Apparentlysomeregularpolygonswill tessellateand somewon’t.You can explorethis morein the Lesson
Exercises.
Tessellatingwith Two RegularPolygons
You saw that someregularpolygonscan tessellateby themselves.If we relaxour requirementsand allow
two regularpolygons,moretessellationscan be drawn.
Example 3
Hereis a tessellationmadefrom squaresand regularoctagons.
Note the measuresof the angleswheretwo octagonsand a squarecometogetherto surrounda point.They
are and and
One way to look at this tessellationis as a translation.Eachoctagonis repeatedlytranslatedto the right
and down.Or the tessellationcouldbe seenas a reflection.Reflecteachoctagonin its verticaland horizontal
edges.The tessellationcan evenbe viewedas a glidereflection.Translatean octagonto the right,then
reflectit vertically.
A tessellationbasedon morethan one regularpolygonis calledasemi-regulartessellation. One semi-reg-
ular tessellationis shownin the example3. You’ll havethe opportunityto createothersin the LessonExer-
cises.
TessellationDIY (“DoIt Yourself”)
All peoplecan createtheir own tessellations.Hereis an example.