Patterns in the plane

This topic begins to explore the use of maths in art and design.

Tesselatio n

What is tessellation?
Tessellation is a pattern which completely covers a surface or plane without any overlapping of the shapes used. A tessellation or tiling of the plane is a collection of plane figures that fills the plane with no overlaps and no gaps

History of tessellation Tessellations frequently appeared in the art of M. C. Escher. Tessellations are seen throughout art history, from ancient architecture to modern art. In Latin, tessella is a small cubical piece of clay, stone or glass used to make mosaics.[1] The word "tessella" means "small square" (from "tessera", square, which in its turn is from the Greek word for "four"). It corresponds with the everyday term tiling which refers to applications of tessellations, often made of glazed clay.

What is the simplest types of tessellation of the plane? those using just one shape.

Using Squares? Rectangles? Triangles?

Draw the tessellation.

Definition of polygon:
A polygon is a plane figure with 3 or more straight line segments as its sides. Polygons are usually named according to the number of sides they have. From the Greek, and end in gon. eg. pentagon, hexagon, heptagon, octagon, decagon, dodecagon. (5,6,7,8,9,10,12)

Definition of a regular polygon: It has all its sides equal and all its angles equal. eg. Squares, equilateral triangles
How many regular polygons which alone completely cover the plane? Draw and check! These tessellations are called the regular tessellation.

Equilateral triangle: - Angle size 600, 6 triangles meeting at each vertex , since 6 x 600 = 3600 Square? Regular hexagon?

Angle size for some regular polygon

No. of sides Angle No.of sides Angle

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

600 900

10 11 12 18 36 100 1000

a = 180 - 360/n a : the angle

n : number of sides.