JIGSAW PUZZLE VARIATIONS
Jigsaw puzzles typically come in 300-piece, 500-piece, 750-piece, and 1,000-piece sizes, however the largest commercial puzzle has 24,000 pieces and spans 428 cm by 157 cm. The most common layout for a thousand-piece puzzle is 38 pieces by 27 pieces, for a total count of 1,026 pieces. The majority of 500-piece puzzles are 27 pieces by 19 pieces. Children's jigsaw puzzles come in a great variety of sizes, rated by the number of pieces. A few puzzles are made double-sided, so that they can be solved from either side, which adds a level of complexity, because one cannot be certain that one is viewing the correct sides of the pieces.
There are also three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles. Many of these are made of wood or styrofoam and require the puzzle to be solved in a certain order; some pieces will not fit in if others are already in place. Also common are puzzle boxes: simple three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles with a small drawer or box in the center for storage.
Another type of jigsaw puzzle, a kind of cross between 2-D and 3-D puzzles, is a globe puzzle. Like a 2-D puzzle, a globe puzzle is made of cardboard and forms a single layer. Like a 3-D puzzle, the final form is a three-dimensional shape. Most globe puzzles have designs representing spherical shapes such as the Earth, the Moon, and historical globes of the Earth.
There are also computer versions of jigsaw puzzles, which have the advantages of requiring zero clean up as well as no risk of losing any pieces.
THE HARDEST JIGSAW PUZZLE IN THE WORLD
I suppose this is the hardest imaginable jigsaw puzzle. But who would actually want to do this? Oh, I guess a whole lot of people, if the leaderboards are any indication. My God. The all-time best score is juuuust under forty minutes. And only one person was able to get under that mark.
THE LARGEST JIGSAW PUZZLE
LIFE: The Great Challenge - by Royce B. McClure
Number of pieces: 24,000 !Finished Puzzle Size: 428cm x 157cm (4.28m x 1.57m) - 168.5 in x 61.8 in (14ft 0.5 in x 5ft. 1.8in)
LIFE: THE GREAT CHALLENGE. When I was asked by David Olesti of Educa Borras to design the artwork that would be used for the world's largest commercially made jigsaw puzzle, I sat down and had a good long think about it. Not whether or not I would do it (of course I would accept the challenge) but how to come up with a design that would do the concept justice. Over the last 15 years I have had over a hundred puzzles made from my artwork. During this time I have received a lot of feedback from puzzlers about what makes a good puzzle: challenging, but not impossible, lots of detail but still making a satisfying overall picture when completed. Most of all they have to be fun to do.
The challenge for me in a puzzle of this huge size was to eliminate large areas where no changes take place. This, of course, means the puzzle will look quite 'noisy' when shrunk down on the box or in a brochure. I hope that the puzzlers who accept the challenge to do this puzzle understand that if the art looks perfectly pleasing in a small size, then it will drive you mad with boredom when blown up to a huge size then cut up into small single colored pieces.
The puzzle comes in four packets, breaking the art up into four vertical sections that join together to make 'Life'. I have tried to make each section different enough from the other sections so that you won't feel that you are doing the same puzzle over and over.
THE SMALLEST JIGSAW PUZZLE
A wooden puzzle, approximately 6.55cm x 5.5cm (less than 2.6 in. x less than 2.2 in. ), made by KARNAN in Sweden
