Mathematicians go to the garden gate but they never venture through to appreciate the delights within. -- M.C.Escher
March 11, 2004 4:55 AM   Subscribe

Tessellations :: the intersection between symmetry, mathematics, and art.
posted by anastasiav (9 comments total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
Escher!


posted by SpaceCadet at 6:02 AM on March 11, 2004


hofstadter discusses introducing distortions in tessellations in his book metamagical themas. a long time ago i wrote a simple bit of python code (nothing like as polished as the software at the link above) that helps generate such things [self link; note i have no email at the moment, so don't expect any support with that].
posted by andrew cooke at 6:44 AM on March 11, 2004


Nice site - though I've seen much of it, not all of it (not even all the Eschers). And it's easy to get around in and see the cool stuff.
posted by soyjoy at 7:19 AM on March 11, 2004


Related ideas come up with Penrose tiles. Consisting of two simple shapes, Penrose tiles can be placed to fill a plane -- but only aperiodically. Start laying them, and you'll never, ever find one area that exactly matches another.

The first things I'd want if I ever had the chance to build a home would be a very nice bath and kitchen. But not too long after that would be to have a fairly substantial area tiled in Penrose tiles -- there's something about having the floor of my house at the "center" of an infinite, never-repeating plane that appeals to me.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 7:44 AM on March 11, 2004


'cause there's nothing worse than sitting on the can and spacing out on the repeating patterns in the linoleum.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:44 AM on March 11, 2004


Hey, this is really cool! Of course, it's no Tesla.
posted by onlyconnect at 10:35 AM on March 11, 2004


Excellent link - thanks! I'll have to try this out myself - eventually. :-)
posted by thunder at 10:45 AM on March 11, 2004


I turned a tellelation in for a school project today.


You have no idea how painfully dull it is to paint 250or so of the same shape onto a board.
posted by llama3 at 10:54 AM on March 11, 2004


I wonder if Penrose would sue over the bathroom tiles, too...
posted by majcher at 12:50 PM on March 11, 2004


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