You've seen tessellations in nature, such as the honeycomb. Tessellations are also found in other places, like rock formations and even pavement.
Have you also noticed that people use tessellations to create different structures? Because tessellations contain a repetitive geometric pattern with no gaps and no overlaps, they're especially useful in certain designs. Hence, architects can use the tiles in tessellations to make various calculations. Check out such an example by watching this video.
As you watch this video, use the study guide to follow along if you'd like. Click the button below to download the study guide.
A furniture maker designed the following breakfast nook. At the request of the client, subway tile is to be installed along the front faces of the breakfast nook. Subway tile, is typically a rectangular tile made up of glass or porcelain that is organized in a running-bond pattern – one that looks like bricks on a wall.
In order to determine the appropriate number of tiles to order in order to complete the job, we need to know two things: the area of the face that needs to be covered with tile, and the area of each tile. What is the area of each front face of the breakfast nook? Well, since the width of the face is forty-two inches and the height is thirty-six inches and the face is rectangular, the area would be found by multiplying the length times the width or 42" x 36". The area for one face is one thousand five hundred twelve square inches. Now if each tile measures three inches by six inches individually, the area covered by one tile is eighteen square inches…
How many tiles then are needed to cover one face? Do you know what to do to determine this number? In order to obtain this number, we would divide the total area that needs to be covered, by the area covered per tile… The result is eighty-four tiles. At the minimum we need eighty-four tiles per face. How many would be needed for the whole job? Well, eighty-four tiles times two faces is one hundred sixty-eight tiles. So, the minimum number of tiles needed is one hundred sixty-eight.
Think about the number of tiles you would actually order for the job. Will many of the tiles need to be cut in order to fit within each row? Consider the numbers that might be damaged during installation, or incorrectly cut. Good luck!
Question
In the video, what kind of tessellation did the architect use to model the walls in the art gallery?
