Tessellations in Boston

While we were in Boston for our D.C. trip, I noticed a sidewalk that contained tessellations. The shapes fit in perfectly with no gaps or spaces. The pattern would be able to continue indefinitely. The basic definition of a tessellation is a random shape repeated over and over covering a plane with out any gaps or overlaps. Another word is tiling.

   

















Some further research shows that there are two main types of tessellations: regular and semi-regular.

Regular tessellations are patterns made by repeating a regular polygon. In that case there are only three types: squares, triangles and hexagons. For regular tessellations, the pattern is always the same at the vertex.

A semi-regular tessellation consisted of two or more regular polygons. As with the regular tessellations, the patterns must be the same at each vertex. (~IR1)