A tessellation is the tiling of a plane using one or more geometric shapes, called tiles, with no overlaps and

no gaps. In mathematics, tessellations can be generalized to higher dimensions.

Some special kinds of tessellations include regular, with tiles all of the same shape; semi-regular, with tiles
of more than one shape; and aperiodic tilings, which use tiles that cannot form a repeating pattern. The
patterns formed by periodic tilings can be categorized into 17 wallpaper groups.
In computer graphics, the term "tessellation" is used to describe the organization of information needed
to render to give the appearance of the surfaces of realistic three-dimensional objects.
In the real world, a tessellation is a tiling made of physical materials such ascemented ceramic squares or
hexagons. Such tilings may be decorativepatterns, or may have functions such as providing durable and
water-resistantpavement, floor or wall coverings. Historically, tessellations were used in Ancient Rome and
in Islamic art such as in the decorative tiling of the Alhambra palace. In the twentieth century, the work of M.
C. Escher often made use of tessellations for artistic effect. Tessellations are sometimes employed for
decorative effect in quilting. Tessellations form a class of patterns in nature, for example in the arrays
of hexagonal cells found in honeycombs.

History[edit]
Tessellations were used by the Sumerians (about 4000 BC) in building wall decorations formed by patterns
of clay tiles.
[1]

In 1619 Johannes Kepler made one of the first documented studies of tessellations when he wrote about
regular and semiregular tessellation, which are coverings of a plane with regular polygons, in
his Harmonices Mundi.
[2]
Some two hundred years later in 1891, the Russian crystallographerYevgraf
Fyodorov proved that every periodic tiling of the plane features one of seventeen different groups of
isometries.
[3][4]
Fyodorov's work marked the unofficial beginning of the mathematical study of tessellations.
Other prominent contributors include Shubnikov and Belov (1951); and Heinrich Heesch and Otto Kienzle
(1963).
A monohedral tiling is a tessellation in which all tiles are congruent; it has only one prototile. A particularly
interesting type of monohedral tessellation is the spiral monohedral tiling. The first spiral monohedral tiling
was discovered by Heinz Voderberg in 1936, with the Voderberg tiling having a unit tile that is a
nonconvex enneagon.
[1]
The Hirschhorn tiling, published by Michael D. Hirschhorn and D. C. Hunt in 1985,
has a unit tile that is an irregular pentagon.
[12][13]

A regular tessellation is a highly symmetric, edge-to-edge tiling made up of regular polygons, all of the
same shape. There are only three regular tessellations: those made up of equilateral triangles, squares, or
regular hexagons. All three of these tilings are isogonal and monohedral.
[14]

A semi-regular (or Archimedean) tessellation uses more than one type of regular polygon in an isogonal
arrangement. There are eight semi-regular tilings (or nine if the mirror-image pair of tilings counts as
two).
[15]
These can be described by their vertex configuration; for example, a semi-regular tiling using
squares and regular octagons has the vertex configuration 4.8
2
(each vertex has one square and two
octagons).
[16]

Voronoi or Dirichlet tilings are tessellations where each tile is defined as the set of points closest to one of
the points in a discrete set of defining points. (Think of geographical regions where each region is defined
as all the points closest to a given city or post office.)
[18][19]
The Voronoi cell for each defining point is a
convex polygon. The Delaunay triangulation is a tessellation that is the dual graph of a Voronoi tessellation.
Delaunay triangulations are useful in numerical simulation, in part because among all possible
triangulations of the defining points, Delaunay triangulations maximize the minimum of the angles formed
by the edges.
[20]

In architecture, tessellations have been used to create decorative motifs since ancient
times. Mosaic tilings were used by the Romans, often with geometric patterns.
[35]
Later civilisations also
used larger tiles, either plain or individually decorated. Some of the most decorative were the Moorish wall
tilings of buildings such as the Alhambra and the Crdoba, Andalusia mosque of La Mezquita.
Tessellated designs also often appear on textiles, either woven or stitched in or printed. In the context
of quilting, tessellation refers to regular
[36]
and semiregular
[37]
of tessellation of either patch shapes or the
overall design. Tessellation patterns have been used to design interlocking motifs of patch
shapes.
[38][39]
The repeating motif is sometimes called a block design.
[36]

In graphic art, tessellations frequently appeared in the works of M. C. Escher, who was inspired by studying
the Moorish use of symmetry in the tilings he saw during a visit to Spain in 1936.
[40]

In nature[edit]
The honeycomb provides a well-known example of tessellation in nature.
In botany, the term "tessellate" describes a checkered pattern, for example on a flower petal, tree bark, or
fruit. Flowers including the Fritillary and some species of Colchicum are characteristically tessellate.
Basaltic lava flows often display columnar jointing as a result of contraction forces causing cracks as the
lava cools. The extensive crack networks that develop often produce hexagonal columns of lava. One
example of such an array of columns is the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.
Tessellated pavement, a characteristic example of which is found at Eaglehawk Neck on the Tasman
Peninsulaof Tasmania, is a rare sedimentary rock formation where the rock has fractured into rectangular
blocks.

Tessellations and colour[edit]
Sometimes the colour of a tile is understood as part of the tiling, at other times arbitrary colours may be
applied later. When discussing a tiling that is displayed in colours, to avoid ambiguity one needs to specify
whether the colours are part of the tiling or just part of its illustration. This affects whether tiles with the
same shape but different colours are considered identical, which in turn affects questions of symmetry.
The four colour theorem states that for every tessellation of a normal Euclidean plane, with a set of four
available colours, each tile can be coloured in one colour such that no tiles of equal colour meet at a curve
of positive length. The colouring guaranteed by the four-colour theorem will not in general respect the
symmetries of the tessellation.
To produce a colouring which does, it is necessary to treat the colours as part of the tessellation. here, as
many as seven colours may be needed, as in the picture at right.
[26]

Examples
Probably the best known example of tessellated patterns has been the Alhambra palace, an Islamic
architectural marvel located in Granada, Spain. Its floors, walls, and ceilings are literally covered with
tessellations and other repeating patterns.
In recent times, tessellations have appeared on floors, walls, ceilings, and buildings, and in ceramics,
clothing designs, rugs, wallpaper, and stained-glass windows. They have continued to be an art form with
artists such as Maurits Escher, Victor Vasarely, and Bridget Riley, who have explored variations and
extensions of tilings on the plane.
Visit the historical gallery for many examples of tessellations as they have appeared in everyday life.