Tiling, which mathematicians call Tessellation, is the art of covering a flat surface with tiles of a single shape with no gaps.
An obvious easy case is to use a square tile. But are there others?
There are indeed, and some can be quite surprising. Like this one, using a tile in the shape of a convex pentagon. Yes, all the tiles are identical. There is only one shape used here. And the tiling is perfect with no gaps.
This tiling was only discovered in 2015 using computer searches. So if you plan to tile your bathroom floor, and you want something really rare this is it!
Content written and posted by Ken Abbott abbottsystems@gmail.com