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TANGRAM SITES

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:17:09 +0000

Classical Chinese Puzzles – Wei Zhang and Peter Rasmussen run this site and are members of the Classical Chinese Puzzles Project organization. The tangram page is very informative and has pictures I've never seen before. After enjoying the tangrams, take some time to look around the rest of the site.

Knitted Tangram Set – Jessica Goddard from ODDknit.com had the idea to knit up an unique set of tans. Cool idea and quite appropriate for a craft that has mathematical links.

New Tangram Variations - Serhiy Grabarchuk' site has some interesting new variations on playing with tangrams. Scroll down the page to find the tangrams, after that, have a look around the rest of his well done puzzle site. Lots of good articles sure to get you thinking.

Ten Millions of Tangram Patterns and more: – Franco Cocchini has a great page concerning ways to estimate difficulty and classifications. He also investigates how many designs are possible just in the fully matched set of shapes. Gave me a greater understanding. Thanks Franco!

Andrea's Tangram and Dissection Puzzle Pages: Andrea C's new location. She's included some tangram animations, Cinderella figures plus many original single and double (two sets) designs. Check out the dance sequences. Cool! She also has other interesting old dissection puzzles including scanned original brochures. You can find more of her work on pages 2 and 3 of my donation pages. I also had the pleasure of working with her on my Tangram book.

Tangrammit: Tangrams from Barbara Ford, another of my tangram friends. She's got great tangram design ideas to share. Barbara has also written two wonderful tangram story books with many new shapes. Recommended!

Eric's Tangram Pages: – Eric Warsop has been doing some very interesting work with tangram notation. He's been kind enough to share his work with us in the hopes of stimulating other interested people.

What are we playing: Tangram or Math?: A tangram video! C.Pellegrino and L.Zuccheri use tangrams as "an example and a metaphor" to talk about mathematics. They bring together many ideas related to both subjects. If you like math or tangrams, have a look. In English or Italian.

Puzzle World: One of John Rausch's great puzzle sites. Search the site for tangrams, he's got very interesting articles and pictures.

Logic Puzzle Museum: If you're ever in the area, you will want to visit this place. Along with their tangrams, they offer a variety of puzzles and art projects that are on-going and hands on.

Tangrams: Juergen Koeller has gathered a lot of interesting observations and notes about tangrams on his page. English or German.

Puzzles – Tangrams: The Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games at the University of Waterloo has a great collection of puzzles and games, here's the tangram page.

Math Forum@Drexel: Great collection of teaching resources about tangrams and math. Scroll down to "Search this site" and type in tangram.

KidScoop.com: Kidscoop involves kids in their local community and provides quality ideas and fun.

PuzzleBoxWorld.com: Not about tangrams but they do have a great selection and information on another fascinating Asian puzzle, the Japanese puzzle box. Also a nice selection of other box and burr puzzles.

Enchanted Mind Tangrams: Online tangrams, part of their creativity stimulating site.

Pieces Pack #1: A package of tangram designs by S. Bartok for use in Mark Overmars' Tangram 1 program (see my download page)

Un nuage d'école: – French primary school teacher Muriel has put together an interactive multimedia portal. In French, of course.

Puzzles of Leonid Mochalov: No Tangrams but Leonid does have a wide range of puzzles to challenge you.

Tangrams: A short animated story illustrated with tangrams by Geoff Dellow for elementary students.

Strong Museum – Tangrams: A few print outs and a flashy tangram picture.

Trackstar: A teacher resource list. Do a site search for tangram

Developing Geometry Understandings and Spatial Skills through Puzzlelike Problems with Tangrams: Tangram Puzzles: The title says it all. From the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). With an online Tangram game to play with.

Tangram Puzzle: Some printouts from Funorama.com, part of their larger site. PDF or GIF.

Illinois Power: Tangrams show up in odd places. Here it's their company logo.

Tangrams and Fractions: Mathline is providing a tangram lesson plan for grades 6-8. Construction of a set and comparison of fractions.

QUERIES ON ORIENTAL SOURCES IN RECREATIONAL MATHEMATICS: Prof. David Singmaster has done some extensive research into the early history of tangrams and is kind enough to share it with us.

Puzzles of the Month: Part of The Puzzle Museum site (take a moment to look around), they have a nice example of an ivory tangram set about half-way down the page.

PuzzleUP: PuzzleUP has a Tangram page as part of their "Puzzle Playground – Treasury of Classic and Modern puzzles" section. If you like puzzles in general, browse the large selection available on their site.

Marcus' Tangram Site: Marcus has launched a site about his (and mine) favorite puzzle. Some history, make one, solve some shapes and read his ideas about other things to do with the tans.

Pentominoes and Pygrams: Teacher Odette and her math class of 13 year olds at K.S.O. Glorieux Ronse, Belgium have put together 2 sites about pentominoes. Well worth a look if you like moving piece puzzles. They've also got a contest (with a prize) underway open to anybody. Check it out!

TANGRAM, the incredible Chinese puzzle: Sarcone and Waeber have a page about mechanical and other puzzles. Click on "Puzzles to solve" and look for Tangramagic. Look around at the rest of the site while you're there. Lots of interesting stuff here!

Tangram Polygon Challenge: Laura Candler has a .pdf printout for teachers.

Tom Scavo's Tangrams KidsCom Tangram Font: They've got a Mac version.

Livewire Puzzles: – A lot more than Tangrams here but check under "Do it yourself". They've also got some good stuff about solving puzzles in general.

Part of Christian Eggermont's site:, a good list of puzzle links

Christian's:Tangram specific page

Enchanted Mind:- Tangram Java Puzzle with some information. Take some time to see the rest of the site, it's good for stretching your mind.

Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching:- Puzzle Index

Tangram: Logicville did this page, part of their puzzles and brain teasers site.

Puzzookies: Something a bit different. They're cookies in the shape of a tangram set. The packages have puzzles to solve printed on the wrapper. Play for a while then have a snack!

TANGRAM PROGRAMS

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:16:12 +0000

DoTangrams - Mikael put together an on-line version for us to try out. I had fun playing there. Some options to play with andworks smoothly in my browser. You'll see my first three shapes in the Latest list. See what shapes you can come up with to add to his collection. Enjoy his work and Inspire him to take the project further with more features.

Tans Generator and Solver - With his Generator,Philippe has been researching how different dissections produce more convex shapes . With the standard Tangram set of tans there are 13 convex figures, he's managed to to find a dissection that produces 60! He has a challange for my visitors : What is the maximum of convex shapes that are possible to match with a given number of tans that form a dissection of the square in polyaboloes. Thanks to his applet, we can all try our hand finding a dissection that will make the maximum number of convex figures. Any successful attempts will be noted on my home page.

Canvas Tangrams (English) or in German – Canvas Tangrams is an on-going project by Roland Hentschel and Mirco Ackermann to display Tangrams in your browser window using HTML 5, CSS and javascript. They also offer their work Very well done with 2096 categorized shapes at last count. The next step is to turn it into a playable game. I'll be watching with anticipation for that update.

Peces - A *very* nice Tangram program recently updated to include even more figures. Created by Innocent De Marchi. It comes with 4600 Tangram designs and also allows you to make, save and share your own creations. An online version is available to play on his site. The program also offers 17 other games, all playable at four skill levels, 9 different languages and 7 installation packages, all for free. Wow! Pick the language of your choice when you get to his web site.

LetsTans 1.1 - Grabarchuk Puzzles has a slick looking Tangram game for your iPhone or iPod touch. 64 shapes and three distinct modes of play gives you 192 puzzles with sounds, animations, timer with pause, hints and rotation. If you want it right now, it's available at this Apps Store link.

Tangram-patterns - Vasanth has used the Google Apps platform to make this Tangram application. Play, save your special shapes on-line and access them from anywhere. He's working on sharing, viewing and possibley contests. That would be great! Users need a Google account, any kind will do or just sign up for one (free)

Septavo Tangrams - Smallware LLC has added a Tangram game to their line of on-screen amusements. Intuitive to use and easy on the eye, it offers 1000 tangram designs to keep you puzzling for a long time. Hints, stats and more. A free demo download for Windows or Mac is available.

Maths et Magie - Muriel, a French primary school teacher, found us a wonderful site from France. If you look down the list you will find a section of Tangram links. Great flash animations with each page having a playable puzzle below the animation. For those that can not read French, in English the first six links are In the Moutain – By the sea – Circus games – At the Farm – Playing Figures – Playing Letters. The next few are about fractions.

Tanzzle - Franco Cocchini has done a shareware version called Tanzzle that has some nice features. It shows known designs plus generates random shapes to see and try. He's also included the pieces for the Trapeze, Phytagoras and Number 5 Puzzle for your enjoyment. There is a Puzzle of the week and the abilities to add your own puzzle shapes. Very nice!

Tangram 1.0 - – Even Rouault has a nicely done online Java version of tangrams. Good selection of shapes, smooth moves plus new and edit buttons to make and save your own shapes. In French but that should not be a problem no matter what your language.

Tangram: Andrey D. Orlov has done a smooth flash version of Tangrams. There's also an editor and best of all, it saves the settings in a xml file. From the site: "By editing the xml config file you can change screen layout, colors, images, sounds and create your own figures series."

jTans - A Java version created by Philippe Banwarth. It comes in three varieties. Webstart, standalone or a java applet playable immediately. Give it a try, it's got some great features such a user-choosable textures and a very smooth rotation method. Thank's for sharing, Philippe.

501 Tangram Challenges - A Flash Player version by Olga Pudrovska. Comes with 500 shapes to solve, the ability to make and save your own tangram creations plus other options.

GTans - Something for the Linux/Unix users out there nicely done by Philippe Banwarth. Lets you choose the puzzle, colour, size, and texture of tans, etc. 8 languages, small file size and free as well. What more could you ask for?

Eric's Tangram Pages - Eric Warsop has been doing some very interesting work with tangram notation and has put together a stand-alone program to generate sets of shapes. He's been kind enough to share his work with us in the hopes of stimulating other interested people. Eric is still adding improvements to the program.

Tangram 2002 - Shareware from Creativeland-e.com. Lots of puzzles and an attractive interface. Check out that pause screen!

Tangram 1.0 - Good freeware one by Mark Overmars. Comes with an easy editor to make and save your own collections of shapes. For even more fun, get the additional sets created by other tan fans.

Curiouser.co.uk - They have a java applet with 49 puzzles to solve, some Tangram history plus many other types of puzzles and paradoxes.

OOG - (Object Orientation Game) Another good one for free. You can play your choice of Tangrams, Pentominoes or Hexagons with the same program.

TANGRAM BOOKS

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:15:25 +0000

The Tangram Book – by Jerry Slocum, Sterling, 2003: Jerry Slocum has written an authoritative, lavishly photographed history of Tangrams. If you want to know more details about Tangrams, this would be a great choice.

The Eighth Book of Tan – by Sam Loyd, Dover 1968: A re-issue of Loyd's book that renewed peoples interest in the puzzle. Loyd also tells a very tall but convincing tale about the origins of the puzzle.

Grandfather Tang's Story – by Ann Tompert, Crown Publisher, Inc., 1990: Tompert uses tangram shapes to spin a tale about two shape-changing fox fairies. One of the better kid's tangram books.

The Master Revealed – A Journey with Tangrams – by Barbara E. Ford, Tandora Box Press: In an engaging story set in China ( illustrated with tangrams, of course!) the author explores the many intriguing aspects of tangrams . She has been incorporating the designs into her crafts for the last 20 years. Over 475 puzzles.

Creative Puzzles of the World – by Pieter van Delft and Jack Botermans, Harry N. Abrams 1978: Excellent book on not only tangrams but all kinds of puzzles to be made and enjoyed. Recommended!

Tangrams, 330 Puzzles – by Ronald C. Read, Dover 1965: Not fancy, but an important resource. Lots of figures and he goes into some of the math involved in tangrams

TANGRAMS FOR SALE

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:09:46 +0000

Puzzle Master - Puzzle Master has a large selection of tangram related items. In addition, they have an extensive collection of puzzles, brain teasers, board games, books and other entertaining items for all ages. Recommended.
Tangoes - Rex Games makes some vey nice tangram packages and their web site has information concerning tangrams plus additional links. You can also play with their on-line tangram game.
TeachChildren.com -A class size pack of plastic tangram shapes in six colours.
Norwood Tutors Educational Products -Along with their other innovative whiteboard accessories, they distribute a magnetic Tangram set.
Jarrah Wooden Tangram Game - Built-Rite in Australia sells these.

Printable and PPT

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 06:00:14 +0000

Christmas PDF Printables: Four 8.5" by 11" sheets of Christmas related tangram shapes done 6 to the page, in PNG format and in a .zip download. Have a happy holiday season. 477KB

Tangram Planches: Eric Terrien in France put together 134 Tangram shapes with solutions into a .pdf file. 242KB

PDF Printables: Twelve 8.5" by 11" sheets of tangram shapes done in a larger scale, mostly 4 to the page, in the Adobe PDF format, all in one .zip download.. Suitable for all ages but especially good for younger people. 800KB

Tangrams.pdf: Ranjit Mathew, of Bangalore,India, was kind enough to send me a .pdf document that features text and figures from this site along with stuff from Susan J's and the El Tangram sites. Great for saving and printing. Thanks, Ranjit! 130KB

Tanpage.gif: Not really all the figures on the site, but quite a few of them. It comes as two printable (8.5" X 11") .gif files. One sheet has the figures, the other (below) the solutions. Right click on the picture and save it to where you want. 11KB

Tanpage-solutions.gif: The solutions for sheet above. Again, right click on the picture to save it. 15KB

Allofit.zip: Both the above files in a downloadable .zip package. 21KB

Soar7.ppt: A dancing tangram powerpoint presentation
by Andrea C. 298KB

Papyrus.zip: You can also get the optional Papyrus font she used if you wish. 76KB

Watch for new downloads to added in the future. Any requests?

GRAPHIC AND FONT FILES

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:55:47 +0000

Vectors.zip (Win): / Vectors.sit (Mac): Encapsulated Postscript, Freehand, Windows Metafile, Flash, CorelDRAW, PowerPoint and Adobe files. My thanks to James Belleau. He has kindly donated sets of the tan shapes in a number of vector file formats. If you're unfamiliar with the vector formats, they allow you to resize and manipulate the shapes without changing the quality of the image. If you've ever tried to resize the other type of graphics file (bitmapped, such as .bmp, .gif, etc.) you know they don't respond well. James has covered most vector formats in his package. More details on the files can be found in formats.txt, included in the vectors package. Win – 97KB/Mac – 108KB

Textan: PC Type 1 / PC True Type / Mac Type 1 – Rich Parks designed and executed this well done set of 3 tangram fonts for Windows or Mac. Put a smile on my face when I stumbled across it at Apostrophiclab.com. Almost all the shapes are solvable, watch out for the G, K, X and Y and maybe others, though. A justifiable bit of artistic license for the sake of the font. You're on your own for the solutions sheet with this one. Any one care to make a matching solution font?

GAMES AND GENERATORS

crawdad — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 05:49:26 +0000

Peces: – A *very* nice Tangram program recently updated to include even more figures. Created by Innocent De Marchi. It comes with 4600 Tangram designs and also allows you to make, save and share your own creations. An online version is available to play on his site. The program also offers 17 other games, all playable at four skill levels, 9 different languages and 7 installation packages, all for free. Wow! Pick the language of your choice when you get to his web site.

Canvas Tangrams: – Canvas Tangrams is an on-going project by Roland Hentschel and Mirco Ackermann to display Tangrams in your browser window using HTML 5, CSS and javascript. Very well done with a large and growing list of shapes. Download your own copy, the link is on the right at the bottom of the page.

LetsTans 1.1: – Grabarchuk Puzzles has a slick looking Tangram game for your iPhone or iPod touch. 64 shapes and three distinct modes of play gives you 192 puzzles with sounds, animations, timer with pause, hints and rotation. If you want it right now, it's available at this Apps Store link.

Wintan 1: This is great! You enter some variables and get a set of possible shapes that you can view and save. You can also use the "Doodle" function to make your own shape. And it's all in a tiny package. Thanks to Eric Warsop for creating and sharing this program with us. Win 30KB!

Tangram 2002: A stand-alone Flash version to play on your machine. Quick, small and fun, it's by Richard Huntley of Polyhedral Design. Win 472KB

OOG: A four in one package by Joe Vitale. Not only can you play Tangrams, you get Pentominoes, Hexagons and Polyominoes. If that's not enough, it's now freeware! Stop by MCM Productions for the user name and password needed to convert it to the registered version. Win 467KB

Tangram 1.0: Easy to use freeware by Mark Overmars. It comes with a bonus editor for making your own figure sets to save and trade. Win 875KB

Tangrams 4.1 Win: / Tangrams 4.1 Mac: By S. T. Han. The popular (and rightly so) Mac or Windows shareware program. Win – 203KB/Mac – 406KB