Math toy exhibition highlights China's ancient math history

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 ◆ Math toy exhibition highlights China's ancient math history

Math toys dating back hundreds - even thousands - of years on display at a math toy exhibition in Beijing are attracting the attention of many visitors, as well as foreign mathematicians.

Participants in the International Congress of Mathematicians have crowded the "China's Ancient Mathematical Toys Exhibition" which features such ancient games as the nine-ring puzzle, Tangram, Hua Rong Trail, Lu Ban Lock and Sixiren.

The exhibition which started on Monday runs to next Tuesday.

Aiming to promote China's culture and raise public interest in math, the exhibition is sponsored by the China Science & Technology Museums and the Beijing Toys Association.

China has made a tremendous contribution to the world's mathematical development, and the math games and toys displayed provide interesting evidence, an exhibition brochure says.

Typical toys like the nine-ring puzzle, Tangram, Hua Rong Trail, Lu Ban Lock and Sixiren relate to geometry graph theory, operational research and other disciplines.

Those toys are known to westerners as "Chinese Puzzles." Dr.John Lee, in his The History of Chinese Science and Technology, called Tangram "one of the East's oldest forms of entertainment."

Japanese magazine Mathematical Science described the Hua-rong Trail as "one of the three most incredible examples of intelligence games."

Westerners also call the nine-ring puzzle the "Chinese Ring."

US intellectual Martin Gardner said the inspiration for the popular western toy "Donkey's Magic" originated from the Chinese Sixiren (figure celebrating four happy occasions).