TESSELLATION

tes·sel·la·tion
/ˌtesəˈlāSH(ə)n/
noun
noun: tessellation; plural noun: tessellations; noun: tesselation; plural noun: tessellations
the process or art of tessellating a surface, or the state of being tessellated.

an arrangement of shapes closely fitted together, especially of polygons in a repeated pattern

without gaps or overlapping.
(source: oxford dictionary)

The word tessellation originates from the ancient Greek word tessares, meaning four or four-
cornered. The Latin word tessera means cube or die and tessella refers to small squares laid in a
mosaic. From these ancient words derive similar terms in various practical applications.

In mathematics, tessellation refers to the study of “tiling” or how regular shapes can be placed to
fill an infinite space with no gaps and no overlapping shapes. This is a mathematical discipline
which has been evolving since the early 17th century and formally recognized in the 19th
century.

Types of Tessellations
Tessellations can be divided into several categories; sample subsets include the following:

 Regular Tessellations
Regular tessellations form patterns consisting of a
single shape. Only three types of regular tessellations
exist: triangles, squares, and hexagons. These shapes
by themselves can fill a surface because their interior
angles are exact divisors of 360°. Of these shapes, only
the squares line up with one another without requiring
rotating or shifting.

 Semi-Regular Tessellations
Semi-regular tessellations combine two types of polygons
that share a common vertice. For example, a regular
hexagon with a 1″ side can line up with a 1″ square. Nine
types of semi-regular tessellations exist.

 Replicating Shapes
(Rep-Tiles)
Rep-tiles consist of congruent shapes that are rotated to create
ever-larger versions of the shaped in an infinite series. Often
called polyforms, rep-tiles are implicit in such phenomena as
the classic illustration of the Golden Mean and the Penrose
Tile.
  3D Tessellations
Tessellations can take 3 dimensional forms as
in truncated octahedrons and in geodesic
domes. Such forms can combine
combinations of shapes; only five are regular
polyhedra (i.e. platonic) shapes.

 Non-Periodic Tessellations
Non-periodic (aperiodic) tilings have no regular,
repetitious patterns but rather evolve as they expand over
a plane. The Dutch artist M.C. Escher produced well-
known examples of such tilings, such as his graphic of
birds that morph into triangles.

FRACTALS
frac·tal
/ˈfraktəl/
noun
plural noun: fractals
a curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole.
Fractals are useful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlines or snowflakes) in which
similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic
phenomena such as crystal growth, fluid turbulence, and galaxy formation.

The name “fractals” is derived from the fact that fractals don’t have a whole number dimension –
they have a fractional dimension. Initially this may seem impossible – what do you mean by a
dimension like 2.5 – but it becomes clear when we compare fractals with other shapes.

Fractals are some of the most beautiful and most bizarre geometric shapes. They look the same at
various different scales – you can take a small extract of the shape and it looks the same as the
entire shape. This curious property is called self-similarity.

To create a fractal, you can start with a simple pattern and repeat it at smaller scales, again and
again, forever. In real life, of course, it is impossible to draw fractals with “infinitely small”
patterns. However we can draw shapes which look just like fractals. Using mathematics, we can
think about the properties a real fractal would have – and these are very surprising.
 To create the Sierpinski Gasket, start with a triangle and
repeatedly cut out the centre of every segment. Notice how,
after a while, every smaller triangle looks exactly the same as
the whole.

To create the
von Koch Snowflake you also start with a triangle
and repeatedly add a smaller triangle to every
segment of its edge. After a while, the edge looks
exactly the same at small and large scales.

Pascal’s Triangle is a number pyramid in which

every number is the sum of the two numbers
above.

MEANDER
me·an·der
/mēˈandər/
verb
3rd person present: meanders
(of a river or road) follow a winding course.
"a river that meandered gently through a meadow"

Meander, which comes from Greek Maiandros—an old name for a river in Asia Minor that is
now known as the Menderes—implies a winding course and lazy movement, and it is still
sometimes associated with rivers (as in, "the river meandered through the town"). Meander can
also be used as a noun meaning "a winding path."

In mathematics, a meander or closed meander is a self-avoiding closed curve which intersects a

line a number of times. Intuitively, a meander can be viewed as a road crossing a river through a
number of bridges.
A meandric permutation of order n is defined on the set {1, 2, ..., 2n}
and is determined by a meandric system in the following way:

 With the line oriented from left to right, each intersection of the
meander is consecutively labelled with the integers, starting at 1.
 The curve is oriented upward at the intersection labelled 1.
 The cyclic permutation with no fixed points is obtained by
following the oriented curve through the labelled intersection
points.

In the diagram on the right, the order 4 meandric permutation is given by

(1 8 5 4 3 6 7 2). This is a permutation written in cyclic notation and not to be confused with
one-line notation.

WAVES AND DUNES

dune
/d(y)o͞on/
noun
plural noun: dunes
a mound or ridge of sand or other loose sediment formed by the wind, especially on the sea coast
or in a desert.

An area with dunes is called a dune system. In physical geography, a dune is a hill of loose sand
built by aeolian processes or the flow of water. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, formed
by interaction with the flow of air or water. Dunes can be natural, but also man made.

Types of Dunes
Sand dunes are part of nature’s scintillating creations. They are mounds formed by loose grains
of sand blown by the wind and gathered in one place creating a small hill. Sand dunes cannot be
formed without sand and wind.

 Star dunes are sand dunes that form in a sandy

desert when the direction of the wind changes a lot. These
dunes have three or more “arms”, usually irregularly
shaped. The dunes may grow to a considerable height and
are generally taller than other types of sand dune.

 Linear dunes are long, narrow sand dunes that

form in ridges that are roughly parallel, or side by
side. A linear dune is the most common type of
sand dune and is also known as a seif dune. Linear
dunes are shaped by winds blowing in two
directions.
  Parablic sand U-shaped mounds of sand
with convex noses trailed by elongated arms are
parabolic dunes. These dunes are formed from
blowout dunes where the erosion of vegetated sand
leads to a U-shaped depression.

 A barchan sand dune is a crescent-shaped

dune. It has a steep slip face whose tips point
away from the wind. The dunes are separated
from each other and keep moving along the
surface of the barren deserts. In most cases,
the creation of barchans takes place where
there are limited portions of sand.

 Reversing sand dunes can be found in

areas where the wind periodically changes
direction or reverses its direction. The winds
blowing in the opposite directions have a
balanced combination of duration and
strength.

SPOTS AND STRIPES

spot
/spät/
noun
a small round or roundish mark, differing in color or texture from the surface around it.
"ladybugs have black spots on their red wing covers"

stripe
/strīp/
noun
plural noun: stripes
a long narrow band or strip, typically of the same width throughout its length, differing in color
or texture from the surface on either side of it.
"a pair of blue shorts with pink stripes"
Suppose we have two chemicals, A and B, called morphogens, with A triggering hair colouring
and B not doing so. In regions where A is abundant, the hair is black; where B is dominant, it is
white. Now suppose that A is auto-catalytic, that is, it stimulates production of further A
molecules. Suppose it also catalyses production of B, whereas B suppresses production of A.
Thus A is called an activator and B an inhibitor.

Clearly, a local concentration of A will lead to an increase of both A and B. But now comes the
crucial assumption: the inhibitor B diffuses faster than the activator A. So B spreads out faster
than A in an annular region surrounding the initial concentration, forming a barrier region where
concentration of A is reduced. The end result is a localised spot of black hair where A is
plentiful, surrounded by a region of white hair.

What is going on is a competition between the reaction and diffusion processes. The details of
the resulting pattern depend on the values of ‘parameters’ such as reaction rates and diffusion
coefficients, and a wide range of geometrical patterns of hair colouring can result from this
mechanism.

Many reaction-diffusion models have been proposed, with varying details of the reactions, some
having three or more morphogens. One model is based on the Schnakenberg equations:

The parameters α and β are production rates, γ measures the relative strengths of reactions and
diffusion and δ >1 measures the enhanced diffusion of B relative to A.

Spots and Stripes

There is a simple solution of the Schnakenberg equations: if A and B are constants, independent
of both space and time, they solve the system if A = α+β and B = β / (α+β)2. If we start with this
solution perturbed by small random variations, the solution evolves into a pattern with large-
scale features which depend on the parameter values.

The figure below shows the concentration of chemical A after the system reaches equilibrium,
for a range of values of γ. High values of A are shaded black, as hair colouring in these regions is
expected to be black. For small values of γ, the regions are large, and stripe-like. For large values
of γ, the black hair is confined to small spots like those on the coat of a cheetah.
Many other patterns can be generated by varying the other parameters. Thin stripes like those on
an angel fish, or thick stripes like those of a zebra or even panda can be generated, and clusters
of spots found on a leopard can be produced. A wide range of equation systems have been
investigated.

While the Turing mechanism has not been unequivocally proven to be the actual mechanism
acting in living systems, it is certainly capable of producing many of the patterns found in nature.