Introduction

Tiling is part of a wider topic called Tesselation, the way identical shapes fit together on a plane without leaving any gaps.  Some shapes tile very easily for example

Some shapes don't tesselate e.g.

Do all triangles tesselate on the plane?

M.C.Escher

The master of tesselation and tiling is M.C.Escher here is an example of his work:

For more pictures by escher click here

Activity

Make your own tesselations by cutting out the following hexagons and making a new pattern

or view as PDF

Examples