TANGRAM

S
MATHS HOLIDAY HOMEWORK

CONTENTS
Introduction
Etymology
History
Uses and Importance
The Puzzle Set
Rules

INTRODUCTIO
N

The tangram is among the most popular of

all dissection puzzles that exist today. A
tangram is an ancient, unique, Chinese
puzzle that consists of seven (geometric)
flat pieces, called tans, which are put
together to form shapes. The objective of
the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given
only an outline or silhouette) using all seven
pieces, which may not overlap. The seven
pieces can be arranged to make anything
form a rabbit, to the alphabet, to a person.
A Chinese psychologist has termed the
tangram "the earliest psychological test in

ETYMOLOGY
While researching the origin of the word
tangram, it quickly became evident that
this fact remains unclear to this day. The 'gram' element is apparently from Greek
'letter'. The 'tan-' element is
variously conjectured to be from Chinese
t'an 'to extend' or Cantonese t'ang 'Chinese'.
A wooden
tangram stored
in the square
configuration.

HISTORY
Reaching the Western world (18151820s)
The tangram had already been around in China
for a long time when it was first brought to
America by Captain M. Donaldson, on his ship,
Trader, in 1815. When it docked in Canton, the
captain was given a pair of Sang-Hsia-koi's
(author) Tangram books from 1815. They were
then brought with the ship to Philadelphia,
where it docked in February 1816. The first
Tangram book to be published in America was
based on the pair brought by Donaldson.
The puzzle was originally popularized by The
Eighth Book Of Tan, a fictitious history of
Tangram, which claimed that the game was
invented 4,000 years prior by a god named Tan.

The puzzle eventually reached England, where it

became very fashionable indeed. The craze
quickly spread to other European countries.
Soon, tangram sets were being exported in
great number from China, made of various
materials, from glass, to wood, to tortoise shell.
Many of these unusual and exquisite tangram
sets made their way to Denmark. Danish
interest in tangrams skyrocketed around 1818,
when two books on the puzzle were published,
to much enthusiasm.
One contributing factor in the popularity of the
game in Europe was that although the Catholic
Church forbade many forms of recreation on the
sabbath, they made no objection to puzzle
games such as the tangram.

Second craze in Germany and United

States
(18911920s)
Tangrams
were first introduced to the German
public by industrialist Friedrich Adolf Richter
around 1891.The sets were made out of stone or
false earthenware, and marketed under the
name "The Anchor Puzzle".
More internationally, the First World War saw a
great resurgence of interest in Tangrams, on the
home front and trenches of both sides. During
this time, it occasionally went under the name of
"The Sphinx" an alternative title for the "Anchor
Puzzle" sets.
Cover art from
The 8th Book Of
Tan,
by Sam Loyd.

USES AND IMPORTANCE

Tangrams are a great thing to incorporate into
the mathematics classroom because they are
fun, intersting, and meaningful. Tangrams help
students develop mathematical concepts of
fractions, spatial awareness, geometry, area,
and perimeter because tangrams involve
physical manipulatives as well as virtual
manipulatives , this caters to a variety of
learning styles. Tangrams present a new,
interesting, hands- on way to deal with topics
that most often are or can be quite boring and
meaningless.
By using tangram shapes, children learn the
relationships between shapes. Additionally,

Another reason why tangrams are important

and interesting is that Tangrams have both
geometric and artistic features. Children gain
geometric insights as they discover and
discuss the relationships among the tangram
pieces and what they can represent.
Also, tangrams promote growth in learning, for
example, when children become experienced
building things from tangrams, they can be
challenged even more by experimenting with
double tangrams, etc.

THE PUZZLE SET

The tangram puzzle set is composed of seven
pieces. Each of these piece is called a tan. the
seven pieces are:
2 large right triangles
1 medium right triangle
2 small right triangles
1 square
1 parallelogram
1 parallelogram

1 square
2 large
triangles

1 medium
sized
triangle

2 small sized
triangles

RULES
Classic rules are as follows :
All seven pieces must be used.
All pieces must be flat.
All pieces must touch.
No pieces may overlap.
Pieces may be rotated and/or
flipped to form the desired
shape.

The tangram pieces may be rearranged into

various figures and designs. These designs not
only include simple geometric shapes shown
below, but also shapes of different animals, such
as birds, dogs, and cat. The designs also include
numerous other shapes of popular objects.

rabb
it

MADE BY :
ARCHISHA BISWAS
XI-A