Tessellations

Today we did some Geogebra activities. Following the procedures on work-sheets, we traced the angles along the x and y-axis and created a triangle. We then drew a second triangle using this weird method by clicking a button that enables us to make a copy of the triangle that originates from a certain point. We then did the same thing for the second activity only this time we had to make a reflection of the angle across the x-axis. The last work-sheet was the most confusing. Following the procedures, we had to draw a new triangle and then find the pre-images and reflections of each of the x and y-axis. On another table we had to find the x and y-coordinates using the horizontal line-slider and the vertical line-slider. I was really stumped because it was also confusing. I had to keep track of which triangles were the original and second triangles.

The professor showed us some art-works about tessellation. There were images made up of similar patterns that it was almost like an optical illusion. She also showed us a math video from “Cyberchase.” The topic was about tessellation. In this video an artist finds how he can move around similar objects to create a large object. But they all must be the same shape and they cannot over-lap or form gaps. Tessellation is a pattern made by repeating a regular polygon. They can be moved around using translation, rotation, and reflection.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/tessellation.html

Here is a very helpful link that further explains the methods of tessellation. There are different shapes and patterns. Notice how they are allowed to have more than one shape.

http://www.mathsisfun.com/geometry/tessellation.html

  

This is a really cool slide-show on tessellations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-3tOa9CPb0