Types of Dissection Puzzle
Some types of dissection puzzle are intended to create a large number of different geometric shapes. Tangram is a popular dissection puzzle of this type. The seven pieces can be configured into one of a few home shapes, such as the large square and rectangle that the pieces are often stored in, to any number of smaller squares, triangles, parallelograms, or esoteric shapes and figures. Some geometric forms are easy to create, while others present an extreme challenge. This variability has ensured the puzzle's popularity.
Other dissections are intended to move between a pair of geometric shapes, such as a triangle to a square, or a square to a five-pointed star. A dissection puzzle of this description is the haberdasher's problem, proposed in 1907 by Henry Dudeney. The puzzle is a dissection of a triangle to a square, in only four pieces. It is one of the simplest regular polygon to square dissections known, and is now a classic example.
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