The challenge of tangram is to arrange seven simple geometrical pieces called tans — two large triangles, two small triangles, a medium triangle, a square and a parallelogram — in all kinds of ways to make silhouettes that represent people, animals, objects or anything else you can think of. Our task is simply to recreate the silhouettes, using all the seven tans without overlapping. However, some experienced puzzle solvers say that people usually overestimate their abilities or underestimate the difficulty of the puzzle at the beginning stage of playing.

According to theories, those who use their left brain more tend to focus on logical thinking, analysis, and accuracy. Those who use the right brain more focus on aesthetics, feeling and creativity. Tangram can foster a more complete mental and aesthetic experience. Accomplished visual-spatial (right-brain) thinkers may find that solving tangrams exercises their logical reasoning abilities. And analytic (left-brain) thinkers may find it enhances their facility in playing with shape, colour and imagination.