Tessellations - Maple Help
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Tessellations

Main Concept

Tessellations are patterns typically made of identical shapes that cover a plane with no overlaps or gaps. This app demonstrates periodic tessellations - tessellations with repeated patterns. Tessellations are featured extensively in ancient Roman, Greek and Islamic art, such as in mosaics, quilts, floor tilings and pavements. A classic example of tessellations in nature is the hexagonal-tiling of a honeycomb.

 

Choose your shape to tessellate. You may drag around the vertices of an irregular quadrilateral to reshape it. You may also customize your own pattern by using the tiles panel in the bottom right corner. Once you have customized your shape, click 'Tessellate'. Explore by changing your view of the tessellation. Click on the plot and scroll up to zoom in or scroll down to zoom out.

 

 

 

     

 

Shapes

 

Regular

         

         

         

 

  Irregular Quadrilaterals

           

 

  Escher-style Tiles (below)

 

 

Colors

 

Color 1:       

 

Color 2:       

 

Color 3:       

 

Draw Shape Outline

Customized Tiles

Click on the palette and the grid, respectively to select and fill tiles with different patterns. Choose from the different tile-reflection options. The reflections of a painted tile only apply within its 4x4 grid.

    Type:

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MathApps/AlgebraAndGeometry