From: scerir (scerir@libero.it)
Date: Sat Mar 02 2002 - 06:23:12 MST
> Da: Amara Graps <amara@amara.com>
> From Rviel Netz' June 2000 Physics Today article (pg. 36), Box 3:
> "The Eurekas of Archimedes" <snip>
> * Stomachion. Only a fragment survives. Apparently this is a study
> in a tangram-like game, where area are covered by given geometrical
> figures (tiling!)
Caesius Bassus speaks of a toy called 'Archimedes' box':
'nam si loculus ille Archimedius, <qui> quattuordecim eboreas lamellas,
quarum varii anguli sunt, in quadratam formam inclusas habet, componentibus
nobis aliter atque aliter modo galeam, modo sicam, alias columnam, alias
navem figurat et innumerabiles efficit species, solebatque nobis pueris hic
loculus ad confirmandam memoriam prodesse plurimum, quanto maiorem poetst
nobis adferre voluptatem quantoque pleniorem utilitatem carmina inter manus
habentibus metrorum varia tractatio, cum subinde apud poetas ea quae
fallunt imperitos metra inserta numeris et intermixta carminibus hac arte
deprehendemus?'
Apparently the box contains 14 plates of differing shape (defined by the
'varii anguli') which fold up into a square inside the box and which can be
opened out selectively and combined to depict a helmet, a dagger, a column,
a ship and countless other shapes.
You can see this 'Stomachion' at
http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Stomachion/intro.html
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