Why Study Tangrams?

Date: 10/27/1999 at 09:49:48
From: Karen Chandler
Subject: Geometry

How can a person use tangrams in the real world? I mean, what uses in 
the professional system could a person use tangrams?

Date: 10/27/1999 at 12:25:13
From: Doctor Peterson
Subject: Re: Geometry

Hi, Karen.

We get lots of questions about how you'll ever use algebra or geometry 
or something, but in this case I can happily answer that tangrams are 
just a game.

So why would a teacher bother to play such a game with you? For that 
matter, why do they teach you baseball or tennis? True, there are no 
professional tangram leagues, but few of us will ever play even those 
games professionally. We play games like these because they can help 
us develop various skills - how to visualize shapes, which can be 
useful in putting anything together, or in designing products; how to 
solve a problem by trying different possibilities in an orderly way; 
and so on. 

Maybe you can think of more skills to practice with tangrams. 

- Doctor Peterson, The Math Forum
  http://mathforum.org/dr.math/