All+About+Tessellations

Tessellations are a collection of figures moving in a repeating pattern with no gaps or overlaps. There are four basic types of Tessellations. There are Translations, Rotations, Reflections, and Gliding Reflections. A Translation is a repeating pattern that slides horizontally and vertically. A Rotation is a repeating pattern that rotates around a point. A Reflection is a shape that has flipped to reflect itself. A Gliding Reflection is a tessellation where translation and reflection are been used.  M. C. Escher was known as the king of tessellations. He was Born in 1898 and died in 1972. He used tessellations to create images that played with the pictorially logical and the visually impossible. During his lifetime he created numerous drawings and sketches of tessellations. He made tessellations into what people view them as today. They have been seen throughout history from ancient architecture to modern art and tiling. The oldest tessellation ever discovered was in 4000 BC in the Sumerian civilization where it was used to decorate walls and floors. Also in Ancient Mesopotamia in 3000 BC they were used for decoration also. Tessellations appear in almost every culture since the dawn of civilized man. There were Tessellations in Ancient Greek and Ancient Rome decorating their temple floors. There are many applications of tessellations. The first example is mathematics. The first to study the mathematical properties of tessellations was Johannes Keplar in 1619. He studied regular and semiregular tessellations which are the covering of a plane with regular polygons. In 1891a Russian by the name of E.S. Fedorov studied tessellated tilings which started the unofficial study of mathematical tessellations. Other researchers in this field include Shubnikov and Belov(1951) and Heinrich Heesch and Otto Kienzle(1963). There also applications of tessellations in several areas of science. One of those they are used in the conservation of reducing the amount of scrap metal used in machine by cutting materials so closely that there is no waste product. The symmetry part of tessellations also is relevant in quantum mechanics. It is also used in X-ray Crystallography (a field of science involved in the repeating arrangement of identical objects in nature). Other scientific fields of research associated with tessellations include geology, biology and cryptology (the study of using secret codes in communication). Architecture is another area where tessellations are used extensively both two-dimensionally and three-dimensionally. They are especially used in two-dimensionally because they are pleasing to the eye when they cover a large area. Three-dimensional tessellations are used ind architecture by changing the shape of the basic building blocks, but this requires extensive planning and requires complex computer programming. They are everywhere in nature, some of the most beautiful tessellations appear all around us in. An example being a snapping turtle, although it is not the most beautiful animal its shell is covered in nature’s simple tessellation. Also there are tessellations on snake skin, alligators, honeycombs, armadillo armor and spider webs. Tessellations are also apparent in mudflats and some stones. Even on a molecular level we still have tessellations. the ocean is a sea of tessellations, including sand dollars, scallops, sea urchin, coral, and tropical fish. The most common use of tessellations is in art. Artists have been using tessellations in their art for thousands of years. In ancient Islamic religion they used found ways to use tessellations in their art because they were forbidden to use people or anything living in their art. Since Quilting was invented tessellations have been used to beautify the quilts. Commercial artists use tessellations in their art to catch the eye of possible buyers. Celtic art holds has tessellations in it. Wilson Bentley showed us beautiful tessellation in snowflakes. Tessellations are all around us and are older than man. Nature has been making tessellations since the creation of the earth. They have many uses and are under appreciated by everyone. Next time you take a bite of your sandwich remember that you just ate a tessellation of molecules and cells. Without tessellation there would be a lot less art in the world and architecture would be plain and boring. Tessellation are AWESOME!