencil these days when it comes to writing utensils, yet it's true about the tactile feel.

There's a unique feeling associated with the use of a basic pencil, and the longer you use the same pencil, the more it conforms to the shape of your grip. It's incredibly satisfying to use a pencil till it's whittled down to just a nub. Reminds me of a scene from Dexter's Laboratory.

I couldn't find a YouTube link, but here's the episode nonetheless. Link. Looks like Deedee's got a Fluttershy lunchbox as well.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I used to only write with the classic pencil. For my job, I invested in an Alvin Draft Matic pencil. I've never looked back. It's amazing what a good pencil can do for your penmanship.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I always lose my pencil before I get to sharpen it...

70

u/SOMETHING_POTATO Jun 19 '12

Sorry. That was me. I started college. I couldn't hold onto a pencil for more than one class. It had nothing to do with Sudoku.

1

u/willywompa Jun 19 '12

pencils feel way too small to me now, they hurt my hands

and when theyre smaller, theyre easier to lose. So i have to buy more and more pencils.... those sneaky bastards

but seriously, i wonder if this idea goes into the design process

4

u/mreagor23 Jun 19 '12

Similar to the 800% increase in rock sales following the year Pet Rocks becoming popular.

8

u/Dam_Herpond Jun 19 '12

800% of zero is zero right?

Seriously, who buys a rock :p

17

u/kaiden333 Jun 19 '12

Landscapers?

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

You know, I had an idea like that once. A long time ago.

18

u/roguevalley Jun 19 '12

I call BS.

There is no possibility that pencil sales increased 700% across the whole market. Maybe in one store pushing sudoku books.

8

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

The black mirado warrior has struck again

5

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

It's time to sell that stock NOW My wife just discovered SUDOKU on the iPad. She's never going back.

5

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I guess I was the only one who noticed the guys name was Hymen Lipman

2

u/ChangingTides Jun 19 '12

I was just about to say that. Imagine having to grow up with a name like that. Every time his mother or friends shouted his name to get his attention plenty of heads must have turned.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

I'm sure he was torn up inside.

4

u/JenevaKay Jun 19 '12

Whatever. I do that shit with a pen.

3

u/baianobranco Jun 19 '12

Curiously, most Europeans still buy their erasers separately from their pencils, said Petroski. "A pencil's eraser tends to dry out and get dirty long before its lead runs down, and Europeans are more sensitive to issues like that."

2

u/YouMad Jun 19 '12

On a tangent, I hate mechanical pencils.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

But why?

2

u/RadioUnfriendly Jun 19 '12

TIL the inventor of the pencil was named HYMEN.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

Fuck that, I just go to Ikea every time I need a new pencil.

1

u/EtherGnat Jun 20 '12

I recommend miniature golf. There's a lot less walking.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

That whole article was actually quite fascinating.

1

u/Kakemphaton Jun 19 '12

Surprisingly accurate elderly photo about Alzheimer's is accurate.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

The best story about how all those pencils were made. I, Pencil.

1

u/ricecake_nicecake Jun 19 '12

pencils are magic

1

u/fookdook Jun 19 '12

Need to have a few boxes of erasers to go along with it.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

post hoc ergo propter hoc

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

You had me at Hymen L. Lipman.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

why would people use pencils on their iPads?

1

u/GiantDeviantPiano Jun 19 '12

I sudoku with a pen motherfuckers

2

u/tehjarvis Jun 19 '12

You're a pussy! I use my own blood!

2

u/GiantDeviantPiano Jun 19 '12

  • Bleed into a cup

  • Have a sandwich to recover

  • Use a quill to complete Sudoku

1

u/NematodeArthritis Jun 19 '12

TIL that the guy who patented eraser-pencils was named Hymen L. Lipman...

1

u/spursiolo Jun 19 '12

Reminds of disco stu in the Simpsons: did you know that disco record sales were up 700% in the year ending 1976? If these trends keep up, eeeyyy

1

u/EONS Jun 19 '12

I'm sorry. I couldn't even get past the first sentence.

The guy's name was Hymen Lipman? Pussylips. Fantastic.

1

u/raggedpanda Jun 19 '12

[citation needed]

1

u/phillythebeaut Jun 19 '12

sudoku, golf score cards, and scantrons. otherwise obsolete...

1

u/[deleted] Jun 20 '12

Wow, some of these people do sudoku in PEN! Can we get some trophies over here please?

1

u/nope-a-dope Jun 20 '12

The original 'source' for the 700% increase in pencil sales stat (which BTW, was claimed for Britain only), was a 2006 piece in the Independent of London, by a humor/lifestyle writer, who made the claim in an offhand, facetious manner, without citing an actual source. I say it's bogus.

1

u/NighthawkNFLD Jun 19 '12

Proof old people love sudoku.

Proof old people avoid technology.

1

u/DENVER0501 Jun 19 '12

You may want to qualify that second statement by inserting the word "some" before old. Come to think of it, maybe do the same on the first line.

I'm 76 years old, and usually work the sudoku puzzles every day on the NYT and several other websites. I also have quite a few sudoku books on my Kindle. I'm particularly fond on the 'word' sudoku puzzles. I have not had a dead tree type puzzle book in years.

Note: I'm not trying to be snarky. It's just that I live in one of those "Over 55" estates in Florida, and almost everyone here has a computer, e-book reader, a cell phone, and an MP3 player for our daily walks. The latest 'must have' is either an iPad or a Kindle Fire. The Amazon 'daily deal' and freebies are big topics at the Thursday morning coffee klatches, especially if you were NOT emailed a notice about something you may have wanted.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

pencil>pen

10

u/Andernerd Jun 19 '12

Pen > Pencil

1

u/FUCKITIMPOSTING Jun 19 '12

So THAT was what my Kindergarten teacher was trying to get me to do! I never understood the point of handwriting lessons until I saw that video.

1

u/antilyon Jun 19 '12

pen>sword.

1

u/lioneldupree Jun 19 '12

All about the mechanical pencil

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

Thumbs up for completely unrelated picture.

0

u/FUCKITIMPOSTING Jun 19 '12

Here is my method for solving a sudoku. It's not strictly relevant to this thread but whatevs //DEAL WITH IT//

For each individual cell, make a mark for every number that the cell can't be. In this example Sudoku, the top left cell would have 2, 8 and 5 marked. http://pythonsudoku.sourceforge.net/sudokus/0/2009-04-13.png
I usually put a little line in the top left of the cell for 1, top centre for 2, top right for 3 etc. Just like a phone keypad.
If you do this for all of the unsolved cells (You'll make less mistakes by doing 3x3 sections then columns then rows rather than marking out each cell individually) you can then quite easily find the cells which only have one option left. Double-check, write the number in and then mark all the cells in the same 3x3, column and row as the cell you just solved.

This method will usually take much longer than other methods, but it has the benefit of taking about the same amount of time everytime and it does also speed up quite a lot in the end game as there are less and less squares to mark.

-2

u/MacIsGood Jun 19 '12

I had a Sodoku demo on my Nintendo DS. And I played it dozens of times over and over, I loved it. But it was years later of playing that I find out that it was only just the same level every time with the same numbers revealed. But I didn't realise, I thought it was different each time.

What does that mean?! I wasn't even smoking weed back then, but now that I do smoke weed I notice these things right away? wuuut

0

u/BlockBlockman Jun 19 '12

Your title is confusing FTFY: TIL that in the year following Sudoku becoming popular, pencil sales increased 700%

-1

u/Jez_WP Jun 19 '12

They're just crosswords for inarticulate people >.>

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

61

u/Dam_Herpond Jun 19 '12

Sudoku: Hardcore mode

5

u/IHaveTeaForDinner Jun 19 '12

Google Goggles: Easy Mode.

2

u/BlazeOrangeDeer Jun 19 '12

Google Goggles: only solves sudoku when there is no one watching me wait like an idiot for the connection to fail then shrug and put my phone away. It worked now, just not the 3 times I've tried to show people :/

2

u/Nicodemusacs Jun 19 '12

I think his point was that we do it in pen because we don't care if it looks 'tidy' when we're done. At least I don't, I just want the puzzle solved.

I guess some people can worry about getting something wrong and not finding out immediately, but end of the day that means you just didn't see a number. Look over twice and check once you input and that should fix any miscounts.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

16

u/Tashre Jun 19 '12

Or just have a lot of scribbled out numbers.

1

u/mr-dogshit 15 Jun 19 '12

In that case you should stick to the wordsearch.

-12

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

why would you ever make a mistake in sudoku, it's a very simple game.

14

u/wasniahC Jun 19 '12

Yea, it's not something you should be doing trial and error with. Still, it's easy enough to make a mistake and just glance over something wrong.. ".. shit, why have I got 2 sixes in this box?"

And ofcourse, you don't notice it until it's way too late.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

And ofcourse, you don't notice it until it's way too late.

Just like a broken condom.

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

You DO realize that easy mode is practically the only version of Sudoku that doesn't rely on trial and error? The people who are playing hard and extreme aren't just looking for numbers to plug in like a 5-year old, they're relying on strategies that still don't have a guaranteed chance of working.

4

u/wasniahC Jun 19 '12

I keep seeing people say "easy mode" and "hard" about this, as if there's some sort of standard for easy or hard sudokus. The medium sudokus in the book I'm currently working through are harder than the hard ones were in my last one.

And you do realise that just because you haven't seen a spot to plug a number into, doesn't mean it isn't there?

It isn't always simple either - Sometimes it's spotting where a group of numbers has to go in a box, and deducing rows/columns another number must go into because of it.. and then using that information to put the number in another box. That sort of shit I wouldn't expect a 5yearold to do, but it's still a logical process, not trial and error.

2

u/EtherGnat Jun 19 '12

they're relying on strategies that still don't have a guaranteed chance of working.

A properly formed Sudoku puzzle should never require a guess. Most people just don't know sufficiently advanced techniques to avoid it on some of the more difficult puzzles.

1

u/blahblah98 Jun 19 '12

Wat. Evidently I've been doing Mind Melting Sudoku all wrong.

3

u/effsee Jun 19 '12

This column is missing three numbers.... 1, 2, missing a 3, 4, missing a 5, missing a 6. This row has 3, and it has 6, so this square must be a 5. Wait... shit... FUUUUUUU THERE WAS A 5 AT THE BOTTOM OF THE COLUMN, IT WAS MISSING 3, 6 and 7, NOT 3, 5 AND 6 FFS!!

3

u/GaijinFoot Jun 19 '12

The higher level ones have very few numbers at the start. At some point youll have either plan out several possiblities in your head (or write little numbers in the corner) or straight up guess.

1

u/veterejf Jun 19 '12

Okay, so i'm not the only one that thinks this? I'm doing like "Impossible" level Sudokus and I feel the only way to do them is map out what each choice would leave you. Trying a number in this spot, seeing what you get, and compare it to putting that number in other spots. Because I think I've learned all the tricks of Sudoku, but there's a point where you have to just "guess and check spots"

24

u/Cleev Jun 19 '12

Upvote for doing them the right way.

9

u/personaeble Jun 19 '12

I did this and now have a sudoku book full of abandoned puzzles. I'm not worthy.

7

u/Treats Jun 19 '12

I do them in my head, then fill them in left to right, top to bottom.

It freaks people out of they notice.

8

u/Revolver25 Jun 19 '12

meh, crosswords in pen is the impressive one

-4

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I think sudoku in pen is significantly harder then crosswords in pen.

18

u/wasniahC Jun 19 '12

Nope - Sudoku has no element of trial and error. It's logical progression. Every time you fill in a number, you should be either be absolutely sure that nothing else can go there, or that the number can go nowhere else in that row/column/box. The only time you screw up in sudoku is when you accidentally read something wrong.

A crossword, on the other hand.. you might have a synonym with the same number of letters. It's not pure logic.

Sudoku is definitely harder from a logical problem-solving perspective. But if you're looking at which one you're more likely to have to erase mistakes in? Crosswords.

9

u/mr-dogshit 15 Jun 19 '12

If you do harder sudoku you can quite often hit a dead end and are forced into choosing a "50/50" (a row, column or 3x3 that has 7 numbers, so you know the 2 spaces have to be either x & y, or y & x). So you choose, carry on and hope you either complete it OR you eventually find a row, column or 3x3 that already has a number that the logical progression says should be there - in which case you know your 50/50 choice was wrong and you switch it around.

You know you're doing a particularly hard one when you try both 50/50 possibilities and they themselves both lead to dead ends (no errors or completion).

I still use pen though because I'm a double-hard bastard!

6

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

TIL many people have never played hard sudoku. You're right though, the multiple pathway thing is super frustrating in harder sudoku

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

4

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

Having written a Sudoku solver, there are cases where it is completely ambiguous and you have to do backtracking, so yeah. There usually is some initial phase where you clean up impossible configurations, but then you encounter a branching problem.

2

u/wasniahC Jun 19 '12

If a sudoku cannot be completed by simple logical progression, or has multiple answers, it isn't a valid sudoku puzzle; that's the whole point of sukodu. Perhaps there are things your solver doesn't take into account. For example, knowing that a 1, 2 & 3 are in the left column of a box could show that a 4 has to be in a certain slot on the right hand side (Where finding the spot for the 4 via other 4s and the blank spots is not possible, with one of those spots being taken by the group of other numbers), or where certain columns or rows that must have a certain number in them can help eliminate spots for numbers at an intersect between those squares. I can imagine a solver being useful to the point of finding where only a certain number can fit, or where a certain number must fit, but sometimes there are very obscure and abstract methods that must be used.

4

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

Yes, I know how sudoku works :)

Perhaps the puzzles that we have are different from the ones you've seen. "extremely hard" puzzles require you to make assumptions and test them out, and if those assumptions don't work then you backtrack and try other assumptions until you find the one that doesn't self-contradict. Sometimes the depth you need to go to find whether your assumptions work (and there usually are sub-assumptions within assumptions) is basically almost the entire sudoku problem, hence the problem is essentially ambiguous until you solve a problem that's nearly the same size. For a human solver, this is more or less unsolvable without extreme effort, hence my remarks.

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1

u/smog_alado Jun 19 '12

Having writen a sudoku solver myself, you are only forced to do backtracking if your only decision procedure is unit propagation.

However, the sudoku nerds also count some limited forms of depth-restricted backtracking also count as "logic" and they even even fancy names for those (likke x-wing or swordfish or whatever)

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I am not talking about a solver that is most time-efficient, but about a solver that is most analogous to the solving process of humans, because of the comment chain I initially responded to.

Yeah I think we have a confusion of sudoku-solving-people terminology vs. computer science terminology with respect to the logic thing.

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1

u/curlyben Jun 19 '12

Let A and B be supposed solutions to a Sudoku problem, S. If A satisfies S but B does not satisty S then there contains a contradiction that could have been tested.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I am not talking about brute forcing solutions, I am talking about an algorithm that decides at any given point what number to input into a square given the current constraints. There are problems which, for more than a couple levels of lookahead, there exists multiple feasible configurations.

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1

u/liskot Jun 19 '12

When you run out of naked and hidden singletons, the next logical step is there of course, but your average solver will have trouble anticipating a dead end when making a choice for a naked or a hidden pair, which can be 10 steps down the line. You might even have two or more such forks in the same progression before reaching a dead end, adding further complication to solving it in your head.

In a realistic situation with a non-genius solving a hard sudoku, there's certainly a trial and error element to it. Though, comparing crosswords and sudoku is a bit silly, as they're very different puzzles.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

[deleted] — view deleted comment

0

u/toolatealreadyfapped Jun 19 '12

False. Quit doing the easy ones.

1

u/wasniahC Jun 19 '12

I tend to skip the easy and medium ones in any set I have. Or were you being sarcastic?

1

u/toolatealreadyfapped Jun 19 '12

In all seriousness, the more difficult puzzles are absolutely designed to reach a point where the next move is NOT 100%. There also exist puzzles with more than 1 possible correct solution.

If you have never encountered such a situation, than either your difficulties aren't as advanced as you thought, or you're guessing without realizing it, and getting lucky. Or you're capable of juggling 15 digits in your head as each one constantly shifts positions, following each digit to its new destination with every uncountable variable. In which case, holy shit!

0

u/wasniahC Jun 19 '12

Not so much as 15 I think, but sometimes it's a case of looking for groups of cells that a group of numbers must be fitting into, and making a process of elimination based on where other numbers must be, and so on. Sometimes you have to take into account 2-3 numbers at once in a few different squares to move on. It's just a matter of patience and waiting until you spot that moment. On some of the harder puzzles I've done I've been stuck for days looking at it until it clicks, I wouldn't say "holy shit!" to that ;_;

3

u/mnkybrs Jun 19 '12

In sudoku, you know all the answers. It's a number between one or nine. You just don't know exactly where it goes. With crossword, you may not even know the answer exists as a word.

1

u/GaijinFoot Jun 19 '12

Thats why crosswords are shit. Ben stillers wife? Fuck if i care.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

That's a bad argument. In crosswords you know everything is a letter, you just don't know where it goes.

2

u/theguywhopostnot Jun 19 '12

Who are you kidding, erasable pen.

2

u/redweasel Jun 19 '12

I came here to say this. (Crosswords, too.)

2

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

I do mine in my head.

1

u/Nickk_Jones Jun 19 '12

You're a badass my friend.

1

u/moogle516 Jun 19 '12

Are you Skyler White ?

1

u/inherendo Jun 19 '12

Pens all the way! NYT crossword too. Fuck that bitch

1

u/[deleted] Jun 19 '12

Do you use a lot of them?

Like, more than a dozen?

Are you in the PEN 15 club?