I was recently researching Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals and Islamic mosques for a paper in Art History, which prompted me to think about the intricate and decorative patterns used on the interior of the mosques. Interestingly, many of these patterns are
I was recently researching Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals and Islamic mosques for a paper in Art History, which prompted me to think about the intricate and decorative patterns used on the interior of the mosques. Interestingly, many of these patterns are geometric tessellations — the repetition of shapes to create patterns in which there are no gaps or overlaps of any of the shapes. The word tessellation itself is derived from the Greek word “tesseres,” or “four,” which corresponds with the fact that the first tessellations were initially made from four-sided squares.
I first became familiar with tessellations as a child when watching an episode of Cyberchase, a PBS Kids show about math, in which the characters use patterns of tessellations to make rafts and other gapless devices so they can traverse over lava, piranhas, and other dangerous obsta