Last Piece of the Puzzle

I recently finished piecing together a 1500-piece jigsaw puzzle.  Posted at the end of this blog, you will find a photo I captured of the last piece remaining before it was snapped into place.

Even as I start a new puzzle by sorting out edges and grouping pieces by colors and patterns, I am curious about which piece will be the last put in place.

Questions come to mind.

How many other people will end up with the same “last” piece?  Is there a reason a specific piece might be more likely to be that last?  Say, based on color?  Based on patterns that exist in the puzzle?  The shape of the piece?  The mood of the person putting together the puzzle?  The manner in which the pieces are sorted?

Does a mathematical formula exist for explain all of this?

There is a firm answer of sorts.  Not a good one.  My friend Kevin developed a rather devious predictor.  His late wife, Brenda, was something of a fanatical puzzle-builder.  Every so often, Kevin would sneak away a piece from one of her puzzles.  Naturally, as Brenda found herself hunting around the table and under chairs for the last piece, Kevin would swoop in with the last piece of the puzzle.  “Here it is,” he would say.

—Mitchell Hegman