The Tangram is a Chinese puzzle that is over a millennium old. It resembles the Western puzzle, but differs from it in that it always has seven pieces, which are assembled in different ways to form an almost infinite number of different shapes. Each puzzle game begins by posing or selecting a challenge: an outline or silhouette of a figure that is supposed to be the “solution” to the game. Make your solution by arranging the pieces of the tangram set to match the given figure.
Various versions of the etymology of its word abound, while its Chinese origin is almost indisputable. The most current version of Hanyu Pinyin (the romanization system for Mandarin Chinese developed by the People’s Republic of China) calls the tangram: qi quiao ban–and literally translates as “seven tables of cunning”. Another version states Spike is Cantonese for “Chinese” and Gram is for “something drawn” – hence “something Chinese drawn”.
To make a tangram, simply take a square piece of material and cut it into five right triangles (there will be three different sizes: with two each for the smallest and largest pieces), a square, and a rhomboid (also called a parallelogram). If you can’t figure this out, just get any illustrated English dictionary and look up the word –tangram; most of the time, you will find an illustration with him. Alternatively, just search your browser for the word on the internet…
In addition to requiring that the seven pieces (called tan) are used to solve a puzzle, the rules of the game further require that none of the pieces overlap and that the tan they are touching each other. Puzzles must adhere to these principles to be considered official or “compliant” tangram puzzles.
Some of the puzzles currently offered include: geometric shapes, numbers, and alphabetic characters; man-made objects such as houses, buildings, bridges; human figures in action, different animals in many poses, and others. One estimate is that there are 6.13 million possible “compatible” configurations, where “compatible” means that at least one edge and at least one vertex of any tan coincides with (or touches) one edge or the vertex (or tip) of another.
Convex shapes are tangram configurations in which a line segment drawn between any two points on the shape always passes through the interior of the configuration. These are some simple polygons, with no gaps in them; which have been shown to number only thirteen. This count includes only the following: one right triangle, six quadrilaterals, two pentagons, and four hexagons.
Paradoxes are two similar forms, one being derived from the other; almost the same but distinctively different because the other one is missing a part. The most common of this is Dudeney’s paradox of two monks, where the other version is missing a foot.
Throughout all these years, the tangram has maintained its universal appeal as a worthy hobby and object of interest in art and design; while teaching geometric abstraction, proportion, and context.
