How can a jigsaw have two distinct solutions?

CORRECTIONS
- None yet, let me know if you spot anything!

Filming by Alex Genn-Bash
Editing by Gus Melton
Written and performed by Matt Parker and Steve Mould
Produced by Nicole Jacobus
Music by Howard Carter
Design by Simon Wright and Adam Robinson
Dice on loan from the Bec Hill collection

MATT PARKER: Stand-up Mathematician

[standupmaths]

And yes, I'll visit at least the Hong Kong interns this June 2025. Maybe other Jane Street offices as well.

[IceMetalPunk]

Matt: "I wrote some terrible Python code."
Me: "You're always so hard on yourself, Matt. I'm sure it's not *that* bad."
Matt: "It brute-forces a combinatorics problem by exploring millions of permutations for guess-and-check at every iteration."
Me: "...why must you Parker it again?"

[SJrad]

Topologically consistent jigsaw puzzle

[Rubrickety]

I wrote what I thought was improved code for this problem, but when I ran it the lights on my Christmas tree went insane.

[Thagrynor]

The look of Matt's soul dying just a little when Steve uttered the phrase "public code review" is priceless lol

[NigelMelanisticSmith]

"Terrible Python Code" is at "Say The Line, Bart" levels by now lol

[ares]

Oh I can't wait for the "a viewer made my code *obscene number*% better"

[WizoML]

Even though it gets called terrible python code, I think this is a beautiful thing about python that lets people solve interesting problems with computing power. Putting optimization aside, 1. the problem statement and 2. an approach to solving it both show incredible creativity on Matt's part. That's why people click on the video in the first place. I'd be proud of writing "terrible" python code that can actually solve an interesting problem.

[Zarunias]

And now I wish that a jigsaw publisher takes this concept and publish a little series of these with different pictures.

[aidenkoh]

I love that the mathematician in you felt the need to say “distinct” in the title.

[pseudo_goose]

The Python code isn't as bad as the "version control"

[apokatastasian]

this has made me question every puzzle i've ever assembled. what lovecraftian horror, or forbidden knowledge eluded perception once again, simply because i followed the picture on the box

[not_David]

I’m about half way through the video and really loving it but I’m starting to think/realize that years of blender donut tutorials have really done some irreparable psychological damage…

[brandyballoon]

As a software engineer currently studying intelligent systems and path finding search algorithms at post graduate level, this was fascinating and has given me a new problem to attack! Often the greatest challenge with something novel like this is figuring out how to make it fit an established algorithm. Sometimes you have a "oh it's just that one in disguise" moment, other times it truly is a unique problem.

[NonTwinBrothers]

A simple 'context' or 'result' would do, but Matt books it with SPUD.
Very on brand

[wdvorak]

I'm a coder by passion and training. I love a simple bit of program code -- C, Python, Pascal, Forth, Lisp, Basic -- that does a simple operation (usually in the nature of a "tool"), but it can be easily followed (doesn't need excessive amounts of documentation), that fits on a screen or a couple of screens, that computes something quite complex. I actual like your coding. With time it can be optimized and refined, but it's not about the code, but the solution that you were after.

[Sjoerd-gkwr]

they are 2 donuts I dont see the difference

[genericgamer]

Haha 12:48 poor Matt is never going to live down the fourty billion percent increase in code efficiency

[Imperial_Squid]

16:44 it causes me physical pain to see Matt naming his python files the way people label their English essay drafts lol

[geothermie_]

Now I want to see the version with 10 solutions : the mug and the donut plus
- A mario pipe
- A watch
- An unknnot
- A top hat with the closing part ripped like in old disney shorts
- The chaos emerald minigame from sonic 3
- The twisty scares on a 2x2 grid
- A pair of trousers with one leg knotted (bc why not?)
- A squircle

(I would have loved to find all 15 of them but that's all for me)