Have you ever looked at a tiled floor or a brick wall and noticed how perfectly the shapes fit together? If so, you’ve admired a tessellation.
Three tessellation patterns.
A tessellation is a special kind of pattern made of shapes. To be a true tessellation, the shapes must fit together like puzzle pieces following two strict rules. There cannot be any empty spaces between the shapes, and the shapes cannot overlap. Imagine trying to cover a piece of paper with sticky notes. If you line them up perfectly side-by-side, you are creating a tessellation.
You can see tessellations in nature, such as the pattern on a turtle’s shell, the skin of a pineapple, or the honeycomb in a beehive made of interlocking hexagons (six-sided shapes). Chain link fences are tessellations made of diamond shapes.
Examples of tessellations in the world around us: a chain link fence, a beehive, a soccer ball.
At the MagLab, scientists study many materials that are made of tiny building blocks in repeating patterns just like the tessellations you can create in this activity.
What You’ll Need
- Sturdy paper of card stock
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Tape
- Crayons, markers, or colored pencils for decorating.
What You’ll Do
1. Cut your paper into a square, with four equal sides
2. Lay your square flat. Draw a squiggly, wavy, or zigzag line from the top-left corner across to the top-right corner. Keep it simple for your first try.
3. Carefully cut along your line. Take the piece you just cut off, and line up the straight edges perfectly. Do not flip or turn the piece—just slide it like an elevator. Tape it securely to the bottom edge.
4. Now, do the same thing on the sides. Draw a new squiggly line from the top-left corner down to the bottom-left corner.
5. Cut along this new line. Slide this piece straight across to the right edge of the card. Match up the straight edges perfectly without flipping it, and tape it down. You now have your master puzzle piece.
6. Place your strange new shape in the middle of your large drawing paper. Trace around it carefully with a pencil.
7. Pick up your shape, slide it over, and lock it into the outline you just drew. It should fit perfectly like a puzzle. Trace it again. Repeat this until your entire paper is covered in interlocking shapes.
8. Color and decorate your shape and your entire paper as you wish!
Did you know?
- A classic soccer ball is a tessellation on a sphere made of a pattern of pentagons (five-sided shapes) and hexagons (six-sided shapes) linked together.
- Only three regular shapes (meaning all sides and angles are equal) can tessellate by themselves-- the triangle, the square, and the hexagon.
