If you love doing jigsaw puzzles, you know that part of the fun comes from that satisfying feeling you get when you’ve successfully completed one. But would you still enjoy doing a puzzle if it had no real beginning or end? It sounds strange, but one such puzzle exists. The Infinite Galaxy Puzzle is designed with no real start or finish, and the pieces are designed to fit together in any direction with no boundaries to contain them. This means your puzzle could go on and on for as long as you would like!
This infinity puzzle is inspired by topological spaces that continuously tile and can be assembled in thousands of different ways, according to the puzzle’s creators. It comes with 133 pieces that can be started from anywhere, and it is decorated with an image of the galactic center from the Hubble Observatory. It wouldn’t be possible to make if it was hand-cut like a traditional puzzle. Instead, it’s made with with math, science and lasers.
This particular puzzle maps to a Klein bottle, an impossible 3D shape where the inside and outside are mathematically indistinguishable. Pieces from the right side attach to the left side, but only after they have been flipped over, and just like the Klein bottle’s surface has no inside or outside, the puzzle has no up or down side, making this puzzle the ultimate never-ending journey.
This trippy puzzle is available from Nervous System for $130. The site also offers a slightly different, but similar wood-cut infinity puzzle that, like the galaxy puzzle, has no start or end, although you don’t cut that awesome print out of the universe while you’re doing it.
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Whether these infinity puzzles sound challenging or liberating to you, this type of puzzle is definitely unique, and it will likely have you scratching your head.