Tangram Puzzles - Cleve Moler on Mathematics and Computing
 

The tangram is an ancient [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangram"]Chinese puzzle[/URL] with seven pieces.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/swan_2.png[/IMG]

[B]Contents[/B]
[LIST][*][URL="#7bfb0bd3-0a72-4694-9b8d-20cb60e76146"]Varety[/URL][*][URL="#6998af6c-5e57-409a-885c-ec9eaeabc7da"]Schools[/URL][*][URL="#3a576a2a-3594-4ab3-8279-481398278d5e"]Figures[/URL][*][URL="#fcd2cd22-b9ca-4131-aff5-e9593bbda833"]Puzzle[/URL][*][URL="#01d2108b-0167-4b1f-ac42-0c4adeb85b8b"]Kitty[/URL][*][URL="#65fe0237-d99d-43c4-b3d8-5764c1da7767"]Swan[/URL][*][URL="#32352feb-7afe-4568-b7e9-aa2b18a3dbb3"]Square[/URL][*][URL="#bfe649ab-22ee-41a0-bfba-d6cd158a7e4f"]Web[/URL][/LIST][B]Varety[/B]

Tangram puzzles can be made with paper, plastic or wood.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/wooden_3.jpg[/IMG]

[B]Schools[/B]

School kids all over the world enjoy tangram puzzles.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/school.png[/IMG]

[B]Figures[/B]

Thousands of figures, like these animals, can be made.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/animals.png[/IMG]

[B]Puzzle[/B]

My MATLAB code [URL="https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/Tangram_mzip.m"]Tangram[/URL] opens with a screen showing seven pieces, which are called [I]tans[/I]. There are two large triangles, one medium triangle, two small triangles, one square, and one parallelogram.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/Tangram.png[/IMG]

The puzzle is interactive. You can move the tans.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/open.gif[/IMG]

[B]Kitty[/B]

The kitty is a new-comer's favorite.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/kitty.gif[/IMG]

[B]Swan[/B]

The parallelogram is the only tans that does not have reflection symmetry. It needs to be reversed with the flipper button when forming shapes like this swan. The swan at the top of this blog is looking in the opposite direction and does not need its parallelogram flipped.

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/swan.gif[/IMG]

[B]Square[/B]

Here are the starting moves for making a square. You can finish the square yourself by downloading [URL="https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/Tangram_mzip.m"]Tangram_mzip[/URL].

Or, if you are not in a do-it-yourself mood and just want the answer, see [URL="https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/square_3.gif"]square_3.gif[/URL].

[IMG]https://blogs.mathworks.com/cleve/files/start.gif[/IMG]

[B]Web[/B]

There are hundreds of web sites about Tangrams. Here are two that I enjoyed.

[URL]https://www.pinterest.com/ivahilator/tangram[/URL].

[URL]https://kubiyagames.com/products/tangram-puzzle-two-sets-with-65-challenge-cards[/URL].

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[URL="javascript:grabCode_b040b2278ce24ed881bfb38a496b410d()"][I]Get the MATLAB code (requires JavaScript)[/I][/URL]

Published with MATLAB® R2024b
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