As a country powerful in math, China has many folk games full of math wisdom (智慧). You may play many of them before. Let's take a look at three of them.
Chinese nine linked rings puzzle It's believed that the nine linked rings puzzle was created in the Western Han Dynasty. And it is usually made up of nine rings connected to a handle (手柄). Players have to remove (移除) all the rings from the handle to win the game. This is not a simple game. The solution takes 341 moves, so lots of patience is required. But if you learn to solve it, it's hard to forget. | |
Tangram First popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the tangram is a puzzle made up of seven pieces of different shapes. For each puzzle, players need to use all the pieces to make a shape. To do it, they have to know about geometry (几何学). In the 18th century, the tangram was brought to the West and soon became popular there. | |
Luban lock The Luban lock was first created by Lu Ban 2,000 years ago. The lock has a lot to do with solid geometry (立体几何). It's hard to separate the six pieces. However, it is usually easier to unlock a Luban lock than to put it back together. Now, there are Luban locks made up of nine or more pieces. |