The Tangram Book FROM THE PUBLISHER
This first truly comprehensive and beautiful volume on one of the world's most popular and intriguing puzzles is an authoritative, lavishly photographed history of tangrams, and also a masterful introduction to puzzle solving, with more than 2,000 all-time tangrams. This accurate history of the classic Chinese art form comes from a tangram museum owner and his research team who discovered many treasures, such as the tangram sets used by Chinese mathematicians 2,200 years ago to test Pythagorean theorems. Photos show how to arrange tangram-shaped antique dinner tables for a variety of themes such as mountain ranges and celebration costumes. Among the puzzles for you to solve: paradoxical pairs that appear to be identical but differ in a hard-to-detect detail.
SYNOPSIS
This first truly authoritative, lavishly photographed history of Tangrams -- with more than 2,000 puzzles -- reveals the beauty of this ancient Chinese art. The in-depth historical information comes from a Tangram museum owner and his research team, and they discovered many treasures, such as the Tangram sets used by Chinese mathematicians 2,200 years ago to test Pythagorean theorems. You'll see the Tangrams Napoleon played with during his exile and find out how to arrange Tangram-shaped antique dinner tables for numerous themes.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
Tangrams, or Chinese puzzles, are deceptively simple-looking design figures formed from pieces of tile cut into geometric shapes. The problem lies in trying to form a pictured figure without knowing where the pieces are joined. With this book, Slocum (Puzzles Old and New) and a research team complete a project to find and translate every historic reference to tangrams ever published. The result is a fascinating historical summary, well illustrated with color facsimile pages and photographs of antique tangram sets. The last half of the book is devoted to sample problems from historic books along with line drawings showing solutions. Puzzle enthusiasts will love this book on a little-known topic. Highly recommended for collections on antiques, gaming, and all things Chinese. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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