The Jig's Up

Probability Level 1

A jigsaw puzzle contains 50 pieces. If joining any 2 pieces is considered as one move, what is the fewest number of moves required to join all fifty pieces?

50 2 51 49

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Ritu Roy by Ritu Roy , 22, India

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12 solutions

Ritu Roy
May 14, 2014

Remember that 50 pieces require 49 independent joining 'events'.

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initially joining 2 pieces counts one move. after that each piece counts 1 move. so 1+48=49

prakhar prakash - 7 years ago

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i did it in a same way

Abhishek Rawat - 7 years ago

1 move for every 2 pieces so 25 moves for 50 pieces that make every set have 2 pieces. after that join all the 25 sets into one set it need 24 moves so 25+24=49 moves

siva natarajan - 7 years ago

i tried this on simple no. like 5 then 7 and i found that there is a relation between the results of both the numbres and that relation is (n-1) i don't know if this is the right way but it worked :D

toqa mohamed - 7 years ago

I read it "if joining any 2 pieces as two moves " I don't know how! !! Eye can be very deceiving

George Nasry - 5 years, 5 months ago

You need 1 move to join 2 pieces. Then you have 48 pieces left. With another move you have 2 moves and 3 pieces. Therefore with 49 moves you have the 50 pieces joined.

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Helena Marcia
May 24, 2014

For one piece, no movements. For two pieces, one movement. For three pieces, two movement and for n pieces, n-1 movements. So, for 50 pieces, 49 movements.

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Mark Kong
Jun 4, 2014

The number of separate pieces decreases by 1 with every move. There are 50 separate pieces to begin with and we want to get it down to 1, so that takes 49 moves.

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Peter Lin
Feb 15, 2016

remember that 50 pieces require 49 independent joining events.

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initially joining 2 pieces counts one move. after that each piece counts 1 move. so 1+48=49

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Ryan Redz
May 27, 2014

group by 2's and carry on the remainder in the next grouping... 25+12+6+3+2+1 = 49

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Simply first let us suppose that there are 3 pieces so if we want to join all the pieces we have to make 2 moves so similarly 50 pieces will need 49 moves

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Vivek Tyagi
May 23, 2014

1st move=joining two pieces + 48 pieces left=49 moves

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Mamatha G Krishna
May 18, 2014

2 pieces joining is one move.. Hence each and every joining makes 49 movements

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Ahmed Farag
May 18, 2014

"if joining 2 pieces is considered as one move" so it 50 pieces one move mean 2 pieces it will be 48 pieces left if you move again you have 2 move and 47 pieces left so if we turn on loop we find it take 49 move and move 50 pieces

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I think it's 49

Zeena Dash - 7 years ago
Jayraj Kanabar
May 18, 2014

if we join 2 piece than 49 piece are remaining similarly 49 steps are required to solve this puzzle required than no moves are taken as wrong for minimum no of steps

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I thought of a four piece jigsaw puzzle. Simple to imagine. It takes 3 moves to finish it. 4 piece- 3 moves. 50 pieces - 49 moves.

Vishy Muku - 7 years ago

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