6th Grade Math Textbook, Progress

Tessellations

10-16

Interesting patterns are often used on

floors, wallpaper, and fabrics. The

designs are often made of polygons.

A design like the one shown at

the right is called a tessellation.

A tessellation is made from congruent

figures placed so that they completely

cover a surface without overlapping

or leaving gaps.

Many polygons will form a tessellation.

Follow these steps to form a tessellation

made of squares.


Draw square ABCDon dot paper.


Turn ABCDone-half turn clockwise

around the midpoint (halfway point)

of B
C
. You get square 2.


Turn square 2 one-half turn

clockwise around the midpoint of

its side to get square 3.


Turn square 3 one-half turn

clockwise around the midpoint of

its side to get square 4.

Copy the figure on dot paper and continue to draw

half-turn images. You should see that a square

tessellates (covers) the plane.

Study these examples.

Circles do not

All parallelograms tessellate. There

tessellate. are gaps.

D

1

4

2

3

A

B

C

A tessellation may contain

one or more different types

of polygons.

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