Jigsaw Puzzle Combination Problem.

[Steve_Anderson]

Hi everyone,

Here is my strange question.

I have three 500 piece jigsaw puzzles. Each puzzle has a different picture. But each jigsaw has an identical 'cut pattern'. This means that, if you mixed up all the pieces of the three jigsaws, and turned all the pieces upside down so all you had were blank pieces, you could always (eventually, by trial and error) assemble three complete jigsaw puzzles out of all the upside down pieces. But, if you turned the jigsaw puzzles back over, so you could see the pictures, the pictures would all be mixed up.

My question is, how many different patterns could you make from assembling the three jigsaw puzzles? I assume it must be trillions. But I would love to be able to work it out mathematically.

Thanks everyone.

Steve.

 

[Steve_Anderson]

Hi everyone,

Here is my strange question.

I have three 500 piece jigsaw puzzles. Each puzzle has a different picture. But each jigsaw has an identical 'cut pattern'. This means that, if you mixed up all the pieces of the three jigsaws, and turned all the pieces upside down so all you had were blank pieces, you could always (eventually, by trial and error) assemble three complete jigsaw puzzles out of all the upside down pieces. But, if you turned the jigsaw puzzles back over, so you could see the pictures, the pictures would all be mixed up.

My question is, how many different patterns could you make from assembling the three jigsaw puzzles? I assume it must be trillions. But I would love to be able to work it out mathematically.

Thanks everyone.

Steve.

It's OK. Don't worry about it. Someone on another forum solved it for me within half an hour of me posting the question.

Thanks anyway.