Tessellations Review 

 

 

 

A tessellation is a pattern of closed shapes that completely covers a surface. 

There are 3 rules: 

1. The shapes of the tessellation do not over lap:

 

 

 

 2. There are no gaps between the shapes: 

 

 

 

 3. The sum of the measures of the angles around a vertex point must be exactly 360 °. 

 

 

 Regular Tessellations: 

A regular tessellation is made by repeating congruent copies of one kind of regular polygon. Congruent means the polygons have the same shape and size. 

  • Vertices of at least 3 polygons meet at each vertex point.
  • There are at least 3 angles around each vertex point.

There are only three possible shapes of polygons that will form a regular tessellation: 

 

 

Squares

 

 

 

Equilateral triangles

 

Regular hexagons

 

 Semi-regular Tessellations: 

  • Use at least 2 different shapes.
  • The shapes used are regular polygons.
  • The same combination of regular polygons meets in the same order at each vertex.