The tangram is an intellectual puzzle game that originated in China, consisting of seven geometric pieces - five triangles and two quadrilaterals. The objective is to use all the pieces together to form different patterns of animals, objects, and shapes. Known as the "seven intriguing pieces" in China, tangrams became popular in Europe and America in the early 19th century and are still enjoyed as a puzzle today.

2. The tangram is an intellectual puzzle game, originated
in China. It consists of seven pieces, in the shapes of
triangles and quadrilaterals. Tangrams were called 七巧
板 or "Chi-Chiao Pan", meaning "the seven intriguing
pieces". The objective of the puzzle game is to form a
designated pattern using all the seven pieces
together. There are many patterns which may be formed
from the tangram pieces. These include basic geometric
patterns, shapes of animals, and various common objects.

3.  The tangram is one of the historical disection puzzles
originating from imperial China.
 Various tangram patterns may be form the simple geometric
pieces of the tangram puzzle.
 "New Figures of the Tangram" by Shan-Chiao, was published
in China in 1815, which contained 374 tangram patterns.
 These documentations were written during the reign of
emperor Chia-Ching, during the time when tangrams were at
the summit of its popularity in China.

4.  Known to the Chinese as the "wisdom puzzle", tangrams
have been well-known to the western world since the 19th
century.
 Well-known people, such as Edgar Allan Poe, Napoleon,
H.E.Dudeney, and Sam Loyd have all shown great interest in
tangrams.
 By 1817, tangrams had gain popularity in Europe and
America. In fact, the word tangram officially appeared in
Webster's dictionary in 1864.

5.  The tangram puzzle set is composed of seven pieces. Each of
these piece is called a tan. One of the piece is a square,
another piece is a rhomboid, and the other five pieces are
isosceles right triangles of various sizes.
 Of these triangular pieces, two are small size triangles, one
is a medium sized triangle and two are large size triangle.
 The area of a large size triangle is twice the area of the
medium size triangle. The area of the medium size triangle
is twice the area of an small size triangle. The area of the
square is also twice the area of an small size triangle.

6.  The area of the rhomboid is the same as that of the
square. All the angles in these pieces are either 45, 90 or
135 degrees. Making a tangram set from a piece of
square board is easy.

7.  A tangram can be made of thick cardboard, felt, foam
sheets, magnetic sheets, wood and more, the choice is
yours. You need a square sheet of the material you choose
to use: 12 x 12 cm is fine, a marker and a scissor The
Chinese made them from these ordinary materials as well
as precious metals, mother of pearl or ivory.