Known for his work and inventions on mathematics and geometry as well as in other fields, this scientist had designed a puzzle that has the title of the world’s oldest mathematical puzzle, in addition to the Pi number.
Can you solve this puzzle, which is very eye-catching with the shapes it contains and confuses people about how it can be solved?
This puzzle of Greek origin, also known as “stomachion” meaning stomach, was actually discovered by accident.
This tangram, found in a manuscript called Archimedes Palimpsest (Archimedes’ Scroll), is the oldest known mathematical puzzle. The reason for this accidental discovery is that the manuscript, which is said to have been written by Archimedes, was included in a prayer book in the 13th century and was redesigned.
In order for Palimpsest, which means a manuscript prepared for reuse by scraping or erasing, the pages of the book had to be removed and the writings cleaned to be ready for use.
Subsequently, the pages of the new book were created by dividing them into two in the middle and laying them on its side. It is also the world’s oldest math puzzle, on the last page of the Archimedes Scroll.
The German researcher Constantine Tischendorf suspected that the subtext of Palimpsest, used as a prayer book in the monastery, was a single work, and tore off a page from it to have it examined by various experts.
There were problems such as scraping, erasing and cutting in the texts. Fortunately, digital photography and infrared ray technology had improved somewhat during the period, and this prayer book could be read at an understandable level.
This math puzzle, also known as the “Archimedes box”, is actually a 14-piece jigsaw puzzle.
The purpose of Stomachion placed inside a square is to determine how many different ways the 14 puzzle pieces can be put together to make a square.
Although it is not known exactly how the game should be played, it is estimated how many different squares can be formed by using all the pieces in the tangram, based on the sentences of Archimedes in other sources.
Researchers worked hard to solve the puzzle, and in 2003 these efforts paid off in a way. A total of 17,152 possible solutions were found to solve this puzzle, with reflections and rotations.
No one knows whether Archimedes had considered the variety of possible answers.
But what is known for sure is that there are many different ways to solve this puzzle.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to see the original version of this puzzle with the naked eye today.
To make the Archimedes box understandable, it is necessary to use ultraviolet light and various computer imaging techniques.
- Sources: Vanishing Magic, The Guardian, Math World
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