Well Deserved Congratulations! | Passing Through by FullDeck and Missing a Few Cards

Added: 2026-06-02

[00:00:02][music] [music] >> Hello good day and welcome.

[00:00:12]I'm Chmod 755 today I'm going to solve [music] Passing Through by Full Deck and Missing a Few Cards.

[00:00:18]Full Deck and Missing a Few Cards have been with [music] me on this journey, uh this Sudoku journey, for a long time.

[00:00:25]They tested my very first puzzle that I created.

[00:00:28]Um and they've been some of the earliest people that I've chatted to uh about the hobby.

[00:00:36]Um so I really appreciate them.

[00:00:40]Um but in particular, I wanted to celebrate them because um uh >> [clears throat] >> yesterday um uh Full Deck, who's also known as Eliza Gallagher, uh was um uh presented with an award.

[00:00:58]Um the 2026 Douglas W. Bradbury Award.

[00:01:03]Um and here's what I learned about it.

[00:01:06]Presented each year by the Clemson University Honors College, this award recognizes a faculty member who has made sustained and meaningful contributions to the Honors College and its students.

[00:01:18]Honors faculty, staff, and students all attested to Gallagher's ability to foster meaningful connections across disciplines and graduating classes.

[00:01:27]Congratulations, Dr. Gallagher.

[00:01:30]Um I am reliably informed that um uh Missing a Few Cards also won this award nine years ago.

[00:01:41]Um they also won um the College of Science Outreach Award jointly um for their Sudoku stuff.

[00:01:52]Um and this is particularly significant because traditionally this award has only gone to a single recipient. Um however, because their work was um joint work in the field of Sudoku, um it uh it caused the relevant people who were making the award to decide that they were going to change the rules and allow it to be presented to them jointly.

[00:02:23]Um so that's uh really awesome. Fantastic that the university supports you with doing Sudoku with the students.

[00:02:32]Um and uh you really are a great asset to this community.

[00:02:38]All right, with all of that, let's have a look at this rule uh this puzzle and its rules.

[00:02:45]Um normal Sudoku rules apply, so we are going to place the digits 1 to 9 once in each and every row, every column, and every box.

[00:02:55]Um thermometers. Digits along thermometers are strictly increasing from bulb to tip. So, we could have 1 3 4 and 8 here, for example.

[00:03:11]Um as long as they increase from the bulb to the tip, that's all that matters.

[00:03:16]All right, I'm going to reset the uh puzzle to restart the timer, and let's begin.

[00:03:22]All right, secrets of um thermometers.

[00:03:28]A 9, if it's on a thermometer, can only go on a tip because if I put it not on a tip, what's the tip going to be? There's no valid Sudoku digit.

[00:03:38]A 1, if it's on a thermometer, must go on a bulb because if I put it not on a bulb, then what's the bulb going to be?

[00:03:45]Not a valid Sudoku digit.

[00:03:48]So, in this box, the only um place that the nine can go is here.

[00:03:55]Now that the nine is there, that has to be a one.

[00:04:02]That means that one of those two is a one.

[00:04:07]One of those two is a nine.

[00:04:15]Where does eight go in this box?

[00:04:18]It can't go here cuz that can't be a nine. Can't go there cuz that can't be a nine.

[00:04:25]So it must go there, which makes this a nine.

[00:04:31]All right.

[00:04:33]This cell here can't go on its own thermometer, can't go on its own row, so it must go in one of those three.

[00:04:44]This cell here can't go on its own thermometer or its own row, so it must go in one of those three.

[00:04:56]That means that orange cell is one of those two.

[00:05:01]The red cell is one of those three.

[00:05:16]Right.

[00:05:19]The maximum that this can now be is eight.

[00:05:24]Which means the normal maximum that that can be a seven, but it can't be a seven, so that's a maximum of six.

[00:05:32]So that means that's one or two, two three, three four, four five, five six.

[00:05:41]That has to be larger than a six.

[00:05:45]That's right, larger than a five, a six, or eight.

[00:05:54]That's at least a four, cuz if it were a three, then that would be two, that would be one, and break this cell.

[00:06:05]Um So, it's four, five, six, seven.

[00:06:14]Five, six, seven.

[00:06:16]Six, seven, eight.

[00:06:18]Seven, eight, nine. Okay.

[00:06:32]That can't be seven, because I can't go eight, nine, 10.

[00:06:39]So, seven is in one of those two.

[00:06:45]One, two, three, four, five, six. That makes this six or nine.

[00:06:49]Because um it has to be at least six because of the length of the thermometer.

[00:06:56]Um and it can't be eight.

[00:06:58]And if this is a seven, then that can't be a seven by Sudoku. If this is a seven, that can't be a seven by thermometer logic.

[00:07:08]So, let's give that a color.

[00:07:11]Because that digit has to be one of those three.

[00:07:19]Uh Could still be a nine.

[00:07:26]In fact, the maximum this digit can be that this digit can be is a six, I think. Nine, eight, seven, six.

[00:07:35]So, the maximum that can be is a five.

[00:07:37]So, that's not pink.

[00:07:44]This can't be a nine. Uh sorry, this can't be a six.

[00:07:47]Cuz if this is six, then that's seven, that's eight, that's nine, and that breaks that cell.

[00:07:55]So, that is not a six.

[00:07:57]That therefore means that none of those can be a six. That's a nine.

[00:08:03]And that makes that nine. Okay, pink has done its job.

[00:08:18]So, that's now a maximum of eight.

[00:08:29]So, we'll do a nominal 1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 5 6 7 5 6 7 6 7 8 But this can't be a six.

[00:08:49]Because if that's six, then that's eight, and that breaks that cell. So, that can't be six. So, that can't be five. So, that can't be four.

[00:08:57]And that can't be a three.

[00:09:10]Uh and this can't be an eight anyway.

[00:09:14]So, that can't be a seven.

[00:09:31]Where does this cell go in this box?

[00:09:37]Can't go on this thermometer. can't go on the line, so it must go here.

[00:09:42]So that is a five or six making that seven, making that eight.

[00:10:18]Okay.

[00:10:28]That can't be as high as six.

[00:10:31]So nominally that could be six.

[00:10:37]Well, that would make that seven, eight, or nine, but that can't be a seven, seven, eight, or nine, so that's even easier way to see it than I was going to suggest.

[00:10:46]A minute to go.

[00:10:49]So that's a maximum of five, so that's two, three, four, five.

[00:10:56]And not a three cuz there's a three in the box.

[00:11:01]This is at least a five.

[00:11:10]So that's five, six, or seven.

[00:11:29]But this is at most a six.

[00:11:35]Okay, yeah, that tracks.

[00:11:41]1 2 3 2 3 4 3 4 5 4 5 6 except neither of none of those can be a 3.

[00:11:54]So if that's at least a 4, then that can't be a 4.

[00:11:57]That's now at least a 5, so that can't be a 5. Okay.

[00:12:54]Okay, where do we look next?

[00:13:03]That's maximum of 6.

[00:13:06]4, so that's 1 2 3 or 4.

[00:13:09]2 3 4 5 3 4 5 6 Can I whittle that down some?

[00:13:32]>> Okay, that's one, two, or four cuz there's no three.

[00:13:36]That's two, three, four, five.

[00:13:50]That one's a maximum of six.

[00:13:59]>> [sighs] [clears throat] >> Okay, if this were five, then that would be six, which would break that cell.

[00:14:14]So, that can't be five.

[00:14:16]If that's not five, then that's not a four.

[00:14:27]That makes that a two, three, four triple.

[00:14:32]So, that becomes a five, six pair.

[00:14:35]That makes that four, which makes that three, which makes that two.

[00:14:42]So, that gives us a one there. That's a two. That's a one. That's no longer a one. So, that's a two. That's a three, four pair.

[00:14:51]That's a five, six, and eight.

[00:14:56]Very nice. That's a two. That's a one.

[00:15:02]That's not a one. That's not a two.

[00:15:07]That five means that that's not a five.

[00:15:09]If that's at least six, then that's at least seven.

[00:15:15]That is not a five, either.

[00:15:21]That five, six makes that seven, that eight and that nine.

[00:15:31]Uh that's not a four.

[00:15:34]That's not a four, so that's a four.

[00:15:38]That's not a six, so that's nine.

[00:15:40]That's six.

[00:15:43]That means that these two digits are seven and nine.

[00:15:49]>> [sighs] >> These are uh that's not a one, that's a one.

[00:16:04]Um so these are three, five and six.

[00:16:09]This digit is an eight which makes that nine and that a seven.

[00:16:23]Okay.

[00:16:31]So we're a five six pair, so it's either one, two, three and four.

[00:16:37]And that one's not a three.

[00:16:49]Nine in this row goes there.

[00:16:58]And we get a nine there, and that looks to be all of my nines.

[00:17:04]I've got a one in one of those two.

[00:17:18]These are These in this row are from 5 6 7 and 8, but that can't be 7 and 8. So, that is 5 or 6.

[00:17:27]That makes that pair a 7 8 pair.

[00:17:43]One is now here.

[00:17:47]Which places one there.

[00:18:05]Those are from 2 4 8.

[00:18:09]Oh, that four is looking there. That's a two.

[00:18:13]Um that has to be less than four, so that's a three.

[00:18:18]That is a 4 8 pair making that two.

[00:18:26]That is now seven.

[00:18:28]This is a 5 6 pair.

[00:18:33]These two are 5 and 8.

[00:18:36]These two are three and four.

[00:18:45]That is not a two.

[00:18:51]That eight is looking up. That's four.

[00:18:54]That's eight.

[00:18:56]So, that's no longer four.

[00:19:39]>> Eight is not in either of those.

[00:19:46]Oh, yeah, it could be there.

[00:19:50]Um I've got a 5 6 pair in this column.

[00:20:13]So, these are from 2 3 and 4.

[00:20:26]>> [snorts] >> Hm.

[00:20:31]That is clearly not red.

[00:20:33]Cuz red is down to 2 or 5.

[00:21:02]This [snorts] feels um Feels like I'm so close and yet just not What am I missing?

[00:21:54]4 5 6 7. Could that work?

[00:22:06]Make that five, that would be six.

[00:22:09]That would be three, that would be two.

[00:22:15]That would be three or four.

[00:22:22]That would be three or four.

[00:22:31]Don't see why that doesn't work.

[00:22:45]Okay.

[00:23:28]>> So, these are from 3 4 5 6 7.

[00:23:32]Just to complete the row.

[00:23:35]That's not a 7.

[00:23:37]That's not 3.

[00:23:41]That's not 3 or 4.

[00:23:57]That didn't really help.

[00:24:00]So, there's some Sudoku trick that is alluding me or some thermometer combination that is just not going to work.

[00:24:17]So, if that's 6, that becomes 5, that becomes 4.

[00:24:25]That's 3.

[00:24:39]That becomes 6.

[00:24:59]>> One of those twos is six.

[00:25:06]Is that useful?

[00:25:12]I mean, we already know that six is in one of those three.

[00:25:14]And that seven is in one of those three just because of the row.

[00:25:20]All right. Well, that seven is looking down.

[00:25:22]That's an eight. That was the useful thing that I was missing. That's a seven. So, that is a six. Five, four, and three, [snorts] which makes that four.

[00:25:35]That is no longer four. That's a two-three pair. That is now a seven.

[00:25:41]That six makes this five and six.

[00:25:46]That's a one.

[00:25:49]That is a two or three.

[00:25:59]In this column, I need two, five, six, and seven.

[00:26:04]But this can't be five, seven, or six.

[00:26:06]So, that's a two, making that three, that two, that three.

[00:26:13]This is six.

[00:26:16]Let's type that correctly.

[00:26:20]Still don't know which one of those is orange yet.

[00:26:23]Uh but this is a five.

[00:26:25]That makes this six.

[00:26:28]That makes this five.

[00:26:31]Uh this is seven.

[00:26:34]So, that's a three. I think our colors have told us what we needed to what we needed to be told.

[00:26:43]That three makes this four and three, which makes that a two.

[00:26:55]>> Okay.

[00:26:57]Um this must be six, which makes that seven.

[00:27:05]That is five, and this is a four. That makes this six and this five.

[00:27:14]Got a one here.

[00:27:17]This digit is a two.

[00:27:20]Four and six go in.

[00:27:27]Um these two digits are eight and four.

[00:27:32]So, that's eight.

[00:27:34]That's four.

[00:27:36]That makes that eight that five.

[00:27:40]Um so, that's a five, >> [snorts] >> and that is a three.

[00:27:49]That is a lovely puzzle with some beautiful steps in it.

[00:27:53]Um certainly not the easiest of the ones that A Full Deck And A Missing A Few Cards do, but uh it's not um outrageously difficult.

[00:28:07]Um I really enjoyed that.

[00:28:10]Well, um if you enjoyed this solve, then please hit the like button. You can subscribe to see more, and I would love to hear your comments, including uh congratulations to A Full Deck [music] And A Missing A Few Cards for the recognition that they have received from their university.

[00:28:29]All right, I'm [music] looking forward to next time. Be seeing you.

[00:28:35]>> [music] [music]