Tangram
by S. T. Han

Requires: 4MB RAM, VGA graphics, Windows 3.1 or above
"Most challenging puzzle... even for Number One son to solve."

Try your hand at one of the most well-known of ancient Chinese puzzles, the Tangram. Its simplistic form of seven geometric shapes is what first draws in the curious puzzler... or is it the Tangram's own mysterious past that sets the hook on would-be solvers? The earliest known book containing Tangram puzzles is from China, dated in the early 1800's. The Tangram, however, is considered by many followers to be much older than this. Two such Tangram enthusiasts were Lewis Carrol and Sam Loyd. Lewis Carrol had such a devotion to Tangram puzzles that he carried an ancient Chinese book containing over 300 tangram designs with him at all times. Sam Loyd's contribution to the Tangram phenomenon, which sprouted in Europe and America in the late 19th century, was more for profit, though. In the early 1900's, Loyd capitalized on the Tangram craze with his book The Eighth Book of Tan. In it, Loyd convinced people that Tangrams were invented by the god Tan over 4000 years ago. Although most of the story was unsubstantiated, it did cover over 600 Tangram designs and made Loyd a wealthy man. Other stories which are a bit more flashy, depict the Tangram puzzle's migration to America and Europe by western sailors who stopped over in China during the early days of the opium trade. No matter which stories you choose to believe from the Tangram's colorful past, you're sure to have a wonderful time trying to piece together these intricate puzzles.

The rules for Tangram are simple: Arrange the seven geometric pieces (called tans) to form the given shape. The tans must touch with none overlapping. You may move, rotate, and flip the tans as needed, though.

A great exercise in spatial pattern recognition, this computerized version of Tangram comes with 15 puzzles to baffle you.