Tessellations

Objective: To understand and construct tessellations using

polygons
 360
Starter Activity n

1. What’s the size of an 2. What’s the size of an interior

exterior angle of a regular: angle of a regular:

a) square? a) square?

b) pentagon? b) pentagon?

c) hexagon? c) hexagon?
 Recap

External angle

Size of 1 360
=
external angle n

Internal angle

Size of 1
= 180 – external angle
internal angle
What is tessellation?
A tessellation is the covering
of a surface, often a plane,
using one or more geometric
shapes, called tiles, with no
overlaps and no gaps. In
mathematics, tessellation can
be generalized to higher
dimensions and a variety of
geometries.
Which regular polygons tessellate?
Equilateral Triangles: Do tessellate 
Regular Pentagons: Don’t tessellate
Regular Hexagons: Do tessellate 
 Regular Octagons: Don’t tessellate:

This is called a semi-regular tessellation since more than one regular

polygon is used.
 Regular Size of each Size of each interior Does this polygon
Polygon exterior angle angle tessellate?

Equilateral
Triangle

Square

Regular
Pentagon

Regular
Hexagon

Regular
Octagon

Regular
Decagon
There are only 3 regular tessellations. Can you see why?

60o
60o 60o 90o 90o 120o
60o 120o
60o 90o 90o 120o
60o

108o
108o
135o 135o
36o 108o
90o

Consider the sum of the interior angles about the indicated point.