Puzzle: A Tangled Teaser Puzzle Corner

This puzzle is unlike the others in this section. It is loosely patterned after the anamorphic art which first appeared in the 16th century. This type of art plays with tricks of perspective and involves distorting an image to create a hidden object within a painting that can only be seen from one particular viewing angle. Leonardo da Vinci was the first to experiment with anamorphic art. In a 1518 painting he included a hidden eye that could only be seen from one special angle. This seminal work was the first of many by various European artists that proliferated in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Instead of a hidden object within a painting, A Tangled Teaser presents a secret message for students to decode. The jumble of lines on the page can be read quite easily once you learn how to view it. When the message is decoded, students can be challenged to create similar messages of their own. This is easy to do using a draw program on the computer which can be used to stretch and distort text. The puzzle is being provided as a pdf file in order to preserve print quality.

Puzzle Presentation

  1. It is possible that some of your students have seen a puzzle similar to this one before. When introducing the puzzle, ask any students who know how to view the message to keep this a secret so that everyone can have a chance to solve the puzzle on their own.
  2. Because the only thing needed for this puzzle is the student sheet, A Tangled Teaser is especially good for students to take home and share with their parents.

A Tangled Teaser (640k) PDF file (requires Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later)
(If you have trouble downloading this file, try right-clicking over the link and selecting the "Save Target As..." or similar option from the popup menu.)

Solution Hint

Think about alternate ways to look at the paper.