We’ll start with the simplest type of tiling, called a regular tiling. In contrast, in our other examples there was just one shape.ĥ Alhambra The Alhambra, a Moor palace in Granada, Spain, is one of today’s finest examples of the mathematical art of 13th century Islamic artists.Ħ Tesselmania Motivated by what he experienced at Alhambra, Maurits Cornelis Escher created many tilings.ħ Regular tiling To talk about the differences and similarities of tilings it comes in handy to know some of the terminology and rules. This tiling doesn't have a regular, repeating pattern. Each piece of dried mud in a mudflat is a tile.
The honeycomb of a beehive is a periodic tiling by hexagons. Each colored square on the board is a tile, and the board is an example of a periodic tiling.Ĥ Examples Mother nature is a great producer of tilings. Chess and checkers are played on a tiling. The rectangular face of each brick is a tile on the wall.
The shapes were just really weird.ģ Examples Brick walls are tessellations. Remember the last jigsaw puzzle piece you put together? Well, that was a tessellation. 2 Tessellation A tessellation or a tiling is a way to cover a floor with shapes so that there is no overlapping or gaps.
