History of the Tangram

The Tangram originated somewhere in China. It is not know when the first Tangram made its appearance, but it was certainly long ago, before the first known book was ever printed in China. Some believe the Tanka people discovered the trinket and used it to entertain western sailors who came to trade with them. Others hold onto the legend that a Chinese tile maker accidentally dropped a ceramic tile, and it broke into pieces exactly in the form of the Tangram. The tile maker knew it was once a perfect square tile, but could not figure out how to put it back together. In current times, the Tangram is not only used to entertain and dumbfound, but it is also used in school competitions to see what kinds of shapes can be formed with the seven simple pieces.