This history of Tangram Puzzles was taken from "Penrose Meets The Tangramians" which appears in Fractals, Googols and Other Mathematical Tales by Theoni Pappas, Wide World Publishing/Tetra (San Carlos, 1993).
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| One of the most popular puzzles of the
19th century was a Chinese puzzle called the tangram. The
popularity probabl6y stems from how easy it is to use and
understand the instructions. The tangram gives you the
freedom to design your own figures, while challenging you
to unravel h0w its seven pieces form particular designs.
The simple instructions can deceive one into thinking the
solution is easy. From the over 1600 designs some are
easier than others to solve, but bear in mind some are
very tricky and some are paradoxical. Who would guess a tangram ink between Napoleon Bonaparte, John Quincy Adams, Gustave Dore, Edgar Allan Poe, and Lewis Carroll? All were swept up in the tangram mania. Although tangrams had been enjoyed for years, the earliest reference to the tangram appears in a Chinese book dated 1813, which was probably written during the reign of the Emperor Chia Ching (1796-1820). There are may theories on the origin of the name tangram: 1) derived from the obsolete English word tangram, meaning a puzzle or trinket; 2) derived from a combination of the word Tang (Chinese dynasty) with suffix -gram (Greek meaning writing); 3) derived from the term tank, families who in addition to ferrying for exporters also provided food, entertainment and did laundry. Some entertainment may have been in the form of the seven piece Chinese puzzle and perhaps the term tanka game evolved. Any of the theories is plausible. |
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