Fun For All

Friday, August 9, 2013

A Seagull Riddle

Why did seagull fly towards the lake?

Because the lake could not fly to her.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Tangram Puzzle #1

Arrange the tans to make the shape below. Tans cannot overlap.

A Kite

To check the solution click the picture below.

What is a Tangram Puzzle?

How to make your own Tangram Puzzle.

Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Tangram is a Chinese dissection puzzle which uses 7 geometric shapes called "tans". The seven shapes are: 2 large triangles, 2 small triangles, 1 medium triangle, 1 small square and 1 parallelogram.

The objective of the puzzle is to make a given shape with all seven tans without overlapping them. You can enjoy the game of tangrams alone or with a friend.

How to make your own Tangram Puzzle.

A Bit Of Tangram History

The first book of tangrams was published in China in 1913 and by 1818 tangrams were popularized all over Europe.
It is unclear when the tangrams originated. There are few versions of the origin of the name:

1. Some believe they were created during the Tang Dynasty which was ruling China in 618 A.D. to 907 A.D.

2. There is a story about man named Tan who supposedly dropped ceramic tile and by trying to put it together came up with the idea of a puzzle,

3. There is believe that name came from an old English word "trangam", which means "puzzle" or "trinket",

4. There is also theory that Tangrams are named after Tanka people who lived in southern China and Hong Kong.

To find out more check out book by Colleen Adams, Tangram Puzzles: Describing and Comparing Attributes of Plane Geometric Shapes.

Tangram Puzzle #1 A Kite
Tangram Puzzle #2 A Dog
Tangram Puzzle #3 A Relaxing Cat
Tangram Puzzle #4 A Bat
Tangram Puzzle #5 A Horse Playing Soccer
Tangram Puzzle #6 A Circus Seal
Tangram Puzzle #7 A Christmas Tree
Tangram Puzzle #8 A Steam Boat
Tangram Puzzle #9 A Curious Turtle
Tangram Puzzle #10 A Flying Bee
Tangram Puzzle #11 A Scarecrow

How To Make Tangram Puzzle

About Tangram Puzzle.

To make your own tangram puzzle you will need: pair of scissors, cutting knife, square piece of cardboard (up to you how big you want it, though 4"x4" would be easier for you to measure), graph paper (optional), pen or pencil, and ruler.

You can use graph paper to make it easier to draw the lines to cut, or you can draw the lines directly on your cardboard.

How to draw the lines:

1. draw diagonal to get two big triangles 2. draw line connecting middle points of the sides of one of the triangles 3. draw another diagonal, but stop at the little triangle hypotenuse 4. draw line parallel to diagonal to create little square 5. draw line parallel to the side to create parallelogram. You are done. Now you can cut on the lines.