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The Toy Museum of Catalonia

Jigsaw puzzle. The perfect squaring of the square

Jigsaw puzzle that conceals a mathematical riddle: the perfect squaring of the square. Photo by MJC. The Toy Museum of Catalonia. Figueres.

 

Jigsaw puzzle that conceals a mathematical riddle: the perfect squaring of the square. Photo by MJC. The Toy Museum of Catalonia. Figueres.

 

Logical reasoning, the basis of mathematics, forms part of solving jigsaw puzzles. There are those that contain geometric formulae, like the perfect squaring of the square, which consists of filling the square with smaller squares, all of different sizes. In 1978, Dutchman A. J. W. Duijvestijn discovered the smallest possible quadrature: a 112 × 112 square made up of 21 squares.

The Museum has a substantial collection of jigsaws made of wood, plastic, cardboard, metal and glass, enlarged thanks to the donation that engineer Francesc Castanyer Figueras made of his own collection.

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