FOR FUN WITH THE FAMILY
The porcelain tower

The hobby that I am going to explain to you can be done with porcelain plates and saucers. So, I would advise you to use cardboard circles or, better, wooden circles, on which you will paint flowers, landscapes, dragons, pagodas, mandarins, etc. If your talents do not allow you to do this work of art, you will stick brightly colored images or pretty colored papers on your wooden circles.

Seven circles are enough. You will give them the diameter that you think is good. However, the most suitable dimension is ten centimeters in diameter for the largest circle and four centimeters for the smallest. The tower must be raised on a board on which you will have drawn three circles with a compass the diameter of the largest circle. For the sake of clarity, let us call these circles A, B and C.

Stack the circles on circle A, the largest being below and the smallest completing the building.

Now it is a question of transporting all the circles successively and taking only one at a time, from circle A to circles B and C, so that never a circle is covered by another of greater diameter. When the tower is formed at point C, the game is successful.

How to proceed. The process is very simple, but the maneuver is a little long.
Take the smallest circle, that is, the 7th, and place it in circle B. Take the circle that is uncovered, that is, the 6th, and place it in circle C. Place circle 7 on circle 6 and transport circle 5 to circle B. Place circle 7 on circle 4 and circle 6 on circle 5. Place circle 7 on circle 6. Transport circle 4 to circle C. Place circle 7 on circle 4 and circle 6 on circle 3. Place the circle on circle 6 and circle 5 on circle 4. Place circle 6 on circle 5 and circle 7 on circle 6. This detail seems complicated. It is in reality very simple.

The tower is already half built, at point C. Only the three largest circles are missing. The way to proceed is always the same and, as I would only be repeating what I have already said, let us stop there. Number your circles.
If you have circles larger than those whose dimensions I have given you, you can multiply their number. It is obvious that with sixteen circles of one or two centimeters thick, you will obtain a fairly imposing tower: but its construction would be long and, in short, the game would not have any more appeal.

Luc MEGRET,