Some spirals and tessellations
Problem
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Aspiral is a curve formed by a point moving around a fixed point and constantly moving away from or approaching the fixed point. |
This month, building on the idea that many sets of things can be placed in a spiral configuration, we consider the following program based on Fig.1:
TO TRAP :S1 :S2 :ANG IF :S1 > 100 [STOP] FD :S1 RT :ANG FD :S2/SIN :ANG RT (180 - :ANG) FD :S1 + :S2 * TAN (90 - :ANG) RT 90 FD :S2 RT 90 FD :S1 LT (90 - :ANG) TRAP :S1/SIN :ANG :S2/SIN :ANG :ANG END
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Try TRAP 5 25 60 as a starter for your investigations. See what spirals you can generate now.
While still in the realm of geometry a consideration of tessellations, tiles and tilings is long overdue.
Cundy C.M. and Rollett A. P. in 'Mathematical Models' give a good introduction to the plane tessallations.
First consider the three regular tessellations based on the square, equilateral triangle and regular hexagon respectively as below.
Can you devise a set of elegant procedures to illustrate these somewhat lacklustre tilings? But colour them much more imaginatively! [Hint: try drawing them freehand before thinking about construction procedures.]
Getting Started
Try changing one variable at a time.
Some LOGO programmes will allow you to "step through" the procedure so you can see what each instruction does.
Student Solutions
Did you base your tessellation on the polygon or the lines?
Teachers' Resources
what basic unit will you use - a line or a plygon?
how will you "connect" each element
what method proved "most efficient" or "most elegant"?