Tessellations and Symmetries of the Plane
David A. Reimann
Associate Professor
Mathematics and
Computer Science
Albion College
Pattern, repetition, and symmetry play important roles in the aesthetics of imagery. Tessellations use patterns of repeated geometric shapes to cover the plane. Uniform tessellations use regular polygons to cover the plane with no gaps or overlaps. The polygons in such tessellations can be decorated in such a way to give rise to interesting visual patterns. The inherent symmetry of regular polygons gives rise to tessellations containing symmetry patterns. Example symmetric tessellation patterns will be presented. An explanation of algorithmic techniques for constructing uniform tessellations will also be presented.