It is such fun to do some tessellating!
I've been using some Polydron (plastic shapes which click together)
and making some rules before setting off:
Rule one - we will use six equilateral triangles for a shape and
that'll be our tessellating shape.
Rule two - we can flip the shape over and turn it around but the
basic shape - the way the triangles are connected - must remain the
same.
Well, here's one I started with:
Then I tried to put a number of these together;
I had to flip the brown one over to get the red one, rotate it to
get the blue one, and so on.
Having done this much of the tessellation, I could see that it
could easily continue on for ever!
Can you find out or see why?
Then I tried another:
This came about by just turning the brown one around to get the
greens and blue.
Do you think this one could go on and on? If so, why?
Now the third one I got was like this:
This I rather liked because it seemed to be complete and did not
have anything sticking out.
I wonder if you can see what flips and turns I did with the pink
one to get some of the others?
Would this one go on and on?
If so, how would you go about it?
Well there's the last one I'm sharing.
What can you say about it?
Well I think it's your turn (or flip!!).
What ones can you make?
You could start with the 6 put together like mine - and maybe try
to do one of those above.
OR
You could find other tessellating shapes with the same starting
shape.
OR
You could design your own 6-triangle shape and start
tessellating.