Mathematics of a Sudoku puzzle

JWilliams

Hello all,

I've recently developed an obsession with the game Sudoku. As I seek to lern more about the puzzle game, my ramblings around the internet led me to the wikipedia page describing the mathematics of Sudoku. The portion of interest to me right now is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathema...tation_details

I understand how they are defining the different interactions between the different cases, however, what is puzzling me is how they are arriving at 3³x6³ as the numerical permutations contributed by the triplets in case 1 and 2. My knowledge of permutations is somewhat limited however I understand why the first box contributes 9! combinations and the final box contributes 3!³ combinations.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated.