The Herzberger Quader is a solid dissection puzzle invented by German mathematics teacher Gerhard Schulze.[1] It was named after his home-town Herzberg, and Quader is the latin-derived German word for a rectangular cuboid.
Design
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The Herzberger Quader consists of a set of all possible polycubes from dicube to tetracubes.[2] The eleven pieces together have 40 unit cubes and thus can be stored in a 2 × 4 × 5 box.[2]
Possible problems
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Besides stowing the Herzberger Quader in its box there are a lot of figures that can be built using all parts. Various subsets can be used to form a 3 × 3 × 3 cube, one of them is the famous Soma cube.[2]
Much more demanding tasks ask for the number of all different possibilities to arrange the initial parts in a certain figure. Or proofs are to be given for which figures can be realized or not realized with which polycubes.[2]
History
editAuthor of the Herzberger Quader is Oberstudienrat Gerhard Schulze (1919–1995), who was intensively engaged in mathematical games during his extracurricular activities in the years 1982–1994.[3] On the occasion of the 800th anniversary of his hometown Herzberg in 1984, the Herzberger Quader was produced for the first time and thus made known to a broad public. Today, the Herzberger Quader is suggested to be used in the context of mathematics education.[4][5]
References
edit- ^ B. Junghanns (1990). "31. Ausstellung 'Herzberger Spiele'". Mathematische Schülerzeitschrift alpha (in German). 24 (6): 137.
- ^ a b c d Gerhard Schulze (1997). "Der Herzberger Quader". Alpha – Mathematik Als Hobby (in German). 31: 73–105.
- ^ Gerhard Schulze (1994). "10 Jahre 'Herzberger Spiele'". Alpha – Mathematik Als Hobby (in German). 28 (1): 16–17.
- ^ Dirk Tönnies. "Herzberger Quader". Fachmoderator Mathematik (in German). Retrieved 2023-12-05.
- ^ Andreas Koepsell. "Bauen mit Klötzen". meinUnterricht (in German). Retrieved 2023-12-05.