There are 29 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Tessellations, you may find related items under Transformations and constructions.
Broad Topics > Transformations and constructions > Tessellations
Join pentagons together edge to edge. Will they form a ring?
Semi-regular tessellations combine two or more different regular polygons to fill the plane. Can you find all the semi-regular tessellations?
Take a look at the photos of tiles at a school in Gibraltar. What questions can you ask about them?
L triominoes can fit together to make larger versions of themselves. Is every size possible to make in this way?
Go on a vector walk and determine which points on the walk are closest to the origin.
What is the same and what is different about these tiling patterns and how do they contribute to the floor as a whole?
An environment that enables you to investigate tessellations of regular polygons
If the yellow equilateral triangle is taken as the unit for area, what size is the hole ?
Can you make a regular hexagon from yellow triangles the same size as a regular hexagon made from green triangles ?
This article explores the links between maths, art and history, and suggests investigations that are enjoyable as well as challenging.
Using these kite and dart templates, you could try to recreate part of Penrose's famous tessellation or design one yourself.
Have you ever tried tessellating capital letters? Have a look at these examples and then try some for yourself.
This practical investigation invites you to make tessellating shapes in a similar way to the artist Escher.
Can you find out how the 6-triangle shape is transformed in these tessellations? Will the tessellations go on for ever? Why or why not?
What mathematical words can be used to describe this floor covering? How many different shapes can you see inside this photograph?
Have you ever noticed how mathematical ideas are often used in patterns that we see all around us? This article describes the life of Escher who was a passionate believer that maths and art can be intertwined.
This article describes the scope for practical exploration of tessellations both in and out of the classroom. It seems a golden opportunity to link art with maths, allowing the creative side of your children to take over.
Triangle ABC has equilateral triangles drawn on its edges. Points P, Q and R are the centres of the equilateral triangles. What can you prove about the triangle PQR?
Use the interactivity to make this Islamic star and cross design. Can you produce a tessellation of regular octagons with two different types of triangle?
Show how this pentagonal tile can be used to tile the plane and describe the transformations which map this pentagon to its images in the tiling.
are somewhat mundane they do pose a demanding challenge in terms of 'elegant' LOGO procedures. This problem considers the eight semi-regular tessellations which pose a demanding challenge in terms of 'elegant' LOGO procedures.
Three examples of particular tilings of the plane, namely those where - NOT all corners of the tile are vertices of the tiling. You might like to produce an elegant program to replicate one or all of these.
Can you recreate these designs? What are the basic units? What movement is required between each unit? Some elegant use of procedures will help - variables not essential.
Using LOGO, can you construct elegant procedures that will draw this family of 'floor coverings'?
A triomino is a flat L shape made from 3 square tiles. A chess board is marked into squares the same size as the tiles and just one square, anywhere on the board, is coloured red. Can you cover the board with trionimoes so that only the square is exposed?
An activity making various patterns with 2 x 1 rectangular tiles.
Can you make these equilateral triangles fit together to cover the paper without any gaps between them? Can you tessellate isosceles triangles?
Penta people, the Pentominoes, always build their houses from five square rooms. I wonder how many different Penta homes you can create?