Egg Of Columbus (tangram Puzzle) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Egg of Columbus (''Ei des Columbus'' in
accessed 2008-10-11 Because the two pieces coloured turquoise in these diagrams lack
Egg of Columbus on the manufacturer's websiteTangram game player (free software) with the egg of Columbus puzzleMathLove Puzzle : The Magic Egg — How to make the Puzzle
(describes the geometry of the puzzle)
Mechanical puzzles {{puzzle-stub
The Egg of Columbus (''Ei des Columbus'' in German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
) is a puzzle
A puzzle is a game, Problem solving, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together (Disentanglement puzzle, or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at th ...
consisting of a flat egg
An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
-like shape divided into 9 or 10 pieces by straight cuts. The goal of the puzzle is to rearrange the pieces so as to form other specific shapes, as in a tangram
The tangram () is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat polygons, called ''tans'', which are put together to form shapes. The objective is to replicate a pattern (given only an outline) generally found in a puzzle book using all seven pi ...
.
The earliest known examples were produced by Richter, a German toy manufacturer. Production ceased in 1963, but restarted near the start of the 21st century.Put-Together - Ei Des Columbus aka Egg of Columbusaccessed 2008-10-11 Because the two pieces coloured turquoise in these diagrams lack
bilateral symmetry
Symmetry in biology refers to the symmetry observed in organisms, including plants, animals, fungi, and bacteria. External symmetry can be easily seen by just looking at an organism. For example, take the face of a human being which has a pla ...
, some shapes in which both pieces have the same chirality, as in two of the examples below, require one of them to be flipped over.
See also
*Egg of Columbus
An egg of Columbus or Columbus' egg ( it, uovo di Colombo ) refers to a brilliant idea or discovery that seems simple or easy after the fact. The expression refers to an apocryphal story, dating from at least the 16th century, in which it is sai ...
References
External links
Egg of Columbus on the manufacturer's website
(describes the geometry of the puzzle)
Mechanical puzzles {{puzzle-stub