pieces include five triangles of various sizes, one square, and one parallelogram. All
the shapes must be used in the final form and none can overlap.
What is a stomachion?
A stomachion is a dissection puzzle similar to a Tangram. It uses 14 pieces in the puz-
zle, each of varying polygonal shapes and arranged into a 12 by 12 square grid. Each of
the pieces has an area that is an integral fraction: for example, 24, 12, 9, 6, or 3, of the
total area of the square, which is 144 units. The object of a stomachion is to arrange
the pieces into interesting, and often recognizable shapes, such as people, animals,
and objects.
This puzzle was also an ancient game known to the Greek mathematician
Archimedes (c. 287–212 BCE), and thus is also called the Loculus of Archimedes
(“Archimedes Box”). It is doubtful Archimedes invented the puzzle, but he did explore
its geometric aspects. It also now appears that in contemplating the different solutions
to this puzzle, Archimedes actually was anticipating the branch of mathematics we
now call combinatorics.
What are some other examplesof dissection puzzles?
There are several other example of dissection puzzles, including the following:
- The haberdasher problem
- Pythagorean square puzzle
- T-puzzle 423
RECREATIONAL MATH
What is a famous cryptarithmetic puzzle?
O
ne of the most famous cryptarithmetic puzzles was developed by English-
man Henry Ernest Dudeney (1857–1930) and published in a 1924 issue of
the Strand Magazine:In this puzzle, the addition sum of each letter represents a digit, with all the
letters being different digits. These letters represent the numbers as follows: O
0, M 1, Y 2, E 5, N 6, D 7, R 8, and S 9. Or106529567
+ 1085MONEYMORESEND
+