To help you get started with your fun and fascinating mental math training, cross numbers, also known as Picross, Nonogram, or Griddlers, comes to the rescue. Although it is a picture logic puzzle, it also puts your mathematical abilities to the test.
About Cross Numbers
Cross numbers are usually a binary image (black and white or blue and white) coded in a grid containing specific columns and rows. Each of these designates a series of painted cells preceded and followed by at least one blank space (based on the provided clues). Once all the correct squares are painted, it reveals the hidden picture. The game is fun, enhances your logical and mathematical abilities, advances creativity, and improves your problem-solving skills.
You get tons of grid sizes to choose from when you install a top-rated game. The 3×3 and 5×5 grids are most common for beginners. But as you master the tricks and tips of the gameplay, you would want to take up 10×10 and even 15×15 challenges.
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Mathematical Approach
There are several cross numbers games on both Google Play Store and Apple App Store that offer a minimalistic design, several challenging puzzles, a free price tag, and loads of other options. Logic puzzles like these and Sudoku are also an integral part of recreational mathematics.
Talking of the game’s mathematical approach, it is possible to kick start the puzzle and fill in the rows or columns with simple calculations. The process is as under:
# Add the clues and a +1 for each cell in between.
# Subtract this number from the total of a row, i.e., the width of the grid.
# Clues that are greater than the number obtained in step 2 may have some blocks filled in.
# For every clue in step 3, minus the number in step 2 and determine the cells you can paint.
# To fill the cells, assume these are pushed to where you are counting from (either left to right or right to left) and then count through to backfill the right number of cells.
# For all clues identified in step 3, repeat step 5.
It may seem a little intimidating and confusing, but it is super fun! You can use the technique mentioned above for the entire grid until you get the hang of the advanced techniques, including deeper recursion, contradictions, mercury, forcing, joining, and more.
Challenge Yourself – Try A Game Today!
Whether you are a newbie or an expert on logic and number puzzles games, you always seek the rush of smart solving. Cross numbers shall provide you with your fix! Now, wait no more, go ahead and take up a challenge right away.
